 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 2020 release The Hunt, the Blumhouse film, and I'm sure people have heard the buzz or the criticism of this film prior to it coming out, which I have some feelings about that that I'll talk about later, about the whole idea of seeing trailers and getting crazy about a film and getting mad and criticizing and stuff like that, but I'll talk about that later. So anyway, let's get into this. I will tell you upfront though, this is politically driven. The script, actually. And it kind of takes shots at both sides of the aisle, red and blue. And when I'm talking about this, I'm not trying to make political statements or anything. I'm just trying to tell you what I see in it. And I will tell you this upfront. I don't belong to any political party and I never have. And there's a reason for that. And I'll kind of talk about it at the end because I think that this film actually points out for me, well, it actually reinforces for me the idea behind why I'm not a part of a political party and never have been a part of a political party. So I'll talk about that more later, but just know that I'm not on the red side. I'm not on the blue side. I am an individual human who thinks that political parties are garbage. So anyway, this was directed by Craig Zobel, who did the film Compliance, directed the film Compliance, which I have not seen, and then also directed episodes of Outcast, American Gods, The Leftovers, and Westworld, all pretty solid shows. So that's impressive. It was written by Nick Cuse, who wrote episodes of The Leftovers, Maniac, Maniac on Netflix with Jonah Hill and Emma Stone, and Watchman actually wrote, I think, like one episode of Watchman. And then Damon Lindelof, who also did some writing of episodes of Nash Bridges, Lost, I know a lot of people have lost, Watchman, and then wrote the scripts for the movies Cowboys and Aliens, Prometheus, which I liked more than a lot of people did, Star Trek Into Darkness, World War Z, and Tomorrowland. So that guy has some success, like a good amount of success. One of the things I want to say about this, this has a really good cast. In my opinion, I am very happy with the cast. Hillary Swank, a lot of people know Hillary Swank, you know, a million dollar baby. It's probably what she's most well known for. Betty Gilpin, who's probably most well known for being in the show Glow on Netflix, which is awesome, like Baron Holtz, who's been in a bunch of comedic stuff. I think he was in the Belko experiment, which is also a Blumhouse film, which is a good time as well. Ethan Suppley, who I love every time I see him, he's been in a lot of stuff, including like Mall Rats and American History Acts, and he's been in a lot. Emma Roberts, who most recently I saw in an amazing film, The Black Coat's Daughter. She is also a good actress. And Glenn Howerton, who people would know from Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is an awesome comedic show. And you may say, oh, Glenn Howerton's in it, it doesn't need to do comedy? Well, that's the thing, there is comedy in this film. And I think that's one of the genius ways that they approach this very political discussion they're trying to have through the film. There's a lot of comedy to it, there's a lot of absurdity to it, which actually makes it fun while feeding you this kind of social ridiculousness of what we're actually going through now in the United States and making very pointed points about how ridiculous things are and how things are out of control and blah, blah, blah. So I'll talk a little bit more about that when we get into the film. But no spoilers for this, since it is a very new film. And I would encourage people to just actually go ahead and watch the film and see what your thoughts on it are. But if you've already seen the film and you're seeing this, there's plenty that will help with my viewpoint on it and some enriching ideas that could help you think, oh, yeah, well, I think he has a point there, hopefully. So the budget for the film was actually $14 million and ended up losing money. It only made $9.7 million, but a really large part of it not doing well, I think had to do with the whole COVID situation, hitting at the worst time for this film to come out pretty much. It initially was supposed to come out back in September of 2019, but there were some shootings that happened then and they decided to delay its release because there's people shooting each other in this. So they felt like it may be a little too soon. So they probably would have done better monetarily back then, but they did a nice thing socially and delayed it, and that cost them monetarily. So who knows what that's going to mean for the director and the writers with Blumhouse going forward. There's been a lot of criticism about the tackling of the political divide in the US, which is exactly what this does. And actually the script, there's talk online that the script was actually supposed to be called Red State versus Blue State, which I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised if that was actually just a working title for the script, but the hunt, you know, that's fine, you know, whatever. And it was shot in New Orleans, just another little... If people see it and they're like, where is this place? It's New Orleans, that's where it was shot. Early on in the film, you see some political talk via text, which feels very current, and this is yet another example that I keep talking about with more current films where you have to integrate the technology of cell phones into films now. Because it's so commonplace. Everyone's using cell phones every single day of their life, pretty much. So if it's not showing up in a film, it just doesn't feel true to life. And so they immediately