Wanted (Full Screen)

Watch it if you like action movies

Like my headline says, that's the kind of vibes I'd had, when I first caught it on the Syfy channel. You'll enjoy it if you want to see some ridiculous action scenes with some comedic elements mixed in.

Best Action Movie Ever. 5 Stars. All movies are just movies. This is another movie; just better than the others.

I'm not a big Angelina Jolie fan. She's given some fine performances in the past, true (GIRL, INTERRUPTED)...but mostly she has become a persona and not a real person. But I have to admit, her persona is perfectly suited to play a highly-skilled assassin who really enjoys her work. Jolie holds a gun quite convincingly. She kills with great conviction. And of course, she wears all the clothes of her trade with great panache. She's come a long way since taking on Laura Kroft in TOMB RAIDER (and coming across as a bit silly). MR. AND MRS. SMITH helped to cement her style, and in WANTED, she's perfected it. It's not a demonstration of great acting talent...but she DOES give a performance.WANTED tells the ridiculous story of a millennium -old "Fraternity of Assassins," who are the most remarkably skilled killers in the world. Apparently, a small portion of the population has an innate ability to do physics-defying things like curve the trajectory of bullets so they can fire around obstacles. (This is the coolest thing to happen to bullets since "Bullet Time" in THE MATRIX.) But this Fraternity, headed by Morgan Freeman, is under attack from a "rogue" assassin...one of their own.James McAvoy is a cubicle-dwelling loser who is recruited into this group...and it is through his eyes that we see this film. At first, we get to meet him taking grief from his boss and reluctantly accepting the fact that his personal life is a joke as well. He's a nerd full of pent-up rage. But one night, Jolie whisks him away from a threat to his life in a chase scene that truly gets the blood pumping. When she shoots out her own windshield and then climbs through the opening to fire at her pursuer over the roof of her car, and still managing to steer with her legs...the movie instantly is transported into a realm of marvelous silliness. It's a totally cool moment that leaves you almost giddy because it dares you to say "no, that can't happen." If you DO say that, you'll be depriving yourself of a good time.WANTED is a movie with a few stellar action sequences, punctuated with montages of McAvoy training and a few brief glimpses into the ways of The Fraternity. Frankly, the story is hardly the point...it's the action. And WANTED delivers on this score. So let's be perfectly clear here...if you want to see a film that stimulates the mind or the heart..stay away from WANTED. If you want the heart to get pumping and the adrenalin to flow...this film will fit the bill.This is not to say that the film is perfect, even on this modest level. I've now officially decided that I have very little use for James McAvoy. I hated him in THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE and barely tolerated him in ATONEMENT (a movie I barely tolerated). In WANTED, he plays the goofy loser convincingly, but when he's transformed into the skilled murderer...it's almost laughable how unbelievable he is. The forward momentum of the movie, and Jolie's steely presence deflect us away from McAvoy's shortcomings...but I frequently found myself wondering what he was doing in this film. Morgan Freeman is completely coasting in the film. There's no doubt he has one of the silkiest voices in history, and I can always listen to him...but I can also tell he wasn't terribly engaged in all this. A paycheck role.Yet, I still recommend it...as long as you understand what you're getting into. If you do accept it, then this movie might be some of the best fun you've had at the movies this summer.

