Posted June 19, 200817 yr Wanted is a 2008 action film loosely based on the comic book miniseries Wanted by Mark Millar. The film is directed by Timur Bekmambetov and stars James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Thomas Kretschmann, Konstantin Khabensky and Angelina Jolie http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/98/Wanted_film_poster.jpg/200px-Wanted_film_poster.jpg Release Date: June 27 Angelina Jolie looks pretty hot in this :wub: its an all action packed movie, the trailers for it look so good, and there will be a follow up movie to it, its already planned
June 20, 200817 yr Hmmmm, can anyone say "Matrix"....? :lol: It's a very similar idea... We have "curving bullets" instead of "bullet time", we have a young bloke being found and mentored by an experienced, older black dude in how to use his "gifts" which can alter the reality around him, we have a "hot babe" action heroine who no doubt will end up fancying him.... Yeah, sounds a hell of a lot like "The Matrix".... The effects look very similar as well.... I've liked Timur Bekmambetov's "Night Watch" films, so will probably check this out, but I don't have high expectations of it tbh....
June 20, 200817 yr I've liked Timur Bekmambetov's "Night Watch" films, so will probably check this out, but I don't have high expectations of it tbh.... Yeah Night Watch was good - pity Day Watch was a mess - more interested in the specticle of the vision rather than a coherant naration (tho if the next installment is $h!te as well - maybe we can take the matrix comparisions even further)
June 20, 200817 yr Yeah Night Watch was good - pity Day Watch was a mess - more interested in the specticle of the vision rather than a coherant naration (tho if the next installment is $h!te as well - maybe we can take the matrix comparisions even further) Depends on what the books were like though Alex, I haven't actually read them myself.... People have commented on the difficulty of translating these books to the screen anyway, so I dunno, is the problem of coherence Bekmambetov's fault or is it the fault of the author....? Maybe some things just make more sense on the page rather than on the screen... I thought Dnevnoy Dozor was interesting actually, it helps if you watch it a couple of times though... It's hard to take everything in first time with a film like that...
June 20, 200817 yr Depends on what the books were like though Alex, I haven't actually read them myself.... People have commented on the difficulty of translating these books to the screen anyway, so I dunno, is the problem of coherence Bekmambetov's fault or is it the fault of the author....? Maybe some things just make more sense on the page rather than on the screen... I thought Dnevnoy Dozor was interesting actually, it helps if you watch it a couple of times though... It's hard to take everything in first time with a film like that... havent read then either - tho hearing reports that some comic book fans are unhappy that Wanted is only very very loosely based on the graphic novel - with loads of stuff junked - you might also come to the conclusion that even Timur didnt bother reading the book either and just made it up as he went along :lol: :lol:
June 20, 200817 yr havent read then either - tho hearing reports that some comic book fans are unhappy that Wanted is only very very loosely based on the graphic novel - with loads of stuff junked - you might also come to the conclusion that even Timur didnt bother reading the book either and just made it up as he went along :lol: :lol: To be fair, he didn't have anything to do with writing the screenplay for "Wanted" though, whereas he was the co-writer for the "Night Watch" films.... According to IMDb, there's about three different screenwriters involved with writing "Wanted", bit of a "committee approach" has been made to this I reckon... I also reckon Bekmambetov was just drafted in by the studio cos they wanted a "cool, culty" European director with a bit of a reputation, so they sent around a couple of suits with a very large cheque....
June 20, 200817 yr I also reckon Bekmambetov was just drafted in by the studio cos they wanted a "cool, culty" European director with a bit of a reputation, so they sent around a couple of suits with a very large cheque.... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/64/The_Invasion_film_poster.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/TheEyePoster.jpg Maybe we should not get our hope up high then for greatness :lol: :lol: - however i suppose if it turned out to be just Adolf Hitler taking a dump in a sewer for a least an hour - at least it would be about 25% better then these films mentioned about :lol: To be fair, he didn't have anything to do with writing the screenplay for "Wanted" though, whereas he was the co-writer for the "Night Watch" films.... According to IMDb, there's about three different screenwriters involved with writing "Wanted", bit of a "committee approach" has been made to this I reckon... but seeing as it supposed to be Mark Millar with Derek Haas and Chris Morgan - you don't know if much of Mark Millar still remains (if hes just on there because it was his thing) with further uncredited work from random people like Bekmambetov... and Edward Norton :lol:
June 25, 200817 yr Fukkin amazing I tell you :heart: James McAvoy is clearly the next best thing in Hollywood.
June 26, 200817 yr You wouldnt believe James McAvoy used to be in Shameless would you? :o No you wouldn't, but he's always been a fantastic actor.
