Film Review: Wanted

The term 'suspension of disbelief' was coined for a movie like Wanted, an adrenaline rush of a film that was highly entertaining, but rife with ludicrous visual effects normally associated with a graphic novel recreation (which Wanted just so happens to be: director Timur Bekmambetov's loose rendition of Mark Millar's comic book of the same name). Unless you are willing to toss your disbelief to the wayside, this will be a film you will not enjoy. Bekmambetov clearly pays homage to the work of the Wachowski Brothers, they of The Matrix fame, seeing as the vast majority of Wanted's visuals rely on stop-time motion to account for protagonist Wesley Gordon's insane ability to channel his 'anxiety' for the sake of mowing down targets with pinpoint precision. Wanted has the makings of a premier action film: a peon rises to hero status, explosions and gun claps pulse about the moviehouse from one jaw-dropping scene to the next, there is no romantic subplot to speak of, villains are killed in ways unimaginable, and the dialogue is uber-racy. What more could you want for the price of admission?



5. James McAvoy
James McAvoy (Wesley Gibson) was to Wanted as Gerard Butler was to 300: a rising, unknown Scottish thespian from Glasgow who can star in a major Hollywood production. McAvoy, a young talent starring opposite Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman, absolutely stole the show with some of the film's best dialogue and the ability to believably wield a gun and partake in various stunts a la Harrison Ford in the Indy series. His performance alone is worth the price of admission (and is far more substantial than Keanu Reeves's portrayal of Neo in The Matrix. Also, McAvoy has signed on to play Bilbo Baggins in Guillermo del Toro's The Hobbit, due out in December 2001. Score!).

4. Minor Characters and Catalysts
Some of the smaller roles in the film (the vast majority of the assassin league "The Fraternity") were cookie-cutter representations of rehashed action film personas. The smack-talking, machete-wielding Butcher with Latino flair (despite being played by an eastern European actor). The brooding Gunsmith with little to no dialogue (played by hip hop legend Common). The Repairman with no premise but to pound Wesley Gibson into submission. Each of them was incredibly bland and did little to convey the Fraternity's prowess as cold-blooded killers. The only small roles I cared about, super-assassin Cross (Thomas Kreschmann, who poignantly played Jewish sympathizer Wilm Hosenfeld in The Pianist) and munitions specialist Pekwarsky (Terence Stamp), were barely on screen long enough to build a character arc. And all I wanted was more from each of them; in short, their lack of screen-time was utterly disappointing. Then again, there is always the possibility of a sequel, a trend Hollywood will surely continue with Wanted's inevitable success.


3. Tongue-in-Cheek Narration
Many a great film (i.e. Casino, Memento, Goodfellas, 21, etc.) has been brilliantly accentuated by insightfully delightful narration; Wanted is no exception. Wesley Gibson's voice over was hilarious and did plenty to keep the plot moving, but was not so apparent that it took away from the juicy special effects and imagery. Wesley's core behavior and personality (from non-entity to swash-buckling hero) was well-conceived via the power of narration.

2. Action Film Homage or Rip-Off?
Fans of the Star Wars and Matrix series will groan over the amount of times Wanted blatantly rips off key scenes and ideas from the works of Lucas and the Wachowski's. The mythology of Star Wars and the premise of The Matrix (a nobody supplanted in a dead-end job is salvaged and rises to the top) is packaged into a film that barely measures up to the aforementioned pieces that came before it. Without giving too much of the plot away, I will say this: Wanted does very little to deem itself original the way a film like The Empire Strikes Back and the original Matrix did.


1. Action, Action, We Want Action!
Much like Michael Bay's Transformers, the Bourne series, the Italian Job, and the Transporter series, Wanted delivers potent action-packed sequences and serves as a hybrid of each of these outstanding films. Curving bullets, train-hopping, and high-octane car chases were actually quite amazing if one can look past the sheer farcicality of it all. Then again, the climactic train sequence in the Alps was pure nonsense, even by Wanted's standards. I blurted out, "That's absolutely ridiculous!" less throughout the course of Indiana Jones's latest than I did throughout Wanted, and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had ludicrous moments aplenty (is a floating boat-car really that indestructible?). Even so, every moviegoer purchasing a ticket to witness this film already knows what to expect: an edge-of-your-seat affair laced with some 'gimme a break' moments. All in all, Wanted was a worthwhile moviegoing experience--even better when you consider the treat of a Defiance trailer during the previews.

