In William Friedkin’s new suspense thriller, “The Hunted,” Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones plays survivalist tracker L.T. Bonham, a retired military man who is hired to hunt down Aaron Hallam (Benicio Del Toro), who is a trained special forces assassin.

Jones gives a chilling realistic performance about a man who wants to forget the past in witch he trained men to kill, slash, and gut as if was considered a form of art. In “The Hunted” L.T. is forced to face his past in this schematic chase thriller as he hunts down the star pupil whom he’s taught all too well how to kill.

The movie immediately begins with an action packed slaughter event in Kosovo during the Bosnian war, with Aaron stalking and knifing a vicious Serbian officer in his headquarters. At one point while Aaron sneaks his way past mad men and screaming victims in order to hunt his prey, he comes face-to-face with a little girl who is distraught after just witnessing massive destruction. The child ends up haunting Aaron in his nightmares long after he has won a Silver Star for his service.

Next were deep in the Oregon woods where Aaron, having snapped from the accrued horrors of his job has gone insane, deranged and unable to put the skills he has once learned behind him turns into a vigilante determined to kill wildlife hunters with a butcher’s precision. Jones, who is one of the smartest and most physically quick and skillful actors in American movies, is soon on the trail of Aaron as he instantly recognizes that he is dealing with one of his own.

Soon the movie becomes one of those symbolic melodramas like the “Fugitive,” also starring Jones in which there are many scenes where you see the soul-bonding experience of the hunter, and the hunted. Friedkin, who has directed such films like “To Live and Die in L.A,” shows once again he is a master at pursuit scenes, and this movie is full of them. From chases on foot, where L.T. focuses on footprints left behind from Aaron to stay hot on his trail to chases on bicycle, train, cars, and water, it is the skill between the two men that makes this film so intense, and watchable.

Although this film keeps you involved with chase scenes it keeps hinting at something deeper that it doesn’t deliver. It lacks dialogue between the main characters L.T. and Aaron. After writing many letters to L.T. about the nightmares he was having, and realizing he needed help, Aaron locks the letters in a safe instead of mailing them to L.T. The letters, which was not revealed until the end could have explained in more detail what Aaron was feeling and what brought on his insanity.

Del Toro once again gives an excellent skillful performance and with insanely seductive eyes he brings us into the out of control world of Aaron, full of anger, passion, and confusion.

“The Hunted, full of action and excitement, seems to run out of breath in the end.