The Good Things*A lot of great, smashing, imaginative action scenes and special effects. They may be outlandish, but they're interwoven effectively into the story (and are not as hyper as the "Nightwatch/Daywatch" saga).*Loads of really cool guns, cars, bullets, costumes, and settings. Production design is awesome.*Filming style is great. It gets a little hyper and shaky, but not overwhelmingly so. Lots of slow-motion and solid camera work makes it very fluid.*There is some graphic blood and some brutal violence, but it hardly detracts from the story. It accentuates the action very well.*The story is great and easy to comprehend. Was worried that they would leave it wide open, but they actually had a good, complete ending.*It's not all serious action. There are also some good comic moments.*I don't know about anybody else, but didn't expect any of the plot twists towards the end. They were very effective, believable, and brought the story together very well. It even made some earlier scenes clearer.*The main character is phenomenal. He shows a fantastic evolution from a lowlife twerp into an awe-inspiring killing machine. The narrative really adds to the character as well, and makes us feel for him.* The other characters are allright. Fox (Angelina Jolie) is fairly well-developed, and has a heck of a mean streak (and she looks awesome!). Sloan (Morgan Freeman) is...well...Morgan Freeman.*Very strong themes about self-control and standing up for oneself.*Also brought up one or two good moral questions concerning the assasination business. The story also delves into some emotionally deep stuff (like a father trying to protect his son).*A few interesting visual motifs (loved seeing the guy moving through the broken loom, as if he was caught in a web of fate).*The overall attitude of the film, through the characters, action, and dialogue, is very mean (in a good way). A few parts even made me want to applaud the main character, for proving that he wasn't going to take any crud from anybody.*Excellent music (loved hearing NIN's "Everyday is Exactly the Same"; Danny Elfman's score and his song "The Little Things" are great too).The Bad Things*A couple of the action/chase sequences had some shaky camera movements that made it hard to see the action (but it was still mostly comprehensible).The Questionable Things*The film's attitude has a few moments where it seems to insult the audience (I believe the main character called us pathetic lowlives or something...). I found it hilarious, but some of you may find it distasteful.*Some parts really are over-the-top or ridiculous (like the idea that targets are selected by the randomly misthreaded threads on a loom...not to mention the idea of curving a bullet's path or flipping cars onto busses...). Such absurdity can be seen either as stylish and fantastic, or as weird and silly.Take the character, narrative, and attitude of "Fight Club," and mix it with the plot structure, themes, and action of the first "Matrix," and you would have something like "Wanted." It has a good amount of crazy action, but above all, it has a real bad attitude. This turned out to be a good thing; not only did it make the action seem more intense, but it also made the character stand out more, and introduced some fascinating themes. It is way deeper and more distinct than I thought it would be. The final message ("This is me taking control of my life...what the F are you doing?") made me feel powerful after leaving the theater. This is definately requisite watching for all action fans.

Great movie great price easy shopping

Ich habe den Film wahrscheinlich schon 10 mal gesehen, langweilig wird er aber nie! Abgesehen von der perfekten Besetzung sitzt die Action in jeder Szene. Als Fan von guter Unterhaltung und R-rated Action sollte man den Film gesehen haben.

Film avec un scénario qui sort de l'ordinaire, enfin un film qui sort de l'ordinaireCa fait plaisir, un vrai bon moment devant l'écran

This bluraySound quality okPitcher quality not excellent

Many action movies, comic books and geek-appeal TV shows are fantasies of empowerment. Protagonists from Luke Skywalker through Peter Parker and Harry Potter are mistaken for dullards by everyone in their lives. They are whisked out of their ruts by magical mentors, who induct them into secret universes where they inherit a legacy of heroism (along with an arch-enemy or two), can take their pick of the cool toys (mostly fast vehicles and big weapons) and get to marry (or at least cop-off with) the princess or prince of their choice. Wanted fits that template treading a tricky path between `with great power comes great responsibility' and `absolute power corrupts absolutely'.Here, a whiny loser gets access to sports cars, guns that shoot round corners and a tattooed Angelina Jolie, and takes his place in a battle between good and evil without necessarily caring about the body count. Our hero, Wesley (James McAvoy), endures arduous training which brings out his latent near-superhuman abilities, and executes his first missions.The director, Timur Bekmambetov, obviously has a lot of fun with a sizable budget, we get fights, chases, crashes, murders and assaults involving flipped-over sports cars, speeding trains, skyscrapers, and a castle. Bekmambetov understands pacing and escalation, scenes build in intensity, and each sequence is filled with inventive gags or gimmicks, like the broken letters that spell out a to the point resignation message when Wesley breaks his keyboard on the face of the best friend who is sleeping with his girlfriend. A great thing about Wanted is it doesn't seem interested in trying to appeal to the masses by getting a 12A certificate, so it can deliver the gruesome payoffs to its fights.McAvoy, boyish charming and occasionally scary, carries off a tricky role, growing the hero's character to match his bullet-curving and knife-fighting skills, and proves he can hold his own on the big screen. A slender Angelina Jolie is insidiously attractive as the world's greatest (and, apparently, most limber) hit lady: I have never seen her more charismatic on screen - or bent into such odd positions.In a time where even the good action films have been predictable, Wanted offers more than enough twists, turns and surprises to fool viewers who think they know what's going to happen. Wanted is fun, funny and packed with more action than you can shake an AK-47 at. Recommended.