The Hunter’s Prayer (2017)

Director: Jonathan Mostow

Starring: Sam Worthington

An assassin helps a young woman avenge the death of her family.

The slugline for this film is not entirely true. The assassin actually couldn’t give a hoot’s ass about avenging her family until SHE suggests it almost at the end. Up until then he only really cares about…uh…what does he care about again?

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’.