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Wild Target (2010)

Director: Jonathan Lynn

Time Out rating

Average user rating

16 reviews

Synopsis

An ageing assassin finds himself attracted to one of his targets in this British drama.

Movie review

From Time Out London

Jonathan Lynn is the director of such high-concept/low-quality comedies as ‘Nuns on the Run’ and ‘Clue’ (aka the Cluedo movie), and anyone who has seen those will know what to expect from ‘Wild Target’, an extremely ropey remake of Pierre Salvadori’s jocular, 1993 French hit ‘Cible Emouvante’. Bill Nighy plays hermetic, near silent and sexually confused assassin Victor Maynard who – via a series of unlikely events – must turn protector to brassy kleptomaniac Emily Blunt and pot-bonging naif Rupert Grint. The actors do the best with what they’re given – it’s just a shame they’ve been given so little. The script is free of either zingers or insight, the inertia of the story is constantly stalled by deviation (including a superfluous homoerotic vignette which appears to be a cheap excuse to show Grint in the nud) and entire characters – including the ‘baddie’ of the piece, Rupert Everett – are left to fade into the background. Nothing feels like it’s been properly thought through, highlighted by the fact that Nighy’s ‘super assassin’ goes about his business by merely opening fire on a crowded market place (using a silencer, of course!).

Author: David Jenkins

Time Out London Issue 2078: 17 - 23 June, 2010

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User reviews of this film

jeremy said...

Posted on Nov 28 2011 14:09 Just caught this on DVD. Filled an evening and we laughed quite a lot. It was actually a dysfunctional family film in disguise and I thought the dynamic of the cast worked very well. Some reviewers getting hung up about inconsistency and loose ends? It's a daft comedy - geddit? On that level - a bit of good fun - it worked. Worth making? If we all need one thing these days it's a bit of a light-hearted laugh.

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Anna said...

Posted on Aug 14 2011 06:51 I loved the movie it was a mixture of everything it was quirky and amazing I throughly enjoyed the movie and highly recommend it to anyone !!!'m

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John said...

Posted on Nov 23 2010 20:00 Very good, fun, entertaining movie. I highly recommend it. Don't miss it!

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Mr Paris said...

Posted on Sep 05 2010 14:40 Just watched in France. Thought it was an excellent film. I laughed most of the way through.

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Euler said...

Posted on Jul 15 2010 14:37 Just saw that movie in France, people were crying their eyes out - tears of laughter. Wish we had a French Billy Nighy really and such good feel good movies here in France. Mr. Reviewer, don't be so hard on your British cinema, it deserves better support!!!

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Adam J said...

Posted on Jul 07 2010 22:54 (Contains spoilers). A promising cast, broadly a good plot, but ruined by cringe-worthy moments when everything just fell apart (such as the stilted dialogue in the car park and the awful 'comedy' sound effects in the car chase) and several issues with the plot, such as how on earth Rose managed to conceive *and bear a four year old child in three years (one assumes she stole it). Close... but ended up missing the target, wildly.

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jock said...

Posted on Jul 05 2010 13:25 SUPERB!another terrible review on a fantastic brit fick.begining to wonder who these reviewers are, you just have to look at the difference between the viewers rating to the 'experts' rating,it was dark,satirical and in places absoluteley laugh out loud. a reas surprise..wonderful brittish humour, fisher ,nighy and blunt were fantastic, great turn from the harry potter gadgy too, lighten up time out,,take atime out in fact!!!

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WPW said...

Posted on Jul 01 2010 13:52 Typically snooty TO review by, I'm sure, someone eager to maintain his cineaste credentials. This is a perfectly decent film which benefits from first rate performances from its excellent cast and a pleasingly unhomogenised script. Good black comedy in the Ealing trad.

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David Jones said...

Posted on Jun 25 2010 21:05 I loved it so much I went back to see it again the next day. A truly great feelgood, warm-hearted film. More people should give it a go.

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Paul said...

Posted on Jun 24 2010 23:51 This felt more like a made for TV or straight to video bargain bin film. I have to wonder why anyone goes to all the bother to make a film like this. Very few laugh out loud moments, but hard to detach Rupert from Ron in my mind.
In the tradition of Ealing Studios, a wet Saturday afternoon comedy with everyone hamming it up.

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scrumpyjack said...

Posted on Jun 24 2010 21:32 odd, laugh free comedy. Why then did I QUITE like it? its nowhere near "so bad its good" territory, so its one of those mysteries. perhaps the weather hightned a good mood? anyway, not worth a cinema trip, but a passable dvd rent. 4/10

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Lisa said...

Posted on Jun 22 2010 22:41 I thoroughly enjoyed Wild target, and thought the performances where excellent; Emily Blunt was brilliant and so was Rupert Grint. The humour is a touch dark at times, but all in all it was a good night out to the cinema.

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Jaycee said...

Posted on Jun 21 2010 23:06 Not a great film, but much more enjoyable than the review would have it. A decent remake with excellent performances from everyone, especially Nighy, perfect as the uptight hitman, and Blunt letting her hair down a bit. Pretty entertaining, and if they ever make a biopic of Norman Wisdom, Martin Freeman should star - he looks eerily like the unfunny 1950's star

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ellie said...

Posted on Jun 19 2010 21:17 The cast did a fantastic job but nothing could really make up for the fact that plot went AWOL leaving loose ends left, right and centre. It felt like they'd edited out the reason for Rupert Grint, which is a shame as he is potentially a promising performer. It was also diificult to tell which one of the male leads it would be least inapropriate for Emily Blunt to snog... what have these actors done to deserve this? Jut lacked direction

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ed said...

Posted on Jun 19 2010 11:04 pretty flat on the whole. but i did particularly enjoy the thick henchman played by Geoff Bell. and the terrifically droll "kiss-off" line concerning the predictably faulty gun at the end.
better than i expected, but yes, typical of the comedies that came out the Uk in the 80s and early 90s like THE STEAL (Alfred Molina) or HIGH HEELS AND LOW LIFES.... 3/10

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