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Wanted

Please do not try any of this at home

By Matt Pais

Metromix
June 26, 2008

Critic's Rating:

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Wesley (James McAvoy) is bored with his job, hates his boss and does nothing about his girlfriend cheating on him with his best friend. So life gets just a bit more interesting when a mysterious hottie (Angelina Jolie) and her boss (Morgan Freeman) invite Wesley into a 1,000-year-old "fraternity of assassins" and train him to kill the man who killed Wesley's father.
 
Big question: Can director Timur Bekmambetov ("Night Watch"), helming his first English-language film and adapting the comic book series, actually deliver a semi-coherent story to go along with his traditionally over-the-top action?
 
Skip it: Cars flip, blood spills, but it's nearly impossible to care when "Wanted" twists its plot from something serviceable to something vague to something laugh-out-loud stupid. What's the point of the fraternity? Where does the money come from? By the time Jolie's done pouting her lips and a lot of rats have exploded (that's right), all that's left is a silly excuse to show bullets colliding and the precision required to shoot wings off flies.
 
Catch it: For the entertaining absurdity of the "loom of fate," which dictates who the fraternity kills based on turning random thread abnormalities into binary code into letters into perfectly spelled names. Now may be a good time to consult your tailor and make sure he hasn't put a price on your head.
 
Bottom line: Some may embrace "Wanted" as an outrageous, mindless escape from the usual escapism that actually makes a little sense and doesn't zoom in on bullets as they fly through donuts. Others will see it as permission for unhappy office drones to go on a killing spree. But while it unquestionably glamorizes murder as a sexy national pastime, you also can't deny that the movie is at least, occasionally, sort of badass.
 
Bonus: Wesley learns that a gifted few just need their instincts to curve a bullet around a corner. Stay tuned for our petition asking to revoke the 2nd Amendment from David Beckham.

Video: Watch the review of 'Wanted'

What do you think of 'Wanted'? Email me: mpais@tribune.com

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