Wanted
Directed by Timur BekmambetovA young man finds out his long lost father is an assassin. When his father is murdered, the son is recruited into his father's old organization and trained by a man named Sloan to follow in his dad's footsteps.
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Wanted Ratings & Reviews
- ርልዪረJanuary 27, 2025Many action movies, comic books and geek-appeal TV shows are fantasies of empowerment. Protagonists from Luke Skywalker through Peter Parker and Harry Potter are mistaken for dullards by everyone in their lives. They are whisked out of their ruts by magical mentors, who induct them into secret universes where they inherit a legacy of heroism (along with an arch-enemy or two), can take their pick of the cool toys (mostly fast vehicles and big weapons) and get to marry (or at least cop-off with) the princess or prince of their choice. Wanted fits that template treading a tricky path between `with great power comes great responsibility' and `absolute power corrupts absolutely'. Here, a whiny loser gets access to sports cars, guns that shoot round corners and a tattooed Angelina Jolie, and takes his place in a battle between good and evil without necessarily caring about the body count. Our hero, Wesley (James McAvoy), endures arduous training which brings out his latent near-superhuman abilities, and executes his first missions. The director, Timur Bekmambetov, obviously has a lot of fun with a sizable budget, we get fights, chases, crashes, murders and assaults involving flipped-over sports cars, speeding trains, skyscrapers, and a castle. Bekmambetov understands pacing and escalation, scenes build in intensity, and each sequence is filled with inventive gags or gimmicks, like the broken letters that spell out a to the point resignation message when Wesley breaks his keyboard on the face of the best friend who is sleeping with his girlfriend. A great thing about Wanted is it doesn't seem interested in trying to appeal to the masses by getting a 12A certificate, so it can deliver the gruesome payoffs to its fights. McAvoy, boyish charming and occasionally scary, carries off a tricky role, growing the hero's character to match his bullet-curving and knife-fighting skills, and proves he can hold his own on the big screen. A slender Angelina Jolie is insidiously attractive as the world's greatest (and, apparently, most limber) hit lady: I have never seen her more charismatic on screen - or bent into such odd positions. In a time where even the good action films have been predictable, Wanted offers more than enough twists, turns and surprises to fool viewers who think they know what's going to happen. Wanted is fun, funny and packed with more action than you can shake an AK-47 at. Recommended.
- SlosenhousenNovember 21, 2024Amazing movie!!
- GBWestNovember 25, 2025It's a lot. So my first impressions are that Wanted is an action packed, high octane...and it is. There are some cool looking stunts that are too perfect to be real, and a classic training montage in the middle. It is fun to see young, almost a baby, Chris Pratt as "best friend" Barry missing a tooth and saying his catch phrase to the film, "he's the man." Angelina Jolie is in prime shape in this era of her films and I liked how her tattoos lined up with the art work on her gun the first time you see her. I think that you, like the main character that is played by James McAvoy, you get drawn into the action and don't see the story until he does. That leads me to the biggest point for me in any tale being told, story. When I talk with people about a movie I've seen, I talk about the story. This films story is as shallow as it deepest character, played by Angelina Jolie, and her character doesn't get that deep. Jolie, in the end plays the quintessential good guy to McAvoy 's anti-hero main character. It's no big reveal when the other hero of the film reveals who he is. The veteran actors of this film carry the best performances, and let's face it, to back seat all the best performances should be a crime.
- Ian FiloOctober 23, 2025One of my all time favorites. That scene where he walks out of his job and does work with that keyboard oh man that’s cinema.
- StreetterOctober 19, 2025What a unique story. Loved it
- mickerdooJuly 15, 2025An inventive assassin movie. Exciting action and surprising twists. McAvoy plays wimp and tough guy well. Jolie is sizzling. Plus Freeman.
- John ShadelSeptember 1, 2025One of the best movies ever.
- DjpAugust 18, 2025Good action film 😊
- shmericshmorterAugust 6, 2025I mean it's a movie
- RhythmAugust 2, 2025It really gets your energy going and is so over the top, but in a good way
- DKMay 19, 2025Pretty good action movie, obviously unrealistic but that doesn't matter, its a fun ride none the less.
- ArnioxDecember 1, 2024Good action movie with some ridiculous physics
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Wanted Trivia
Wanted was released on June 25, 2008.
Wanted was directed by Timur Bekmambetov.
Wanted has a runtime of 1 hr 50 min.
Wanted was produced by Iain Smith, Jim Lemley, Jason Netter, Marc Platt.
The key characters in Wanted are Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), Fox (Angelina Jolie), Sloan (Morgan Freeman).
Wanted is rated R.
Wanted is an Action, Thriller, Crime film.
Wanted has an audience rating of 6.9 out of 10.