Wanted

It's always nice to get a pleasant surprise and this is exactly what WANTED turned out to be. For some reason I though it had that Shabia LaBeef dude in the lead so I put in on the back burner as far as priority viewing went. I don't have any real problem with Shia LeBeouf but I've never felt any urgency to run out opening day to see his work. As for Angelina Jolie, this looked to be simply another action role for her which she is great at, alas, same thing...no urgency. Turns out I'm the one worse off as this baby would have been a riot on the big screen, especially the sound for which WANTED grabbed two Oscar nods. Timur Bekmambetov of the WATCH series fame directs a fast paced yarn here which comes off as a hybrid blend of FIGHT CLUB, THE MATIX and THE SEVENTH SAMURI. Granted, WANTED doesn't hold a candle to the films mentioned but it does stand out as being far better than the average offerings in the genre of late. James McAvoy certainly has a future in the action world and word has it he's already on board for the sequel. Terrence Stamp always raises the bar and I'm not so sure we should be talking about Morgan Freeman at the moment. Special mention should be made of rapper turned actor Common who is staged to fill Mr. T's role in the upcoming THE A-TEAM film. Though his lines are limited he seems to make the switch without effort. Not classic but enough action and twists to make this a keeper.