Del Toro is the hunted and Lee Jones the hunter in this fast-paced but slow-witted thriller about an unhinged ex-special forces soldier gone tonto.

When four hunters meet grisly, dismembered deaths in the American wilderness, LT (Lee Jones), a sort of psychotic Ray Mears, is called in to literally track the killer.

A couple of hours snuffling around in the Oregon undergrowth and he's snared his quarry - Del Toro, a man LT himself trained to kill as an elite army instructor.

However, what appears a fairly routine, if bloody, case for local cop Connie Nielsen gets complicated when a couple of spooks turn up.

The powers-that-be dictateDel Toro is released into FBI custody and waddyaknow? - he does a runner after despatching a couple of feds.

LT's called back into the fray and the hunt is back on for Benicio ¿but this time in the urban wilderness that is Portland, Oregon.

A troubled production, the narrative leaps show desperate editing and the decision to allow only selected journalists see the movie should have set alarm bells ringing.

In fact, it leaves more questions unanswered than the final stages of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Has Del Toro been talking to God, or more specifically Abraham? Is he turning his sights onto fellow man as a sorty of veggie vigilante? Or, has he simply flipped for being blamed for a botched operation?

You never really find out which leaves Del Toro aimlessly blundering about when he should have been hunting down the scriptwriter with a big knife.

Lee Jones is really too old to be clambering about on top of trams (he should really be travelling on a pensioners' half-fare inside).

However, fans of action as opposed to plot will find plenty to enjoy - the gorily climactic fight resembles a tiff between two people armed with tomato ketchup bottles.

Tim Evans