NIGHT HUNTER: Gandhi vs. Superman

NIGHT HUNTER (2018)

Starring Henry Cavill, Ben Kingsley, Alexandria Daddario, Stanley Tucci, Brendan Fletcher, Nathan Fillion, Eliana Jones, Minka Kelly. Directed by David Raymond. (99 min)

ON BLU-RAY FROM PARAMOUNT

Review by Tiger the Terrible😼

I’ll say this much...Henry Cavill is more effective as a troubled cop than a troubled superhero.

Not that he stands-out in Night Hunter. Actually, nobody does. Writer-director David Raymond squanders the impressive cast he has at his disposal, which includes Ben Kingsley, Stanley Tucci and Nathan Fillion. Their performances are adequate, but they serve characters who are as generic as the film's title.

Night Hunter pits hard-ass cop William Marshall (Cavill) against psychotic serial killer Simon Stulls (Brendan Fletcher). Simon has abducted, raped and murdered numerous young women (the usual mommy issues). He’s captured right away, but soon after, people working on the case are being knocked-off, convincing Marshall that Simon is getting help. Marshall has some competition from Michael Cooper (Ben Kingsley), a judge-turned-vigilante who uses young Lara (Eliana Jones) as willing bait to capture and castrate predators. Alexandria Daddario is also on-hand as profiler Rachel Case, but both Rachel and Lara’s ultimate narrative purpose is to put themselves in peril.

Guess who didn't shower this morning.

The story has its share of plot twists, the biggest of which requires a major suspension of disbelief. For the most part, though, we’ve seen all of this before. Raymond directs with proficiency, but neither he nor his script do anything beyond simply propelling the story forward. And while Fletcher chews the scenery with gusto, Simon is a standard-issue psycho.

In an already overcrowded subgenre, Night Hunter does little to rise above the glut of other cat & mouse thrillers out there. The result is a movie that is watchable without ever becoming particularly involving. The cast earn their paychecks, but their efforts are about as memorable as the movie itself.

KITTY CONSENSUS:

MEH...LIKE SHARING THE BED WITH THE DOG.