What I’m watching: a failed effort to bring new life into an old formula 

At the Redbox: The Hunt

In 1932 producers Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack and David O. Selznick brought to the screen Richard Connell’s short story, “The Most Dangerous Game.”

The film adapted the short story about a big game hunter who lives on a small island and who has altered the channel lights to create shipwrecks. Those who survive the shipwrecks become his prey in a hunt in which his victims must outwit the seasoned killer until dawn.

The story has been the inspiration of many films and the original holds up quite well. I just screened it the other night in anticipation of writing this column and if you’ve not seen it and you enjoy classic films, you should see it yourself.

 It has now been adapted once again by the Blumhouse folks who have a name for themselves for a series of horror films, both theatrically and for the streaming service Hulu.

I wanted to see the film, as it was the subject of considerable controversy during its limited theatrical run earlier this year. The distributer, Universal, then made it available for streaming at a special price.

The controversy can be summed up in several words: “liberal elites” bring a group of “deplorables” to Croatia where they have set up a game preserve for humans. The liberals then kill them. Except for one.

You see, they have flipped expectations and in fact presented a story that would warm the cockles of many right wing conspiracy theorists and several of my Facebook friends.

There is an element of satire, supposedly, and a commentary on the contemporary political divide in this film if I’m to believe the opinions expressed by the filmmakers in the disc’s extras.

If it was there, it was not well developed.

The film stars Betty Gilpin as Crystal the survivng “deplorable” and Hillary Swank as Athena, the leader of the “liberal elites.” Crystal is supposed to be a deplorable but it turns out the liberals kidnapped the wrong person and instead of grabbing an Internet troll instead have a highly trained combat veteran, who kills them with great efficiency.

I hate to include spoilers but I have to in this case. The premise for the hunt is that a text thread that jokingly referred to a non-existent hunt became known. The people involved in that thread had lost their jobs. So, they decided to kidnap some of the right-wing types who had spread the idea the hunt was real and make the hunt real.

Really.

They are willing to spend millions of dollars in order to fulfill what had originally been a fantasy just to get back at the people who mistakenly thought it was real.

That revelation stopped me in my tracks. What an amazingly stupid premise.

Gilpin and Swank are not served well by this script. They are both talented performers and both give it their all; especially in a climatic fight scene in which the two actors did most, if not all, of their own stunts.

With a dumb premise and an abundance of gore, “The Hunt” is not worth your time.

On DVD and streaming: What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

Was I too hard on “The Hunt?” Well if the well-known New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael had seen it I’m sure she would have savaged it.

Kael, who died at age 82 in 2001, is now the subject of a riveting biography about a person who fell into writing film reviews and became one of, if not the, leading film critics of her day.

She became well known for being the champion for certain directors, such as Martin Scorsese, and for going against the grain when it came to writing about films other critics liked.

There is an interview in this documentary with Sir David Lean, the director of many films including “Lawrence of Arabia.” Kael hated Lean’s film and Lean revealed her criticism was so harsh he almost decided to stop directing.

She was highly influential to an entire generation of younger film critics with her approach of reacting to a film from a very personal perspective.

As a die-hard movie fan, I appreciated this look at Kael’s life, career and personality, although I think more casual fans might wonder what all the bother is about.