Wanted (USA)

Timur Bekmambetov the director of Day Watch and Night Watch does a film with the big budget Hollwood treatment. Not so much in the special effects arena - his earlier films looked plenty great. More in the way of talent you'd recognize, in this case James McAvoy and the (briefly nude and) tattooed Angelina Jolie.

The plot's likely sillier (though simpler) than the directors earlier films. In exchange for dumbing things down we're rewarded with an increased number of out of control car chases and shootings. Only in light of his earlier movie where a car driven by the supernaturally gifted manages to steer a sports car up the side of a building would the laws of physics in Wanted only appear slightly bent and not completely broken. But if you're willing to suspend disbelief a bit (OK a lot) it's possible to derive some entertainment from this film.

The movie is sort of an odd hybrid of Office Space blended with The Professional and The Matrix. The main characters is a low level cubicle dweller who's unsuccessful and afraid of practically any confrontation in life. So of course he's destined to be brought into the fold of an ancient band of assassins with super-human powers. Not as far fetched as you might first think. His dad was one of the super killers - so it's an inherited skill (vs. more of an out of every generation one girl is chosen Buffy sort of thing). I didn't want you to think any of this was unreasonable. ;-)

Like many cinematic bands of assassins this one grew out of an ancient society of weavers who take their direction from a magical loom run by Fate itself. The ancient weaving device spells out who to kill (in binary code) and they get to it. Good to see the Masons finally get a break in one of these conspiricacy theory/secret society things.

Anyway, there's a few twists and turns here - none of which are that surprising. All I'll say is that if you're gonna take instruction on who to kill from a magic loom you're going to want to have some sort of airtight audit process around the instructions that come out of it. Just a thought...

The action on the other hand in terms of stylized pornographic levels of violence is impressive. Even though I wasn't quite on the edge of my seat with respect to story outcome I still enjoyed the over the top action sequences. So as a popcorn flick I would have to recommend it. At least it'll have to do until The Dark Knight comes out once you've seen Iron Man. I bet neither of those guys can curve bullets in mid-air anyway. At some level I do bump up the rating in that there's just a tiny touch of non-Hollywood Russian vibe in the story's resolution. But I might have just been imagining that.

Oh yeah, one last thing. leave your handgun at home. 'Cuz the movie does leave you wanting to shoot someone in the head. Thankfully though not yourself for spending $10 and an afternoon in the theater.

Trailer watch:
A couple of interesting trailers before the film today. With so much festival going I'd almost forgotten what those things before the movies are. In this case the ones that stood out were for Pineapple Express and the either hilarious or awesome new version of Death Race 2000, just called Death Race (starring Jason Statham). Even with Statham in it I fear for this cult classic.