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Created Jul 03, 2008 12:07AM PST • Edited Jul 03, 2020 06:04PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Action porn, a near constant tickle, and charismatic movie star performances make Wanted a new benchmark in bravura movie making. Casually amoral, this nihilistic flik would make Nietzsche blush. In short, Wanted is one hell of a guilty pleasure.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Angelina Jolie’s entrance comes well into the movie. Suddenly her magnificent head fills the screen next to the decidedly pedestrian-looking James McAvoy. Instantly, the movie’s glamour and cool quotients spike upward. The woman deserves her $20 million paydays. She’s the most desirable human on the planet and an action hero of the first rank, a femme fatale for the ages.

   McAvoy ably – and comically – plays a schmo who becomes a superior being, an übermensch who is more than a little tempted to play god.

   Morgan Freeman, who hasn’t had a role this meaty in a long time, lends gravitas to the proceedings. Add in the great Terrence Stamp, and this is a first rate cast.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

   Angelina the Great.

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    The narrative exists mostly to link the extremely over-the-top chases and gun battles, and to provide comic relief. Hence action porn.

    This mostly works, especially when McAvoy’s comic transition is underway. Over time it drags a bit, as the willing suspension of disbelief becomes a burden to maintain.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

    Wanted makes Timur Bekmambetov an A-list director. The guy is an action wizard.

12. Play Very Good 3.5

    The humor outweighs the hokiness, especially because the dialogue rarely outstays its welcome before the next action sequence hits.

    The office scenes are like a crazed Office Space, or Dilbert on steroids, and are bound to tickle anyone who ever sat in a cube.

    On a serious note, why are the Fraternity of assassins weavers? I’m thinking because masons have been done to death.

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0

    A complete rush. Just when you thought you’ve seen it all – from Indy outrunning the boulder to Neo sidestepping a bullet – along comes Wanted to reset the benchmark of cinematic action.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 2.8

    Lots of the ultra, and a couple glimpses of the slap and tickle.

17. Sex Erotic 2.6

18. Violence Brutal 3.1

    Comik violence, but lots of it.

19. Rudeness Profane 2.6

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.3

    I counted 60 stuntmen, a dozen special effects techs, and 100 visual fx techs. That kind of FX horsepower buys you high multiples on all three reality scales.

22. Circumstantial Supernatural 4.0

23. Biological Surreal 3.0

24. Physical Surreal 3.0