Monday, June 30, 2008

MOVIE REVIEW: Wanted

Saw Wanted at the Pacific Theaters 18 at the Americana at Brand on Friday night. The movie stars Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman and directed by Timur Bekmambetov.

The movie is based on an eponymous comic book series (that I have never heard of) and features the big budget debut of the talented Russian director of Night Watch and Day Watch.

Bekmambetov has clearly been busy watching the oeuvre of David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) and The Wachowski Brothers' Matrix franchise.

Wanted is so intense it's almost a self-parody. The movie starts with a guy running so fast that his wake is blowing paintings off the walls as he runs by them. Then the guy jumps through a 40th story window about 100 feet onto the roof of a neighboring skyscraper. And the movie gets more intense after that!

The plot of the movie is almost irrelevant. It's strong point is its visuals. And the visuals are very strong. The movie apparently revels in its R rating, because it is breathtakingly violent in some scenes. Not only is there the cartoon-like hail of bullets and explosions violence of The Matrix but there is also the bloody bone-crunching hands-on violence of Fight Club.

Despite (or, for some, because of) these features the movie is entertaining, if not memorable.
It will, of course, make oodles of money and probably generate multiple sequels.

GRADE: C.

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