Product Description

Based upon Mark Millar's explosive graphic novel series and helmed by stunning visualist director Timur Bekmambetov - creator of the most successful Russian film franchise in history, the Night Watch series - Wanted tells the tale of one apathetic nobody's transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice.

25-year-old Wes (James McAvoy) was the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chewed him out hourly, his girlfriend ignored him routinely and his life plodded on interminably. Everyone was certain this disengaged slacker would amount to nothing. There was little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock punching rut.

Until he met a woman named Fox (Angelina Jolie).

After his estranged father is murdered, the deadly sexy Fox recruits Wes into the Fraternity, a secret society that trains Wes to avenge his dad's death by unlocking his dormant powers. As she teaches him how to develop lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility, Wes discovers this team lives by an ancient, unbreakable code: carry out the death orders given by fate itself.

With wickedly brilliant tutors - including the Fraternity's enigmatic leader, Sloan (Morgan Freeman) - Wes grows to enjoy all the strength he ever wanted. But, slowly, he begins to realize there is more to his dangerous associates than meets the eye. And as he wavers between newfound heroism and vengeance, Wes will come to learn what no one could ever teach him: he alone controls his destiny.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #803 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-10-20
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
As the impresario behind gravity-defying Russian blockbuster Night Watch, it's inevitable that Hollywood would come calling for Timur Bekmambetov. With a studio budget and an international cast, including two Oscar winners, Timur cooks up a Hong Kong-styled actioner bursting with fast cars and big guns. Our unlikely hero is mild-mannered Chicago accountant Wesley Gibson (Atonement's James McAvoy), whose father died when he was a tot. Wesley never learned to stand up for himself, and his girlfriend, boss, and best buddy all take advantage until the seductive Fox (Angelina Jolie) rescues him from a sharpshooter named Cross (The Pianist’s Thomas Kretschmann). After which, she whisks him away to a mansion on the edge of town to meet the other members of the Fraternity, where leader Sloan (Morgan Freeman) informs Wesley that Cross, a rogue agent, executed his father. Sloan believes Wesley has the goods to take him out, so he undergoes the Fraternity's brutal training regimen (Marc Warren and Common dish up some of the abuse). When he's ready, Sloan sends him out to fulfill his duty, but matters become complicated when Wesley finds out someone isn't telling the truth, leading our former milquetoast to exact an elaborate revenge. For those who've been following McAvoy's career to date, Wanted will surely come as a surprise. In adapting Mark Millar's comic series, Timur offers buckets of blood and a smidgen of depth, but fans of The Matrix and Mr. and Mrs. Smith will want to give this one a look. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

DVD Description

Includes limited edition comic book with exclusive website access code.

Synopsis
Loosely based on the comic book miniseries of the same by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, WANTED, directed by Timur Bekmambetov, follows anxiety-prone office drone Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) as he is inducted into the Fraternity, a clan of powerful killers that counted his father as a member. Pursued by rogue agent Cross (Thomas Kretschmann), Wesley is trained by the sleek, sexy Fox (Angelina Jolie) and the charismatic Sloan (Morgan Freeman), among others, to be just as proficient and deadly as his father. Once Wesley becomes a master assassin, he must confront Cross, and contend with the stunning ramifications of that encounter.
Straying rather far from the WANTED comic's supervillain-centric premise, WANTED runs with the edgy Eastern European aesthetic of Russian helmer Bekmambetov, who garnered international recognition with the stylish vampire epic NIGHT WATCH. While Jolie is a gleefully destructive presence in her action-heavy scenes, the film belongs to McAvoy, who transforms from milquetoast to manhunter with verve and charm. And like the similarly themed THE MATRIX before it, WANTED also showcases some eye-catching special effects, most notably in the loopy concept of 'curving bullets'. Though devotees of the WANTED comic may be dismayed with the many liberties taken with the story, the movie is undeniably energetic and entertaining, making it fun summer blockbuster fare.