have it in here. So it's like, oh, this feels very current. So it's just something, it's a necessary thing at this point. There's also red and blue used prominently in colors, at least initially in this film. There's a part on an airplane where it's like the lighting is red on the bottom and blue on the top, which I think is kind of a pointed... A socioeconomic point that's being made about that, about for the most part, people who are on the blue side being upper class and people who are on the red side being lower class. So for that reason, actually this film works as a red versus blue situation, but I think it also works to a degree along socioeconomic divide lines. So you could view it that way as well. And they could have gone that way with it and left a lot of political stuff out of it. So I just find that interesting. There's solid comedy in this film. There are good comedic moments that actually really land in it, that helps keep things light, even though they're trying to make some very important points about what's going on right now, societally. When they mix the comedy with violence and gore, it actually gives a very nice, fun tone to the film. And they don't really waste much of any time getting into that, which I really like. But there is a problem where, I think it's more than halfway through the film, they have this part where it really slows down from that action, which you're used to having because you get it almost immediately. And it makes it feel very uneven. And the problem is if you start and you're going kind of fast and you're really moving things and keeping it interesting and exciting, and then you get to a point where you want to slow it down, it doesn't feel right. It's very hard to be going fast and then slow down, and it's much better to start slow and then speed it up. So pacing-wise, it didn't feel right, and I think the film suffers a little bit because of that. I think it would have been better if they could have found a way to maybe do some of the slower stuff in the beginning, then ramp it up a little bit. Then you could slow it down a little bit later on, but not take as much time slowing it down then and then get it going again. They do that at the end of the film, like they get it going again, but there's this long stretch where you're just like, this is going way too slow for my liking right now, and way too slow for what the rest of the, well, the whole film up until this point has been. And it feels kind of inexcusable for the film. So I think they could have done that much better. The setup seems like it's actually supposed to be creating some sort of mystery the way they said it about what's going on here, but it's not. Like the concept is very straightforward, but there are twists to it later, but overall concept, going into the film, you think you know overall concept, yes, you are correct. You know the overall vague concept of what it is, which it seems like they're trying to hide that in the beginning, which you can't actually hide that. So it's a little weird to see that, but they do throw in some actual good surprises and some twists to it. And yeah, I like that aspect of it. I was wondering if they were just going to play it straight and they didn't, so I was very appreciative of that. They use real life divisive language in this, which I think is very important. I'll give you the examples of a bunch of the kind of divisive buzz phrases that are used. Deplorable, snowflake, redneck, cuck, liberal, elite, hick. So they do a good job of kind of putting it on both sides of the idiots on the right and the idiots on the left. That's my right and my left, just so you know. The idiots on the right and the idiots on the left who are throwing these stupid simplifying words at each other to say, you know, you're this and you're this and you're this and you're this, which does nothing. It's not helpful. And people who do that stuff are just morons, in my opinion, and it plays out a lot online and social media and everything. And there's a very good point that this film makes about the role of social media in making things so much worse and in making the divisive nature of what's going on in this film even worse. And that's true. That's totally true to life. So I think I'll talk a little bit more about that in a bit. I dig the camera work in this. The camera work is pretty well done. There are a lot of kind of like shots following characters as they're moving because it's the hunt. And they kind of move the camera in some cool ways while they're following the characters. So I found it visually appealing. So I think, directorially, it's good. Cinematography good, directing good. The music was pretty well handled. The score was solid. Acting, like I said, they had a good cast or a pretty really good cast actually. All the technical stuff I think was really well done, except some of the scripts with the pacing like I was talking about. They have a lot of social issues between red and blue worked into the dialogue, but it's pretty much always done in a comedic way. It's kind of like making fun of some typical things that people on the right think and they poke fun at it a little bit and then some typical things that people on the left think and then they poke fun at that. So they could have done it in a way that just makes people mad, but they did a good job with addressing those things in funny ways. So it kind of lightens the blow for audience members if they're on the right or they're on the left side of things that they're not as much like, oh, I don't like that. Some people may still feel that way into those people I'd say, I mean, don't be so sensitive about that because it is a movie. I understand that to a degree it might feel a little bit uncomfortable, but you can just work