Bullet bending super assassin Angelina Jolie plies her trade in the graphic novel adaptation WANTED.
film about a young woman’s search for her missing sister.
WANTED
2008, Universal, $39.98, 109m 52s, BR By John Charles
Nebbish accountant Wesley (James McAvoy) is rudely yanked out of an anxiety-ridden existence when he is recruited by a thou- sand-year-old order of assassins (whose current ranks include Morgan Freeman and a discon- certingly emaciated Angelina Jolie) with hyper-accelerated heartbeats that give them incred- ible athletic abilities and the ca- pacity to “bend” bullets. Through intensive training (which involves little beyond Wesley getting re- peatedly thrashed in scenes dis- playing a cruelty counter to the cartoonish tone elsewhere), he is able to master his own previously
unrevealed skills and is assigned to liquidate his father, an ultra- skilled killer who has turned on the group.
Based loosely on Mark Millar’s graphic novel, which was rife with adolescent-level shock material, the more mainstream WANTED feature displays little to raise one’s eyebrows aside from a sur- feit of coarse language and splattery CGI bullet hits now com- monplace in R-rated action mov- ies. The fantastic content has also been somewhat diluted though director Timur Bekmam- betov brings the same kinetic style that he utilized previously in his feverish Russian genre fea- tures NIGHT WATCH and DAY WATCH. Little time is expended on back story and absolutely none on matters of physics (ap- parently all you need to send a projectile around corners are custom-made bullets and a good
flick of the wrist) and, while not as headache-inducing as some recent features, the editing re- mains on the epileptic side. It is all slick, simplistic and forget- table, but we still found WANTED diverting and outlandish enough to be worth a viewing, particu- larly via Universal’s outstanding looking and sounding 2.35:1 Blu-ray release.
The Blu platter includes 7 featurettes (all in HD), an alter- nate opening and extended scene, picture-in-picture com- mentary, BD Live and U-Con- trol features, and a digital copy on disc 2. French and Spanish dubs and subs are included. Also available on DVD in single disc (widescreen or fullscreen, $29.98 each) or 2 disc wide- screen ($34.98), with most of the Blu extras. Limited Edition Collector’s Sets are also offered in both formats.
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