“Hunting Season” (2025) stars Mel Gibson as a father, Bow, government name Bowdre, willing to do anything it takes to protect his daughter, Tag (Sofia Hublitz), from the evils of the world. They live deep in the woods hunting, fishing and praying with a rare trip into town so they rarely see anyone. When Tag finds and rescues a wounded woman, January (Shelley Hennig), evil soon comes to their door. Will their survival skills work when it counts? Come for the carnage, stay for Chekhov’s push mower.
If you are watching “Hunting Season” out of curiosity to see if a Gibson movie is good anymore, then you are wasting your time, but any movie sins should not rest at Gibson’s door. It just is not a good story, and outside of Gibson, the acting is uneven. Gibson’s resume is filled with violence, but sadly “Hunting Season” is not. It is often downright boring. Gibson has still got it, but he is only one man. Beau is underwritten to a criminal degree. Why is he a survivalist? Dunno. Why so many guns? Dunno. America? The guns are plenty, which makes the lack of violence even more disappointing. The guns should get an acting credit. When this father and daughter are not touching metal, they are praying. If Beau seems like a domineering father, he is not, and he is the one getting lectures about his shortcomings.
Tag rides his ass for constantly for going into town. She clearly wants to keep January (these names), and January does not seem to be bothered at the prospect of being treated like a kitten found in a dumpster. How old is Tag? She does not go to school, and Beau does not homeschool her. She mostly just exists, but she has no friends so when January washes up, she is thrilled as if she is doing a more realistic revival of “Nell” (1994). Hublitz looks like an adult to me so when one part of the press packet said that she was thirteen, I scoffed and, no offense intended, said, “30.” Hublitz is twenty-five. I can’t judge a performance if I don’t know what I’m supposed to be looking at. How is this character simultaneously so sheltered and old? The math does not add up. I’m not saying that it is not possible, but I am saying that it feels as if writer Adam Hampton thought he gave a complete story that made sense, but it does not. A lot is missing. An AI story? If a girl or a woman starts kicking ass, usually that mollifies me, but it is too little, too late.
How about January? While Hennig does a good job making her character seem like a natural fit with this strange, allegedly wholesome family so she cannot be victim blamed, January is a blank slate. Wrong place, wrong time, but almost zero characteristics. She has a brother and a best friend. On one hand, she is the smartest person in the world because unlike a plethora of real life and cinematic characters, she is not eager to return home after nearly getting killed. On the other hand, she has fewer defining characteristics than Tag. She is a living, breathing, talking MacGuffin so this family could have a reason to fight without seeming like psychopaths. They are helping a damsel in distress from a big bad cartel called The Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood is looking for Jensen (Rocky Myers), so they grab his girlfriend, Liz (Scarlet Rose Stallone, yes Sylvester Stallone’s daughter), who is January’s roommate and best friend. Would not it make more sense for one of them to wash up on Bow’s shores? Yes, but the movie seems to suggest that they deserve their torture: Jensen for violating his professional code of conduct and Liz for sleeping with a married man. Did she know? No idea. To be defended from bad guys and let into someone’s home, it must be worth risking the family thus why January is the blankest of slates. Victim blaming moralizing in time for Christmas. What did Jensen do? Steal something. Do something. A misunderstanding. Didn’t say good morning. It appears to be the first, but the baddies do not seem too intent on retrieving whatever that something was as much as scaring and killing people. To each their own. Far be it for anyone to tell a villain how to run a business, especially without the requisite training and expertise.
With a bigger budget, put some good actors in the dud roles, you may have something, but here functional to bizarre acting choices make the gaps wider. Jordi Mollà plays the big bad, Alejandro, and he is written like a mad man, but is so boring that everytime he appears on screen, I found myself checking out so if he had a backstory, good luck paying attention to find out what it is. Mollà puts in effort, but if this happened to you in real life, you would have trouble taking this guy seriously. Alejandro fiddles with his zipper then pulls it all the way up while leaning back in a chair. “Hunting Season” gives him some intimidation wins that do not look convincing whether it is taking a big guy by surprise or sticking a gun in someone’s mouth. Everyone is trying too hard. He talks so much that death would be a less effective torture method than forcing someone to listen to him, which is actually used in one scene.
Speaking of torture methods, “Hunting Season” is fun when it shows Bow and Tag going through their daily routine; thus, leaving the dear home viewer time to figure out which innocuous, quotidian task will become pivotal in the anticlimactic denouement showdown at the Brotherhood’s compound. The denouement is less fun than a torture scene in his shed where Gibson gets to do what he does best: make violence jovial. It is not long enough, and if director RJ or Raja Collins commits a cardinal sin, it is rushing through the good parts.
The only henchman who matches Bow’s sauce is Egon (Vladislav Lapidus). [I’m uncertain if it is him because very few names are used.] Bow asks, “What do you want?” The muscular henchman softly and menacingly says, “I want to go home, bitch.” Oh Egon, you are an everyman. Same. Always. If his character was not partnered with an incompetent henchman, Egon may have lived longer. In the Eighties, Lapidus would be in a million action movies and have a cult following. He’s a throwback in a good way from the time of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean Claude Van Dam, etc. Lapidus! Lapidus! This man understands the genre.
“Hunting Season” aims to tell a story about a dad who is uncertain if his daughter will be able to protect herself when the time comes. If the denouement works, it is because Gibson gives a stricken look when he hears a shot that did not come from his gun, and his worst fears are realized. Thanks to Gibson’s performance, the emotional impact of that scene registers otherwise it would easily go unnoticed. Someone get Gibson to a chiropractor because his back must hurt from carrying this movie.
Is Gibson’s performance enough of a reason to watch “Hunting Season?” Nope. There are tons of better ways to spend your time. It is a serviceable film, but not good or bad. It just exists. There are so many daddy-daughter movies lately, but if you are desperate for a wholesome one without any visible dysfunction while a red flag still seems to exist even if it is not waving proudly, then sure, why not give it a shot.
