Hunting Season Review: Mel Gibson vs. the Entire Cartel
- Niels Gys
- Dec 6, 2025
- 4 min read
TL;DR
It’s Home Alone, but the kid is 12 and the old man is furious, armed, and visibly done with everyone’s nonsense.
Mel Gibson gives a full-course performance in a film that serves instant noodles around him.
Entertaining in bursts, forgettable in others, but absolutely worth watching if you enjoy watching criminals get recycled into mulch by a pension-age war machine.
If this film awakened your inner forest hermit with anger issues, you can do two things:
1) go live in the woods and wait for the cartel (not recommended), or
2) buy something through our affiliate links like a civilized criminal.
🎯 Mel Gibson’s Blood Father Blu-ray (because Mel yelling at criminals is a lifestyle)
🎮 Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 (for when you want to do crime without standing up)
➡️ Prefer stylish murder? Read our Kill Bill review on CRIMENET.
Criminal Fantasy Fulfillment
This isn’t a crime fantasy, it’s a crime pest-control session.
Criminals show up not to be admired but to be human piñatas. They appear, announce themselves as “bad guys,” and Mel Gibson immediately treats them like weeds sprouting between patio tiles: Unwanted. Persistent. Frequently shot.
If you came here to learn how the cartel operates: forget it. If you came here to watch criminals get turned into gravel: congratulations, you’re about to have a sublime evening.
It’s not “Oceans Eleven.”It’s “Granddad Has Had Enough.”
For actual criminal worship, go read our reviews of Fugue State 1986, where evil at least has a career plan.
Plot & Pacing
The plot is so basic it could be written on a chewing gum wrapper:
Girl washes up. Mel Gibson adopts her. Cartel arrives. Regret follows.
The pacing, however, behaves like a man who drank six beers, stood up too fast, and now needs a moment. Slow…slower…glacial… and then, 75 minutes in, someone screams “ACTION!” and suddenly everyone remembers the guns.
Reddit viewers were basically united on this:“Great premise, but feels like the film keeps stopping to check its own pulse.”
Characters & Performances
Mel Gibson, God bless him, performs like the director told him, “Pretend every criminal was responsible for cancelling your favourite TV show.”He glowers. He growls. He handles a rifle like it’s an opinion he’s been waiting to share.
He’s magnificent, in a feral, burnt-toast-and-bourbon sort of way.
The girl? Solid. Emotional. Human. Which makes her stand out, because everyone else has the depth of a puddle in August.
The villains? Imagine cardboard boxes wearing sunglasses and holding AK-47s. They’re there to fill space and later be removed from that space with bullets.
Dialogue & Writing
The script swings wildly between “gritty” and “I wrote this during a power outage.”
Nobody here is delivering profound monologues. Nobody is rewriting the rules of crime cinema. Most conversations sound like the actors were told:
“Say something vaguely threatening. We’ll fix it later.”
They did not fix it later.
World & Atmosphere
The movie wants to feel like a sweaty, dangerous border-town pressure cooker. Instead, half the time it looks like a tourism advert for “Places You Could Hide a Body but Also Grill Burgers.”
Every now and then the atmosphere works, shadows, tension, rifles in doorways. Then suddenly the lighting brightens like someone opened the blinds, and the mood evaporates like cheap perfume.
If you’ve made it this far, you’re either enjoying yourself or waiting for Mel Gibson to appear behind you with a shotgun. Either way, treat yourself.
🎥 Hacksaw Ridge Blu-ray Mel Gibson directing things that explode violently
🎮 Hitman World of Assassination (because your cartel aim is terrible)
➡️ If you want criminals who actually plan things, visit our Top 30 Heist Games Hub.
Direction & Style
The director clearly told Mel Gibson, “Do whatever you want,” and told everyone else, “Try to keep up.”
There’s no signature style, no personality, nothing memorable except Mel Gibson’s aura of barely controlled homicide.
The action scenes actually slap, crisp, brutal, satisfying. Everything between them feels like waiting for your food at a diner that forgot you ordered.
Soundtrack & Mood
Functional, generic, about as memorable as a wet sock.
It’s the type of soundtrack that plays while a grocery store announces a price drop on canned soup.
Morality & Madness
The film pretends to care about moral questions. It does not.
It’s 109 minutes of:“Violence is bad, unless Mel does it. Then it’s justice, baby.”
The villains are bad because the movie says they’re bad. Mel is good because the movie is terrified of telling him otherwise.
Rewatchability / Felony Value
Will you rewatch it? Probably not intentionally.
It’s the sort of movie you'll see playing on TV at 1 a.m., shrug, and go,“Eh, Mel’s angry again. Why not.”
It’s not a disaster. It’s not a triumph. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a lukewarm kebab: edible, somewhat enjoyable, and you might regret finishing it.
For actual replay-worthy criminal brilliance, check out our Yuletide Regicide review. That one has murder, mystery, and style, three things Hunting Season flirts with but never commits to.
Look, running a crime-themed website isn’t free. Neither is replacing the office window after the last “live firearm demonstration.”If you want more savage reviews, click literally anything below.
🎮 Ghost Recon: Wildlands (the closest you’ll get to fighting an entire cartel without being Mel Gibson)
➡️ Still hungry for carnage? Read our Yuletide Regicide review, Santa gets whacked. It’s delightful.
FAQ
Is Hunting Season (2025) worth watching? Yes, if you enjoy firearms, grumpy old men, and scenes where the cartel immediately regrets waking up that morning.
Is it a good crime thriller? Not good, no. But it is fun, like watching a washing machine full of gangsters.
Is Mel Gibson carrying the movie? He’s carrying it, dragging it, whipping it, and occasionally resuscitating it.
Is it violent? Let’s put it this way: if you watered your garden with this movie, flowers would grow.
Does it compare to modern crime films? Only in the sense that both are technically movies containing criminals.
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