Good acting for a subpar film

The Hunted" is a overly simple movie from Oscar-winning director William Friedkin. In fact, it's too simple, almost as if scenes have been cut from the movie.\nAaron (Benicio Del Toro) is a special operative in the marines who excels at one thing: killing people. Using only a knife, he hunts down and kills his victims; most of them unaware that he is even nearby. The only man nearly as skilled in the art of hand-to-hand combat is L.T. (Tommy Lee Jones), a non-military man who trained Aaron and others in hunting and survival techniques. When Aaron has had enough of working for the government, he goes into the woods and starts killing people, so the military recruits L.T. to find Aaron.\nFrom the beginning, the audience is apparently just supposed to accept the plot holes, like why is Aaron killing these people? It is never clearly explained why he snapped, and when he is not hunting he is actually a likable character. The only glimmer of an explanation occurs when Aaron says, "People have lost respect for beings below them." Suppo-sedly, this applies to both animals and other humans who he was ordered to kill, but it's left too open. \nBefore he snaps, the only order the viewer sees him carry out is the murder of a Serbian leader who attempted genocide on the Albanians. Afterwards, Aaron murders two hunters with high power rifles, but they are never actually hunting any animals, only Aaron, which is confusing. The movie also introduces several elements that never go anywhere. For example, L.T. is afraid of heights. This is mentioned twice and in both cases does nothing to advance the plot. \nThere are a few things done well in otherwise typical circumstance; Jones and Del Toro perform well given the material, and in fact Del Toro is surprising without the typical soft mumble. He almost seemed to be a different person. The knife fight scenes are well done and the makeup and special effects make them realistic. Those with a weak stomach keep in mind that realistic looking knife fighting comes off graphic and gory. But I expected a much better movie with three Oscar winners.