June 29, 200817 yr James McAvoy gives a very good performance in this film, never less than convincing.... Which just shows how good an actor he is, i mean, to have the ability to be convincing in a film which is frankly just preposterous sh!te..... This film rips off "The Matrix" in so many ways that I find it hard to know where to begin.... And, yes, I know that "The Matrix" has its extreme, OTT action sequences, difference is, this film is set in our world, whereas "The Matrix" was set in a computer-generated "alternate" world where stuff like laws of gravity and physics wouldn't necessarily apply, Bekmambetov's "Night Watch" films have a simliar incredibly exaggerated view of the world populated by supernatural beings, so again, its not the "natural order" in any way. All these guys can do it curve bullets, erm, okay, no explanations AT ALL, even something as trite as "Jumper" had a go at an explanation.... I could probably buy "Wanted" in its Graphic Novel format over this film as well, comic books have their own logic, I've never read Mark Millar's comics, but I got the feeling that something just went so drastically wrong with the translation from comic book to screen.... Even though I've never read them, I can still see why fans of the comics are pretty pissed about this film.... Like "The Matrix", "Wanted" wants to have a philosophy (stuff to do with fate, being guided by the hand of fate. Stuff to do with 'sheep' and 'wolves'...), unlike "The Matrix" it never goes below shallow surface details (the comic, I imagine, probably delves a LOT deeper into the themes...) and it never convinces or makes us want to believe in it.... Or even suspends our disbelief... The pompous, ponderous tone of the film wants us to take this stuff about "fate" seriously, but, frankly, I just cant (the "loom of fate"???? :lol: . Even more silly than the "chalk of destiny"...), there's no depth there.... Morgan Freeman just looks so BORED by the enterprise, he could've phoned-in his performance, usually I really rate him, and he IS one of the most impressive actors out there, but he just aint even bothering to try in this one (mind you, why should he..? His part is chronically under-written...)... And for all Angelina Jolie does in the film, well, I reckon she could've been replaced by a Playboy Bunny or a blow-up sex doll, and it would've made no bloody difference, Fox sure as hell aint no Trinity.... So, you have one genuinely good performance, and some nice stylistic flourishes from Timur Bekmambetov, who is clearly just doing it for the money anyway.... It aint enough to elevate the film over "straight-to-DVD" territory, which is where most of these Matrix cash-ins ended up anyway...... I give it 5/10... Without McAvoy, it would've been a 3.....
June 30, 200817 yr James McAvoy gives a very good performance in this film, never less than convincing.... Which just shows how good an actor he is, i mean, to have the ability to be convincing in a film which is frankly just preposterous sh!te..... This film rips off "The Matrix" in so many ways that I find it hard to know where to begin.... And, yes, I know that "The Matrix" has its extreme, OTT action sequences, difference is, this film is set in our world, whereas "The Matrix" was set in a computer-generated "alternate" world where stuff like laws of gravity and physics wouldn't necessarily apply, Bekmambetov's "Night Watch" films have a simliar incredibly exaggerated view of the world populated by supernatural beings, so again, its not the "natural order" in any way. All these guys can do it curve bullets, erm, okay, no explanations AT ALL, even something as trite as "Jumper" had a go at an explanation.... I could probably buy "Wanted" in its Graphic Novel format over this film as well, comic books have their own logic, I've never read Mark Millar's comics, but I got the feeling that something just went so drastically wrong with the translation from comic book to screen.... Even though I've never read them, I can still see why fans of the comics are pretty pissed about this film.... Like "The Matrix", "Wanted" wants to have a philosophy (stuff to do with fate, being guided by the hand of fate. Stuff to do with 'sheep' and 'wolves'...), unlike "The Matrix" it never goes below shallow surface details (the comic, I imagine, probably delves a LOT deeper into the themes...) and it never convinces or makes us want to believe in it.... Or even suspends our disbelief... The pompous, ponderous tone of the film wants us to take this stuff about "fate" seriously, but, frankly, I just cant (the "loom of fate"???? :lol: . Even more silly than the "chalk of destiny"...), there's no depth there.... Morgan Freeman just looks so BORED by the enterprise, he could've phoned-in his performance, usually I really rate him, and he IS one of the most impressive actors out there, but he just aint even bothering to try in this one (mind you, why should he..? His part is chronically under-written...)... And for all Angelina Jolie does in the film, well, I reckon she could've been replaced by a Playboy Bunny or a blow-up sex doll, and it would've made no bloody difference, Fox sure as hell aint no Trinity.... So, you have one genuinely good performance, and some nice stylistic flourishes from Timur Bekmambetov, who is clearly just doing it for the money anyway.... It aint enough to elevate the film over "straight-to-DVD" territory, which is where most of these Matrix cash-ins ended up anyway...... I give it 5/10... Without McAvoy, it would've been a 3..... Tbh i havent got much that i can say about the film - wished i had gone to see Teeth instead on my own (but outvoted by bros - they liked it) - but to me was all a bit meh and tbh think i prefered Jumper better - with wanted (esp with it being an 18) you think something very very ultra mad is gonna happen and all hell is gonna break loose - but never really explodes off the screen - the Lada scene is not in the same league as the Bourne Volga taxi chase http://www.allsiberia.com/novosibirsk/Graphics/car.jpg - and after that quick diversion - ends up being very silly with all the exploding mice at the end...a bit of an anti-climax tbh...with a so-was that it vibe? felt more like an expensive pilot for a tv show and actually might work better late night on E4 than on the big screen http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/Irony_vhs.jpg i also noticed Timur Bekmambetov has got one of the bigest blockbuster in the CIS/Russia doing his sequal/remake to the 1975 screwball comedy the Irony of Fate film (v popular film shown ever xmas in russia) - i wonder if there any cars in that will drive up walls and over the sides of busses (so not the only Kazakhstani driving people up the wall :lol:)- maybe he needs to get attached to a remake of the cannonball run or taxi 2....:lol: (or a remake of Ratrace where all the contestants are Mystery Men) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Borat.jpg "Jagshemash!" And for all Angelina Jolie does in the film, well, I reckon she could've been replaced by a Playboy Bunny or a blow-up sex doll, and it would've made no bloody difference, Fox sure as hell aint no Trinity.... maybe if it does well enough on dvd sales they could get Pamela Anderson will 'replace' her for any straight to DVD sequel - well thats if she's not being kidnapped from the Virgin Megastore at the time - or on the other hand Agyness Deyn as she's everywhere else at the moment :lol: but as for Jolie - yeah she doesnt completely unlesh her inner-tigress-ness as in Wanted - not up to her very crazysexycool best like in Girl, Interrupted
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