paulclaassen
The first half of the film is a fabulous adrenaline rush and very unpredictable. There are a few flaws, though. I mean, what are the chances of the girl finding a phone in the bathroom when she wants to need the loo? She is also amazingly eager to trust the man hired to kill her. The whole assassination story is not very credible. Allen Leech plays a businessman who hires a hitman to kill a family because of betrayal. In one scene he says he will not be made a fool of, therefore he wants to kill the entire family. Would a high profile businessman risk everything to kill a family. He goes further saying he wants to make an example of them to the rest of his employees. Uhm, so he is actually going to tell everyone he killed them?? How else would he make an example of them? In a phone conversation with Lucas he said he wants to assassinate the family because the father working for him stole a lot of money from him, but he only recently learnt of that from a corrupt FBI agent who told him. She knew and he didn't? The ending also questions credibility: when Lucas goes to the basement to save the girl, he asks the baddies to remove her gag but doesn't even think of asking them to put down their weapons!!?? And an assassin can't even kill someone right in front of him?? Apart from all that, though, the film is thoroughly entertaining and Sam Worthington truly is a worthy actor. The acting in general is very good, especially from young Odeya Rush. The film also does have a satisfying ending, so all and all, I enjoyed 'The Hunter's Prayer'.
Wizard-8
While this action thriller is far from the worst of its kind that I've seen, it is ultimately a forgettable viewing experience. It's kind of hard to figure out why it doesn't work, because it gets a few elements right. The acting is decent, the production values are pretty good, and the European backdrop does give the movie a little freshness. One problem is that the story itself is really nothing new - you will have seen the same basic plot in other movies before, including its various twists and turns. The characters are also nothing terribly new, and the lead character is a kind of bland figure who doesn't open up that much and show what he is thinking or feeling. There also isn't a lot of action, and while the few action moments do have some genuine energy, they are often directed and edited in a somewhat confusing manner. I would only recommend this movie to the few people who have not seen this basic formula before... but even then those viewers might have some of the same issues that I had.
erwinscooter
In the scene where the assassin ejects the cartridge out his weapon then removes the magazine to make the young girl feel safe is very unrealistic. He, being a professional shooter would have known that by doing so, the slide would have picked up another round out of the magazine, leaving a live round in the chamber even after the magazine was removed. Typical bad screen play / directing. Unknowledgable ( ignorant)I could go on because there were many other scenes with similar ignorance but I'm am just going to say poorly research film saved only by the camera / scene imagery and decent acting , good editing etc... Director,,, put your nose against the wall... poor choices...
Larry Silverstein
We've seen similar themes many times over in movies through the years. Here Sam Worthington portrays Lucas, a hired assassin and drug addict who can't bring himself to kill his next assignment, who's the 16-year-old Ella, played by Odeya Rush. Of course, this makes the man who hired Lucas (Allen Leech) very unhappy and so Lucas and Ella must try and escape through Europe from those killers who want to eliminate them.There's plenty of wooden dialogue and formulaic plot elements here. However on the positive side I was interested enough in the film to want to see how it would all turn out, and it does present its viewers with quite the poignant ending.Overall, nothing really new here for this genre, but the pacing kept me engaged throughout.
AD