past that. You can move past it, it's a film. There's a kind of long story. Okay, so this is the point in the film where things really slow down too much in my opinion. There's a long story that one of the characters tells that in my opinion for what it's trying to point out doesn't really work and they could have done it in a much different way. They also could have taken a much more interesting story because the story that they use as this metaphor is a very old one that's been used a lot. So it feels very unoriginal and they just could have done something much better. They kind of put a twist on that story, but it still doesn't really work for me because I'm just like, this is very tired, very old. Like be a little bit original on this and do something on your own. Like come up with your own story. You could use that as a framework and create a similar story, but don't just take that exact story pretty much. It's just, it didn't work for me. It just didn't work. And then this, like I said, this is where it really slows things down. And for a while, I feel like it gets kind of boring and that's not good, especially when you started very fast. There's a point about the role of social media and how that makes division so much worse, which is accurate and also how the person you're making assumptions about online is most likely not who you're saying that they are. And this actually gets back to one of the biggest issues that we have in society in my opinion, which is people making assumptions about other people. Instead of asking them, instead of seeing what their actual actions are, especially online, that gets way more exacerbated online because when you're online, you are less likely to have follow-up questions. You're less likely to act in a more cordial manner with people because you're not face-to-face with them. You don't feel like they're an actual person behind that screen because you can't actually see them. So it leads to more of these issues of people just throwing assumptions on a person instead of saying, well, how do you feel about this? Or what do you do in this situation and blah, blah, blah? Instead of finding out the facts about a person, just placing judgments and assumptions on those people. And there's a good point about that made in this film and I think it's totally accurate. It's totally accurate that that happens. But then there's something else about that that I'll talk about later that it kind of leads. It started to in society lead to something that's for me a new phenomenon I'm seeing, which I think is a really bad one, but I'll talk about it soon. There's an extended fight scene that's actually pretty well done in this and entertaining, which is actually not all that easy to do. Especially for me personally, like when there's an extended fight scene going on, a lot of the times it starts to feel very repetitive to me and then I just get bored with it. With this one, it is an extended fight scene, but they kept it fresh. They did a good job in choreographing it and adding little comedic moments to it and just changing it up. So it worked and I was surprised with that. So good job on that one. All right, so my end thoughts, which I have a decent amount of ending thoughts on this one. This is intended to be about political divide, but you can easily make it socioeconomic. I already said that, but it bears repeating. I get the controversy surrounding this film, but this is what horror does really. It takes societal stresses and it takes societal fears and it presents them. And it presents them in a way for people to see it and say, hey, this is what's going on in society. These are the stresses, these are the fears. We're gonna put it in front of you. And in this instance, they're doing it in a funny way. They're doing it in a ridiculous way, which I think they're kind of making, trying to make the film take that material and say, doesn't this look absurd? Isn't this over the top? Doesn't this seem ridiculous? That's what's going on right now. And it is absurd and it is ridiculous. And why are we going to these lengths with this stupidity, basically? That's my thought. You know, maybe that's not the actual intended thing, but just saying. And then kind of tied to that. I don't think anyone should complain about a movie based on a trailer. This is my opinion. Watch it and then you can give your opinion because trailers don't necessarily show you everything. And there are times where a trailer will misrepresent a film. I thought there are way too many people who watch just the trailer for the hunt and went off online and started making assumptions about what the film was going to be and what it was trying to say and why. You know, if you want to make those types of complaints, that's fine, but watch the actual movie. Watch the movie and then you can make those complaints. Making a complaint about something based off like literally snippets of it is stupid because you're not getting the information. You're not getting the actual entirety of the film. You can't feel the whole of what it's trying to say, the environment that it's creating. You don't even necessarily get through the trailer that there's a lot of absurdity and comedy to it. You don't. I mean, I didn't when I watched the trailer. So people just watch the movie and then you can complain about stuff with it and that's fine. Complaining about a film based off the trailer I think is ridiculous. And it makes you look ridiculous too, just saying. To me, this comes across as showing how absurd the division is between red and blue and over certain ideologies that is, especially when they're going to violent lengths in this film because of defending those ideologies. And I say this because of how it's played up with the comedy and absurdity. You