Search - Wanted [Widescreen] [DVS Enhanced] [Special Edition] [Includes Digital Copy] on DVD

Wanted [Widescreen] [DVS Enhanced] [Special Edition] [Includes Digital Copy]

Actor(s): James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann
Director(s): Timur Bekmambetov
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Movie Details

MPAA Rating: R
Content Advisory: Graphic Violence, Profanity, Sexual Situations
Movie Release: 2008
DVD Release: 12/02/2008
Format: DVD - Color,Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
Edition: Includes Digital Copy
Audio Tracks: English, French, Spanish
Subtitles: French, Spanish
SwapaDVD Credits: 2
Number of Discs: 2
Run Time: 1 hrs 50 mins
Studio: Universal Studios
Members Wishing: 9
Genres: Action, Action Thriller, Fantasy Adventure
See Also: Wanted [Widescreen] [DVS Enhanced], Wanted [DVS Enhanced], Wanted [Widescreen] [DVS Enhanced] [Collector's Edition] [Includes Digital Copy] [With Postcards], Wanted [Widescreen] [Blu-ray], Wanted [Widescreen] [Collector's Edition] [With Postcards], Wanted [Special Edition] [With Keychain] [Circuit City Exclusive]

DVD Synopsis

Night Watch director Timur Bekmambetov helms his first English-language feature film with this big-screen adaptation of Mark Millar's action-packed graphic novel. Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is a cube-dwelling hypochondriac whose uneventful life has become a mundane blur of terminal boredom. Repeatedly humiliated by his boss and constantly cuckolded by his cheating girlfriend, weakling Wes seems to be living right down to everyone's expectations that he would never amount to anything in life. However, upon discovering that the father he never knew has been brutally murdered, the spineless, clock-punching pushover is recruited into a secret society of assassins known as the Fraternity. During the course of his training, the man who was once an office-bound wimp develops lightning-fast reflexes and superhuman dexterity courtesy of his skilled mentor Fox (Angelina Jolie). Upon completing his training, Wes is assigned the task of dealing out death to the mythological Fates, who possess the ability to alter the lifelines of mortal men. It isn't long before the nebbish nerd-turned-agile assassin is erasing the bad guys with surprising efficiency, yet as Wes begins to carry the mantle passed down to him by his father, he gradually begins to suspect that his wise tutors are not the crime-fighting enforcers they present themselves to be. Now, with everything he ever wanted in life finally within his grasp, Wes is about to find out that the only thing more difficult than ending the lives of others is summoning the courage to take control of his own. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Actors

James McAvoy - Wes Gibson
Morgan Freeman - Sloan
Angelina Jolie - Fox
Terence Stamp - Pekwar
Thomas Kretschmann - Cross
Common - The Gunsmith

Member Movie Reviews

Kristina G. (familiagarduno) from COLUMBUS, OH wrote on 3/22/2009...

0 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

A great movie for what it is, but not spectacular. Glad we didn't pay to see it in the theaters, but happy to have seen it. Especially some of the better parts :)

Vanessa V. (sevenspiders) wrote on 12/15/2008...

2 of 3 member(s) found this review helpful.

At the risk of sounding like a nerd, I have to say that Wanted's biggest failure is its deviation from the original comic. The movie's cleverest and most exciting parts are those drawn from the comic; where corporate drone Wesley is plucked from his life of apathetic misery and whipped, or rather pounded, into shape as an elite assassin. As an assassin Wesley joins the ranks of the secret Fraternity, and the movie takes a drastic and ill-advised turn.

The comic-book Fraternity is an organization of supervillains who murder, rape and pillage the world with total impunity. The movie Fraternity is a sort of DaVinci-Code guild that takes their orders from a magical loom? I can understand the screenwriters desire to make the characters somewhat redeemable, instead of leaving them as an organized band of droogs a-la A Clockwork Orange. But seriously, a magical loom?

There's some moderately impressive CGI, but nothing stunning enough to distract from the film's stupidity. Angelina Jolie tries to mellow her bad-assness with a hint of traumatic childhood, but comes across as implausible as the rest of the plot. Morgan Freeman sounds good but has absolutely no conviction. James McAvoy actually does a remarkable job as Wesley, accurately capturing the insecurity and rage. But nothing in the acting elevates the film above its inanity.

The source material is nihilistic, dark and morally ambiguous. But at least its original. Wanted the movie tries to clean up that moral ambiguity into a more mainstream superhero movie. How ironic, in the process of making the story more palatable, they made it nauseatingly bland.