Review of The Hunt (2020) by Soulwarfare — 28 Mar 2020

The Hunt was a movie originally slated for September 2019 release but was delayed as a tragic shooting happened. It was released in March 2020 which was also unfortunate as Coronavirus happened. It was then released digitally instead which is how I watched it. The Hunt is a satire, thriller movie centred around Rich liberal elites vs deplorable republicans which is probably where most of the controversy lies. Starting with the positive, Betty Gilpin who plays Crystal (the main character) is phenomenal in her role. She really gives a believable performance as a badass character and she really carries the movie. The movie also has some albeit enjoyable and entertaining kills, especially how over the top and exaggerated it is. The final fight in the movie is also really kickass and fun to watch. The cat and mouse hunting game is also engaging enough to keep you watching, so there is that. The movie has some pretty funny moments that give you some slight chuckle as well. Likewise, this movie is political but it doesn't really pick a side and makes fun of both liberals and republicans which I got to admire for their boldness.

However, making fun of everyone makes it a bit hard to see which audience will really enjoy this movie. It's satire but not everyone can take jokes as a simple joke. Also, a lot of the character are just cannon fodder and it kind of feels like a waste. It makes sense in context for the film and it did eventually give more focus to Crystal played by Betty Gilpin but it feels like wasted ideas when they should try building character instead. The movie is also incredibly dumb with some bad jokes and bad writing which kind of took me out of the movie.

In the end, this movie is only entertaining if you don't take it too seriously like me and can take a joke. If you understand the movie is satire and that you can enjoy the dark humour. I was thoroughly entertained with its 90-minute runtime and this movie is a perfect way of killing time.