Customer Reviews

ridiculous, but very enjoyable!
first of all, i think wanted is one of those films that's going to be a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. the plot is ludicrous, but it's so much fun to watch that as long as you don't take any of it seriously, you should have a lot of fun with it.
performances are spot on. james mcavoy in particular who i've become a huge fan of in recent years, and i think he's become one of our finest young actors is terrific, although you wouldn't neccesarily picture him as an action hero, he does a terrific job. angelina jolie is excellent, one of her best roles in a long while, and morgan freeman, who let's face it, is incapable of giving a bad performance ever, no matter what he's in is very sinister as the head of the group of assasins.
plot as i said is ludicrous, and although it is visually stunning it does seem to rip off the matrix movies, and the russian director's own nightwatch and daywatch movies. in short, it's big, loud, dumb, and very enjoyable and one of the best pure action movies in years.

3.5--This movie is far fetched & little bizarre but that's the beauty of it!
I thought this film was mindless, campy, and reeks of fun. "Wanted" maybe filled with plot holes as big as Jupiter but at least they made it up in the area of visual style served with a side action. You've probably met a person like Wesley Gibson (McAvoy) who is a nobody trapped in a boring world. Whose girlfriend cheats on him, his best friend is a backstabber, and he has a boss that won't get off his back. No...maybe...Well later in the film an assassin named Fox (Jolie) tries to initiate him into the Fraternity, his life is changed forever. He learns that his father was one of the best assassins in the world, and he must no walk in his footsteps. He leaves his nothing life and joins the Fraternity. He must undergo a grueling initiation, and then hunt down the man that killed his father.

`Wanted' has decent character development along with a good plot. It is structured well, with Wesley not being able to turn back after Act 1, and a great setup for the climax after Act 2. There is even symbolism in the movie with a draw bridge coming apart. It symbolized the end of Wesley's old life. There are many obstacles put in Wesley's path of killing Cross. The screenwriter made sure that becoming a Fraternity member wasn't an easy challenge. There is a great twist in the middle of the movie, which made the movie way better. The ending is very entertaining. It starts off with a big bang that was planted since the beginning of Wesley's life with the Fraternity. One problem was that the action was either overdone or illogical in parts. In one scene, Wesley hits a man with a keyboard, and letters fly off spelling a phrase I'm not aloud to repeat.

`Wanted' has a very good director and I had seen his previous films but a mild fan of them. It was a smart choice to pick a foreign director to get a new perspective on things in regards to the lighting and the settings. For example, Wesley's apartment being next to a train is a good setting because it bleak and it shows how sad his life is and foreshadows later events. The office is a good place to show how average his life is and the textile mill seems true to what the Fraternity is about. The acting is good and expected by others such as Morgan Freeman who is always a good actor, although I would like to see him in a different role time to time. James McAvoy played a great lead, reminiscent Edward Norton in Fight Club. We have Angelina, who has less line than the boss, so that makes me consider she was placed there for her fame and beauty. Even though she was the weakest of the group she was still believable and had worse material to work with. The minor actors, like Wesley's best friend did a good job as well.

Aside from that it instantly forgettable stuff but if you're looking for something noisy and totally undemanding then this would fit that bill.

Wanted dead or alive
This mind-bending action movie based on a comic mini-series comes out of the blocks firing on all cylinders and never really lets up until the end. James McAvoy stars as office loser and all-round wimp Wesley Gibson, whose world explodes when he meets sexy assassin Angelina Jolie and discovers that his recently murdered father who abandoned him at birth was an international assassin and member of vigilante organization `The Fraternity'.

McAvoy is similarly likeable as he was playing a naive doctor in The Last King of Scotland, however this time it is he who is on the receiving end of a cheating girlfriend, sadistic boss and manipulative friendships, and this time he goes from zero to hero after a gruelling and frankly gratuitous training regime, involving regular beatings and knife fights with The Fraternity's various members.
McAvoy's pairing with the statuesque and dominant Jolie is an intriguing one, whilst Morgan Freeman's Sloan, head of The Fraternity, adds much needed gravitas and style to the movie. Terence Stamp and Marc Warren also help keep the British end up, and it is these excellent performances that really help this action movie rise above the ordinary.

With lashings of slo-mo violence in the style of John Woo and director Timur Bekmambetov's previous films, (cameras following the trajectory of bullets et al), and a frenetic and frankly insane medley of action sequences, the film is pretty brainless but ultimately thoroughly entertaining.