Click to play videoCast: James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Wanted, the new action film starring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie is what I'd describe as a guilty pleasure. It's a ridiculous film with a preposterous premise, but it's also really good fun.
McAvoy stars as Wesley, a scrawny, squeaky-voiced, frustrated office guy whose girlfriend's cheating on him with his best friend, and whose boss picks on him at the slightest excuse.
But his life changes dramatically when he's sought out by Fox (played by the lovely Ms Jolie), who informs him that like his father he was born into a thousand-year-old secret society of assassins, and that he's got killing in his DNA.
Even before he can absorb that information, he's unwittingly thrust into a high-adrenalin, pulse-racing car chase with Fox that's so stunningly choreographed, you'll have to stop yourself from standing up in your seat to cheer.
Anyways, Wesley allows Fox to take him to Sloan, the Fraternity's head honcho (played by Morgan Freeman) who explains that the brotherhood was founded by a clan of weavers who saw a chance to alter the world's destiny. The Fraternity takes it orders from the Loom of Fate, a weaving loom which issues the names of the targets through a code embedded in its fabric.
Don't roll your eyes just yet. Before Wesley can become a fully functional assassin, he must go through a training process that consists mainly of being beaten into pulp. Having survived that, he's ready to take on real jobs. So out he steps into the world where he must kill people whose names the Loom throws up — no questions asked, their crimes unknown.
The spectacular action scenes in Wanted defy all rules of logic. Assassins merrily shoot curve bullets, they run about on the top of speeding trains, one even drives a car into a passenger train that subsequently plunges into a gorge.
What's great about this film is that it doesn't even pause a moment for you to consider how ridiculous all of this is.
It's a film that creates a parallel universe that you're happy to be a part of as long as the action's unspooling on screen.
Angelina Jolie plays sex kitten and lethal warrior all rolled into one, but the film belongs to James McAvoy who plays the befuddled hero with such ease.
Watch him in that scene in which he flips out on his office colleagues who humiliated him, it's what makes his character believable despite all the over-the-top action.
Wanted is lip-smacking delicious for the style and the grace in its thrilling stunts. It delivers exactly what it promises and for that I'm going with three out of five for Wanted.
The stomach churning bloody fights aside, this is full-on entertainment. Go in and have a blast.
Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
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