The Hunted (1998) User Reviews

The Ultimate Doofus Returns!

[tarbosh22000 · 3/10 · 8 September 2010]

"On the Run ... With No One Left to Trust!" Jake McKnight (Mayer) is the ultimate meathead who is also a motocross champion. He is framed for being involved with a stolen motorcycle ring and for this grievous crime against humanity he is sentenced to hard labor on a chain gang for at least fifteen years. In the middle of his fifteenth year of breaking rocks in the sun, some mysterious men break him out of prison. Apparently McKnight inadvertently helped some gangsters and they owed him a favor. Now free, he goes on a search for his kidnapped daughter Annie (Bassler). Teaming up with the token computer nerd (Venocur) and token woman Trish Van Devere (Blaine) (not to be confused by the real person, actress Trish Van Devere, apparently), Jake has to avoid the stupid policemen on his trail and get involved with the seedy world of "Visual Dreams" to find his daughter. The main baddie is sniveling jerk Brad Chandler (Thomas Burr) who kidnaps women. Will Jake be able to rub his two brain cells together with enough force to save the day? We've seen some dumb, moronic meatheads in our time, but Jake McKnight takes the cake. Mayer is so unbelievably wooden in this role, he makes Dale Apollo Cook look like John Leguizamo. Fugitive Champion has all the stiff, bad acting we've come to expect but...wow. Interestingly, not once, but TWICE in this film, McKnight cries. You read that correctly. He bawls like a baby. Rather than "feel his pain", it looks freakish, as if to say: "Tonight on FOX, when meatheads cry!" Brad Chandler is not an intimidating villain. He looks like he's about ten years old. He whines and screams in a very effeminate manner. Actually, Burr does the best acting job of the movie, because we really hate Chandler. Venocur as Jimmy spouts a lot of computer gobbledygook. That's one of the problems with 'Champion. The dialogue and situations feel amateurish and like they were written by children. I think a Baio was involved. The characters don't relate to each other in a normal, adult manner. It's so babyish. Perhaps the script was a middle school project.

There is no action to speak of in this film. There is an impressive motocross chase that looks like a Mountain Dew commercial. That's about it. The easily distracted cops don't really help. McKnight's "daughter" looks older than he does. The computers are funny to see and you gotta love 90's dial-up modems. Visual Dreams is actually a prehistoric version of Streaming. This movie was pretty ahead of its time.

In this sub-skinemax production that is riddled with dumbness and clichés, there is also the dreaded "fast motion". Weirdly, 20 minutes in, there is a man in the background of a scene with a blurred face. A BLURRED FACE! Is this a person who became famous and then sued? They couldn't take the scene out because it was integral to the plot.

This tape was released on the Aurora label. If anyone ever saw this in a video store, please write in and leave a comment. I'd love to know how much distribution this film had. How many stores ACTUALLY had this? And did anyone pick up the box and go "whoa, CHIP MAYER is in this? Let's rent it right now!" Aurora's tactic seems to be make him resemble a lost Baldwin brother on the box cover. Mayer doesn't really look like that. But would that really help? A new winner has emerged in the doofus sweepstakes. This Chip only leaves crumbs of action.

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Possibly the most underrated masterpiece... ever.

[laserdome · 10/10 · 1 April 2003]

What struck me first when I saw the Hunted (aka Fugitive champion) starring the talented Chip Mayer was how much it has influenced on every single movie made after. Many may not know it but the Hunted kind of set a new standard back when it came, although it never reached the big theatres, experts have lavished praise upon this overlooked piece of art.

What starts out as the usual "cliché movie with a macho guy in way to tight jeans as the hero" kind of movie quickly turns into something way heavier.

It's a movie about how you cannot run forever, Mayers character Jake McKnight, ex moto cross champion, is set up for a crime he has not committed. And soon he finds himself running from the government, to find the man who set him up and to clean his name. On his way of doing so Jake meets a beautiful woman named Trish, a woman who might turn out to be Jakes true love.

Never before have a guy with the sole purpose in a movie to be cool managed to be so cool throughout the whole movie, and never before have I seen such great acting so superbly mixed with a thrilling ride like in this totally unpredictable movie.

For you who know you're able to enjoy films although they do not have the highest budgets, most well known actors or any serious attempt of a decent dialogue I can strongly recommend you to have a look at this fine movie. The way it blends awesome street chases with the other stuff the movie contains is just sweet.

How did this movie escape the public's attention?

[DEMETERatDUSK · 16 September 2006]

I had never heard of this movie when I saw it in a video store. But, for some reason I took a chance and bought it. I've found a lot of good obscure movies this way. I watched this movie probably a dozen times now and am surprised by how much I like it. There's no name actors in this movie. Never heard about Christopher Mayer but he did okay. He and Charlene Blaine had good chemistry between them. And, I like how the FBI agents were modern-day keystone cops, always two steps behind their prey. This movie came out in the mid-nineties, but it looks more like it came out in the eighties. The fashions that the women wear with the red lipstick. And, the PCs look ancient. I don't know why it doesn't at least get shown on late-night cable. There's nothing really offensive. I guess the people who own this movie don't know much about marketing. But, all in all I really like this movie. Check it out if you should come across it.