Before They Were Sex Icons

Have you ever watched a film, did a double take, and said, "OMG, I didn't know that person was in this movie." There nothing better than discovering a Hollywood sexual icon in a role they would rather forget. The following actors and actresses have moved onto to greener pastures, but they will never forget their role as the mad scientists, the stoner, the computer hacker, or the blood sucking night walker. The "V" list would like to remind you of roles that you may not remember and sometimes you would like to forget.

5. Angelina Jolie

Angelina's career is on fire, she is in a zillion magazines, and I think she's going to adopt the country of Kenya this summer. Before she became a media giant and mother earth, Angelina was seducing computer geeks in the 1995 film Hackers. In the film Angelina was rocking a "Bob" haircut and was emo long before it was even fashionable. I saw it last summer and it is laughable when you consider the technology in the film and how "advanced" it was only ten years ago. I marveled at how much was done over a dial-up modem. If you're jonesing for early Angelina there are a ton of other films I would recommend before watching Hackers, most notably Girl Interrupted, The Bone Collector, and Pushing Tin.

4. Jessica Alba

James Cameron's Dark Angel transformed Alba from quirky high school chick into Hollywood sex icon. Four years before Dark Angel, Jessica was the girl who had the dog food dumped on her in Never Been Kissed starring Drew Barrymore. In an even more obscure role Alba played the female love interest in the movie Idle Hands. Since you probably missed that screen gem, so allow me to summarize it's complex plot. A couch potato's hand is possessed by Satan and he literally has to battle his demonic appendage for the duration of the movie. In my opinion, Evil Dead did it better. As with Hackers, don't feel compelled to go out and rent this movie to catch a glimpse of Alba, the hour and a half of mind numbing pain will not be worth the five minutes of screen time the director allocated to her.

3. Brad Pitt

It's rare when a character who delivers a total of four lines can steal the show. Brad Pitt's character, Floyd, in the movie True Romance was something to behold. Immediately after this film, Pitt embarked on what I like to call the Golden Age of his career. Interview, Legends of the Fall, and Seven all followed his unforgettable role as the man who took bong hits out of a plastic honey bear. While I strongly recommended you avoid Hackers and Idle Hands, True Romance will not disappoint. Romance has a star studded cast and an amazing final shootout scene that will put your surround sound to the test. My only recommendation is to turn the sound off during the wacky xylophone solos that made their way into the film's soundtrack.

2. Kirsten Dunst

Does anybody remember the little vampire girl from that movie? Yeah, that young girl was Oscar nominee Kirsten Dunst. I would point out that it wasn't a mercy nomination because she was really wonderful in the film. I have always felt that Kirsten Dunst never recovered from her early brilliance in Vampire. When it was rumored that Mary Jane died in Spider Man 3, I was seriously excited that it might mean Dunst would return to better roles. Early in her career, Dunst also starred alongside Robin Williams in Jumanji and was the little Bosnian refugee in the film Wag the Dog. Kirsten's career has seen its share of ups (Marie Antoinette, Eternal Sunshine, Elizabethtown) and downs (Bring it On, Crazy Beautiful, Wimbeldon) since playing Nosferatu alongside Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. It's shameful they had to burn her alive in the film, because I would love to see her reprise her role as an immortal.

1. Val Kilmer

I've always wanted to fill some body's house with popcorn kernels and then heat them with a giant laser beam from orbit. I would then evacuate to a safe distance and watch as the house was ripped apart by the biggest Jiffy Pop known to man. What would make this celebration complete? How about jamming out to the Tears for Fears song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"? While I would love to say this idea was an original thought, it came to me courtesy of the 1985 film Real Genius. In this film Val Kilmer plays Chris Knight, boy genius who invents the world's strongest laser as his final college science project. The laser is hijacked and turned into a weapon by the U.S. military, but before they can properly test their newfound firepower, Knight reprograms the coordinates to fire at his misguided professors house. The rest is cinematic bliss. While this movie sounds corny as hell, it is somewhat enjoyable if you can get past the fact that it is very dated. Channel 11 used to play this film all the time, but since the advent of the CW, it rarely shows on Sunday afternoons anymore. How about we start an online petition to get Real Genius more television airtime? "V" list project? I'm up for it.