Wanted

[MacGuffin]

Trailer here.

Release Date: March 28th, 2008 (wide)

Starring: Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann

Directed by: Timur Bekmambetov (Night Watch; Day Watch)

Premise: A young man (McAvoy) finds out his long lost father is an assassin. And when his father is murdered, the son is recruited into his father's old organization and trained by a man named Sloan (Freeman) to follow in his dad's footsteps.

[MacGuffin]

Superbowl ad here.

[picolas]

i just wanted to say a friend thought this should be called THE BULLET CURVER after the scene in the trailer where Freeman curves the bullet.

[polkablues]

As long as it's better than Shoot 'Em Up, I'll see it.  Fucking Shoot 'Em Up....

[modage]

are these really supposed to be "eye-popping" special effects?  its been 9 years since The Matrix.  are we really still impressed by this stuff? 

also: the poster has the worst design this side of a dvd box.

[pete]

saw it last night - wasn't as fun as I'd hoped, but then I guess these over the top big budgeted action films rarely are.  the problem with this film is that it spends too much time playing cool rather than having fun - so while there are these really ridiculous moments that make the whole theater laugh, the build up, all of the beautiful shots, and the editing, turns every single little move into a mini-climax, which only slows down the action scenes.  for example - flipping the car up in the air to shoot a guy with bullet proof windows but an open moon roof.  it is fun in the trailer, but there's a whole scene built around it, complete with rock'n'roll cues and winking and smiling, and it's just too much - it's not something clever enough to spend 5 minutes on.  and all the scenes are like that.  same thing with angelina jolie - I've always seen her as a skank version of monica bellucci, and the movie spends too much time crafting these sexy stares that she keep on throwing, and I just don't care.  I don't like it when these summer movies promise a good time and promise to deliver "everything you want in a movie" - cars and babes and explosions and ridiculous deaths - as if people will automatically be entertained, regardless of the execution.  and you know what, I think the standard for these new types of action movies (the post-matrix ones that are so self-aware so if you say "they're stupid" they say "that's the point") have been so low, movie-goers don't even really care.  they have been conditioned to bring a checklist too, and just grin stupidly at things they recognize, and they convince themselves that they're having a good time just by virtue of the film's self-awareness.  Irony has gone truly mad, and I have a feeling we're not even close to the rock bottom yet - big budget entertainment is going to be a lot more shameless and stupid before everyone wakes up to realize that they've been ripped off the entire time.  bourne ultimatum's success notwithstanding.

I'll tell you what surprises me though - the plot twists, there are two of them that are actually pretty good twists.  aside from that, it is an extremely "entitled" film, where one guy is gonna get what's his, what he's destined to be, and fuck everyone else.  a ton of innocent people die just so one kid can realize his full potential...etc. etc.  and the movie is extremely partonizing - not just with its storytelling, but it literally thinks the audience members are pieces of shit.  normal jobs and lives are for pieces of shit, the film argues.  and, TINY spoiler, it actually ends with someone asking the audience "what the fuck have you done with your life" or something like that.  very patronizing and depressing. 

[Thrindle]

Wow... I really liked Wanted.

In fact, it was thoroughly entertaining because it was everything it promised to be - an action movie!  James McAvoy was absolutely brilliant as a self-deprecating asshole turned deadly assassin... and Angelina remains as sultry as ever (because that's what she's paid for).  If you want to see a fun flick... go see this one.. it's a great mix of action, humor, sex, and SWEAR WORDS!  (yay!)

[The Ultimate Badass]

I really dont want to sound like a pretentious douche, but I thought this movie was idiotic. The whole thing seemed like it was just pretext to justify the Matrixesque visuals, which I thought were boring. Some of the shit that spewed from the mouths of these characters actually made me blush with embarrassment just watching. I left about 3/4 through.

[cinemanarchist]

What an unpleasant and putrid pile of shit this was. McAvoy was terrible...the voiceover was some of the worst and most expository writing I've seen in a movie in quite a while. This was so fucking bad that I really wanted the fat boss to come back at the end and get her revenge. When Jolie kissed McAvoy in front of his girlfriend some guy in the audience shouted, "He's the luckiest man in the world," and everyone cheered. This movie was made for all of them and they can fucking have it.

[Thrindle]

Oh you guys... how I've missed your brilliance.     You forget that the majority of moviegoers want the film equivalent of a tabloid magazine... and... well... we all know that majority rules.   

I honestly thought that McAvoy was funny as hell... and I liked his transformation from weasley office clerk to man of action.

[cinemanarchist]

Oh you guys... how I've missed your brilliance.     You forget that the majority of moviegoers want the film equivalent of a tabloid magazine... and... well... we all know that majority rules.   

I honestly thought that McAvoy was funny as hell... and I liked his transformation from weasley office clerk to man of action.

If it makes any difference I saw You Don't Mess With The Zohan right after Wanted and thought it was the funniest thing Sandler has done since Happy Gilmore. Doesn't that make me Joe Six-Pack"esque" at all?

[pete]

I dunno, as far as mass entertainment goes, this thing was pretty patronizing.  the whole thing revolves around movie stars telling people how much better they are because they live in the movie world not the real world.  after the screening I became extremely aware of the audience around me, noticed a lot of hardworking families that took their kids and everyone there, and felt real bad that the movie ended with "what the fuck have you done" which was kinda like spit on the face.  also, it's just not a good movie - just because there are cars and guns doesn't mean one can't walk away disappointed.  my friends didn't care because the screening was free and they weren't the type to discuss their feelings on entertainment, still, you could tell everyone thought this was gonna be a lot more fun than it ended up being.
so yeah, "it was just an action movie", but since when did that become a compliment for anything? 

[Convael]

Terrible, terrible movie.  Definitely the worst I've seen this year, and there's been some shit this year.  The writing felt like it was done by a group of 14 year old boys and as someone else said, made me feel embarrassed at times.  Especially for James McAvoy who I really liked in Last King of Scotland.  I can only hope that he chose this movie because his agent forced him into it for more mainstream appeal.

[picolas]

i laughed. hard. at the final moments of this. there's so much to lovehate about this. never before have i so fully embraced the so bad it's good feeling. no one who made this could've been 100% serious. this is a triumph of awfulness. it's so clearly written by an angry man who is just. writing the best fucking action MOVIE EVER and what did you say? fuck you! you try doing this!

spoilers

i don't think i've ever heard freeman sware before. when he said 'motherfucker' he delivered every syllable with equal grace and precision.

edit: cinemanarchist, a guy in our crowd went "ew." during the kiss. everyone laughed. it was timed so perfectly. this was just a great experience. of horribleness.

[The Ultimate Badass]

i laughed. hard. at the final moments of this. there's so much to lovehate about this. never before have i so fully embraced the so bad it's good feeling. no one who made this could've been 100% serious. this is a triumph of awfulness

Felt the exact same thing about The Happening. Unlike that one though, I thought this movie was without redemption--even with Freeman's cussing.