Heart of the Hunter

Poor characters, including the stereotypical bad rich boss and tough mercenary guy. A confusing net of allegiances and relationships all around.

Too many "filler" scenes, it looks like the editor was required to extend the movie.

On the positive sie, the action scenes are decent and the landscapes are terrific.

Something called my attention: the main character says he grew up by the Cata river (heart of Eastern Cape province) but then belongs to a secret brotherhood from Lesotho? Also, why dues he keep speaking Zulu throughout the move? Eastern Cape speaks mostly Xhosa, Lesotho speaks Sotho...

I watched this movie because I've read most of Deon Meyer's books. I'm glad I didn't pay to see it in cinema.

The movie is dark and has a lot of action, and the photography is alright. It tries to have a complicated plot about corruption.

Unfortunately in the movie the plot is mostly an excuse for a series of stunts, punch-ups and shoot-outs. The usual fare where henchmen take one or two punches but the main bad guy can take a hundred punches and keeps coming back.

Then I read the book. It shares the title, some characters and the main corruption theme but that's where it ends. All the nuance from the book is lost in the film in favour of quick and easy solutions. I won't go into spoilers but book and movie have different story arcs and a very different ending.

So if you're not interested in much of a plot but just want to see guys beating each other up, by all means, watch the movie.

If you want a more nuanced story with interesting characters and more realistic fights, read the book.

Heart of the Hunter: South African Political Corruption/Conspiracy Thriller in which turned government intelligence agencies make use of all of the myriad surveillance assets at their disposal. Refreshingly the main villain isn't white, in fact you have to teach the third tier of the conspiracy to find a white leader though many of the field agents are a lighter shade of pale. Some savage hand to hand fighting, car chases and generally the sort of thrills and spills you'd expect from this genre. The conspiracy is a bit more sophisticated though even if the main crook is a tad in OTT in his portrayal. There is also an interesting secret group of assassins. Certainly worth watching. Directed by Mandla Dube, Written by Deon Meyer and Willem Grobler. On Netflix. 6.5/10.

Netflix have done it again, yes they have made another movie that's a stinker.

In truth I have lost count of how many Netflix films are produced by them and they end up being awful.

Let me tell you this, don't believe the reviews that are giving this movie over five stars because it's a lie.

The story is one that's been done a million times before and much better, the pacing of the movie is not good, slow at times and you find yourself checking the time, which is a bad sign.

The fight scenes, Netflix says this movie is like John Wick, it's not the fight scenes are very amateurish at best, the old you go I go fight scenes, we have move Don from those type of scenes years ago.

I wanted to like this and fell for the reps of false advertising by Netflix, I won't fall it again.

I watched it on Netflix and it's my first time watching an African production-based movie.

It's not bad, this movie is decent by all standards.

The terrible issue lies with the story and the execution The pacing feels very drawn out and messy to the point I found myself getting bored of the movie.

I won't dive into the specifics, but there are bland loopholes that sort of ruin the whole setup here. Like I want to get involved and emotionally invested in the movie. The potential is great, the transition between languages is an edge over most. Action wise it's up to par and no issues about that.

If I had one suggestion, the story should have had more polishing and enforcing.