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Bookmark this pageWanted (2008)
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Russian fabulist Timur Bekmambetov (‘Nightwatch’, ‘Daywatch’) must have spent a lot of time watching the ‘Matrix’ films before embarking on this action caper. James McAvoy is a nervy, stifled office lackey who is one day asked to join a secret fraternity of assassins by a heavily tattooed Angelina Jolie. Why? Because he possesses the innate ability to curve bullets with his mind, of course.Based in the back room of a textile factory, the team receive orders to kill via the coded weavings of a magical loom. So far-fetched is all this (the threat of an army of exploding rats has already been made) that when overseer Morgan Freeman delivers the line ‘We call this… the Loom of Fate’, you won’t bat an eyelid. It’s already the lingua franca.
This is cinema for people who slow down at car wrecks: Bekmambetov takes pleasure in showing us a bullet slowly boring in or out of the cranium while taking great care in sculpting the resultant swirl of CG blood. McAvoy is reasonable in his first action lead, but offers a tin-eared approximation of the US accent that comes across less like the middle-class salaryman he is and more Jewish New York cab driver (think Bob Hoskins).
There’s an eccentric otherness to the film which just manages to sustain the interest, but whether Bekmambetov’s talents lie in filmmaking rather than gaming or comics is debatable.
Author: David Jenkins
User reviews of this film
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- CORRECTMUNDO said...
- Posted on Jun 27 2008 18:00 The Martix was really bad in comparison to Wanted but ... the MATRIX .. now that was a film worth seeing. 11/10
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- db cooper said...
- Posted on Jun 27 2008 17:26 absolutley sick!!!! what a film. 10 times better than martix.
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- miktal said...
- Posted on Jun 27 2008 09:41 LOL!!!
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- usman khawaja said...
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Posted on Jun 27 2008 09:30
miktail
u r just the rat tail that this movie is talking about go and eat your tail ,mate -lolz ,after all you seem like a very frustated and hungry rat -who could swallow anything even his TAIL -EVER HEARD OF MICKEY MOUSE -LOZ
HEY BOYSIE -true forums are lot of fun within limited time and tastes - Report as inappropriate
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- Boysie said...
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Posted on Jun 27 2008 09:23
I enjoy reading the diversity of opinion on forums such as this. I also know when a crappy hamburger is being served to me disguised as a steak!
and WANTED is no more than a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. Enjoyable but while it lasted .. but soon forgotten. - Report as inappropriate
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- miktal said...
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Posted on Jun 27 2008 09:00
Classic Shakespeare? LOL!!
Greek tragedy?? LOOOOL!!!
One very, VERY, long sentence.
And the grammar of a 5 year old.
Seem the film has hit its target audience square in the face. - Report as inappropriate
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- usman said...
- Posted on Jun 27 2008 08:58 boysie i agree the cgi is too overt at times but that is something in general ,the simplicity and beauty of the visual style and content of the hitchcock and kubrick classics from 40s and 50s was even more pure than the content and reality of coppola and bertolucci in 70s but cinema has to evolve and change like everything else too .
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- usman khawaja said...
- Posted on Jun 27 2008 08:50 one thing is for sure ,TIMUR has done the job he was imported to do ,he has made a superstar of our scotsman and in style too ,the movie is visual genius and there is no denying that it overdoes that at times but it brings a dark raw energy to the world of modern blockbusters as well ,where hollywood usually never treads like the father and son relationship which almost makes it a greek tragedy ,similarly JOLIE is turned into a stylized ,femininistic icon who again has classic shakespeare embedded in her modern role,the special effects are to die for and some are too dazzling to believe ,whatever you say this is a blockbuster and immensely entertaining despite it's flaws and it makes JAMES MCAVOY into a superstar with his immense talent intact ,he deserves this too after his affirmation as an actor in atonement ,he needed a blockbuster too,and timur the russian visual genius has delivered that for our first british superstar in decades ,never since sean connery and james bond has there been a character like this which is definitely going to spawn many sequels as the scotsman has arrived and he looks like an american brat in a very tongue in cheek thriller too,vedetta in style with a slick dark edge and a great twist too,extremely entertaining though i knew the critics were going to be rough on it like they did with timur's earlier movies ,but there is no stopping the rats and the pied piper is in tinseltown for better or worst,he is unstoppable .mcavoy simply is stunning .
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- Roshan said...
- Posted on Jun 27 2008 08:32 Good effects and action...weaker story line. Overall it is enjoyable and worth seeing.
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- Anna said...
- Posted on Jun 27 2008 01:28 Again, a clear example of a movie where all the money went into special effects, and absolutely NONE into a half-decent plot! The whole movie makes no sense. You could just as easily watch it without hearing the dialogue.
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- Miktal said...
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Posted on Jun 26 2008 22:24
Finally! A voice of reason!
CGI IS killing cinema. This was yet another offering of mindless, senseless, garbage as far as I`m concerned. I`m fed up of being spoonfed one-dimentional characters I couldnt give a toss about (bring back Sideways, PLEASE!!) Actions sequences that go on and on and on for no apparent reason other than, they can. Jolie does a Jolie and spends the whole film pouting. Freeman phones in his performance, and why not. And the rest are either super trained assassins on one hand or as dumb as a bag of spanners on the other!
HOLLYWOOD, KEEP YOUR DAMN 360deg BENDING BULLETS, NO MORE DAMN DINOSAURS AND STOP MAKING PI$$ POOR SEQUELS, AND JUST GIVE US A FRIGGIN STORY!!!!!!!!!!!
Keep writing, Boysie, I know I will. - Report as inappropriate
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- Boysie said...
- Posted on Jun 26 2008 22:10 Usman - thank you for your recommendations. I did enjoy the bulk of the film (Wanted), but I also felt that it was a missed opportunity. I fear this type of film is as dead as a dodo. CGI has pretty much ruined the film industry as far as I am concerned. Thank god for films produced in the 1970s which can always be revisited on DVD. I am currently writing my first script which may get finished iin about five years.
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- Chris said...
- Posted on Jun 26 2008 19:32 Absolutelly agree with Alex, although I have not seen either 'A Night shame' or 'A Day shame'. The film is just a waste of your time... except for enjoying James and Angelina for 2 hours.
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- Alex Dawber said...
- Posted on Jun 26 2008 18:47 Class!
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- usman said...
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Posted on Jun 26 2008 16:00
boysie
i am sure you enjoyed this and i hope you see the Night watch too as it was an instant cult classic too along with Daywatch, i loved both those movies and their dark,dynamic energy ,
will see this today
cheerio
thanks for the rat warning ,we have so many rats in london streets walking past us we dare not be scared of the rodents -natural immunity- - Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Cast: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Terence Stamp full cast
Genre(s): Action/Adventure
Rated: 18
Duration: 110 mins
UK Release: Jun 27 2008
US Release: Jun 27 2008
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