Wanted

Wanted is an action flick based on an indy comic by the same name. The story focuses on a young disgruntled office worker named Wesley (played by James MacAvoy) who hates his life and his job to the point that he has to constantly medicate to fight panic attacks. His fat boss takes her high school self esteem issues out on him, his girlfriend constantly pesters and complains, and his coworker and supposed best friend is actually banging said girlfriend. He's broke and miserable until Fox (that would be the lovely Angelina Jolie) comes into his life and tells him that he's destined to join The Fraternity, a thousand-year-old guild of assassins. As far fetched as this would seem to anyone, Wesley is a little more easily convinced by the near-immediate shoot out that occurs and the whirlwind of action that follows. Told that the mysterious man involved the in the aforementioned shoot out killed his father, Welsey trains for his "destined" mission... to kill the deadliest assassin alive. I know it may seem like I just told you a lot of the plot, but trust me when I say there is a LOT more to it than that. So... let's review, shall we?

Original Release: 2008
Running Time: 110 minutes
Death - $2
You read the part above about the guild of assassins, right? OK... and what do assassins do? That's right... they kill people. When people are killed it means they become dead, and "dead" is a word used to describe the state of being for living things that have experienced death. In summation, there is a shit-load of death.

Acting - $1
I think this might have been my first James MacAvoy movie and I have to say that I believe the hype. He was good! He managed to pull off the distraught young man and the ass-kicking action guy at the same time. I also really like Common here... I am quickly becoming a fan of him as an actor. Beyond these two, nobody really wowed me. Morgan Freeman and Angelina both did as well as one would anticipate but they didn't steal the movie at all (and I think that was intentional). Nobody did a poor job, but the action definitely outdid the acting... not that there's anything wrong with that.

Hello Ladies - $1
Sorry folks, but it takes more than Angelina Jolie for me to give two dollars here. Yes, I know you see her bare ass... and yes, it was glorious... but that's about all there was. Wesley's girlfriend was attractive but nothing memorable, and as tempted as I am I'm not even going to make a joke about his fat boss.

Action and Ass-Kickery - $2
I'm beginning to think that it may not be fair to use both the Death and Action ratings in the same review for movies. Where there is a ton of death it is pretty safe to assume that there is a ton of action. It's not always the case, but definitely more often than not. Anyway, as I'm sure you guessed, there is in fact a ton of action here. Between various chase scenes, assassination scenes and Wesley's training scenes it feels like someone is getting punched, shot or stabbed in one out of every three frames of the film. And that is a good thing. Yay violence!! Also, I will never look at ergonomic keyboards the same way. (You'll have to watch it to get that.)

Billicious - $1
I didn't really expect much going into this one since I heard pretty mixed reviews but I have to say that it was a darn good action flick. Interesting concept and a solid mix of acting talent make Wanted a good ride, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a little bit of a connection to the Wesley character and his initial desire for something more in life
Total Rating: $7

I need to make a correction for one of my comments above. This was not actually my first James MacAvoy movie... he played Mr. Tumnus in the Chronicles of Narnia movie. And that, kids, is what we call "moving up in the world". I don't think I have anything else to add, so I'll just end it here. As always, feel free to share your thoughts!