know, there's a point in this about people putting judgment on others. Those people then getting mad about that judgment and instead of shaking it off and being rational about it, actually changing who they are to become exactly what that person said about them. Now, this is a phenomenon I was talking about that I think is that I've been seeing recently that I think is crazy is when people will make judgments about someone or they'll call them something terrible. And they'll instead of reacting to it saying, well, that's not me. And then going on with their life, people are saying, oh yeah, well then I'm gonna be that. And it goes back to an old saying of, it just goes back to that old saying of don't sink to their level type stuff. But instead, this is the phenomena of, oh, you think that low of me, well then I will be that low just to get back at you. I don't understand how people think that that's like actually accomplishing anything because it's just making you a worse person. And it's just, it's baffling to me that people are actually doing this. And that's a play in the film. And they kind of touch on that. And it is a legitimate thing that I've actually seen with some people where they would just normally be normal people but someone strikes a chord in them, makes them mad online, typically online. And they call them something and then that person's like, well fine, if you're gonna call me that, well then I'm gonna actually be that. It's all these people who have also started to become like happily assholes. Like I don't get this where people are like, yeah, I'm an asshole. And like being proud of it, when did that become like a thing to be proud of? Because no. Because usually people who are actually assholes, you don't go very far in life. I believe in the concept of karma. This is a personal thing, obviously. Not in a spiritual sense or anything like that. I'm not a spiritual person at all actually. But I believe in the concept of karma as simple cause and effect. If you're nice to other people, if you're a good person, that will be given back to you. It will be mirrored. Other people will do to you as you do to them. And so if you're an asshole to people, you're not gonna get a whole lot of good coming back to you. People aren't gonna be nice to you. People don't wanna do favors for you, stuff like that. So I'm just saying, I think this phenomenon is not good. And then the last thing I have to say is it just reminds me why I don't belong to a political party and never have. It's highly unlikely that anyone has the exact same beliefs and ideologies as a political party. Be a unique, critical thinking individual. Don't look to a political party to tell you what and how to think. That's just obviously a very personal thing. There may be people out there who are like, the Democrats or the Republicans perfectly sum up my beliefs. Their platform is everything I believe in. I think that's very unlikely though. Like I said, there may be a few of those people, but I just don't think it doesn't make sense to me that you're a unique individual person. And I think everyone, because of how they've grown up, because of where they started in life, their life experiences, the environments they've been in, every single person is a different unique person. So the fact that we have these political parties that try and take a large portion of the population and say all these people are this word doesn't make sense to me at all. And so that's one of the reasons I think that political parties are terrible. They're oversimplification of people who are not that simple. And I would just implore people to be unique, be an individual. Think for yourself, don't look to a political party to say this is how you should think about this or this is what you should say about this. And instead, think for yourself, use critical thinking skills and step back and don't feel like you have that allegiance to a political party because they're not there for you really. They're there to be in power, to have a job ultimately. Yes, there are things that they can end up doing that will help you or be good for humanity or whatever, but ultimately, they're trying to get a job. And the platform becomes what it becomes because they try to simplify what they think the most people will want. Sometimes, not always. Other times, they'll pick something and then try to convince you that that's actually what you want when it's not what you want. And that's why I'm saying, don't look to them to give you the ideas. Critically think and don't just base it off of online videos or anything like that. Base it off real life stuff like research, actually do research and that leads to another thing. I'm sorry, I'm going off on a little bit of a rant. If you are finding an article online and reposting it and it's just from someone's blog, that's not research. That's not a real source, real sources people, look into it. You gotta do some work for that. Knowledge isn't effortless. Knowledge takes work and everyone should know that. But anyway, I'm sorry for the long diatribe. I just say all that to say, I don't get the whole red and blue thing. I don't really get it. But go ahead and put some comments down here. Let's not do politically divisive comments because there's no point in that really. Let's not throw out divisive words and stuff like that. Let's just have a dialogue and that's fine. And mainly just about the film. Like what did you think about it? And go ahead and put spoilers down in the comments. That's fine. So just know that if you haven't seen the film yet and you wanna look in the comments, there will be spoilers most likely, so be careful. But anyway, thanks for checking this out. Do me a favor real quick. 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