Summary
Great action sequences, confusing narrative, and a bonafide hero to root for make for an entertaining escapist feature.
Heart of the Hunter is a South African Netflix action movie directed by Mandla Dube from a script written by Willem Grobler and Deon Meyer, who also authored the novel that inspired the movie. Featuring impressive fights and special effects, the movie, which was filmed in South Africa. follows a former counter-intelligence assassin on one last mission to prevent his country from being ruled by an evil politician (that’s probably a redundant way of putting it).
The movie starts with protagonist Zuko (Bonko Khoza) killing a target at the height of his assassin days. As something went wrong with that final assignment, Zuko hung his blood-stained machete for good. Two years later, the former mercenary lives in peaceful domestic bliss with single mom Malime (Masasa Mbangeni) and her son.
Zuko is pulled back into his past life when his former handler and friend, Johnny Klein (Peter Butler) knocks on his door. Within days, the cartoonishly evil and muscular Daza Mtima (Sisanda Henna) will win the upcoming election unless Zuko can get his hand on some damning files against him and deliver them to the right person. Knowing that Johnny is trying to take him down, Mtima orders his head of security, Mo (Connie Ferguson), to track him down and neutralize the threat.
As much as Zuko doesn’t want to get involved, talking to Johnny leads Mo’s men to him and endangers his family. Now, Zuko must race against the clock to complete Johnny’s final mission before Mtima’s people can harm his loved ones.
Heart of the Hunter (Netflix)
Meanwhile, disgraced journalist Mike Bressler (Deon Coetzee) and his intern Allison start investigating Mtima’s alleged illegal dealings after receiving a tip from Johnny. Writing damning articles about the corrupt Mtima ruined Bressler’s career and reputation, and now he’s willing to stick his neck on the line to expose the evils inside the government.
As far as action flicks go, Heart of the Hunter delivers well-choreographed violence, impressive special effects, and good-looking fight scenes. It features all the tropes we’ve come to love from the genre and even turns John Wick-esque towards the end. The performances are perfectly convincing, especially Bonko Khoz, who has all the attributes befitting an action hero – handsome, broody, and a badass.
While this isn’t a terrible movie, the narrative is far too convoluted, and it’s hard to keep track of who the constant stream of new characters is. There’s almost no expositional effort into introducing who these characters are, how they know each other, or what world they inhabit. The viewer is thrown straight into the story and expected to already know the set-up. It’s like watching the two-part grand finale of a series that’s been running for at least seven seasons.
Despite its flaws, Heart of the Hunter provides the perfect escapism for your casual weekend stream. It might be confusing to follow, but you never have to wait too long until something blows up or Khoz’s character expertly kills a bunch of nondescript bad guys.
I also delved into the ending of Heart of the Hunter, in case you are interested in how the film closed out.
