Author: Darren Goodhart

In the year 2012, the United States economy has collapsed and the crime rate is now at an all time high. Prison populations are growing and now large corporations have assumed the running of these prisons and have decided to use them for televised gladiatorial combat as an opiate for the masses, and yet the people want more, and they get it with the formation of the Death Race. The Death Race on Terminal Island prison is dominated by the masked personality Frankenstein, a public favorite, who’s just looked like he’s met his end. Meanwhile, factory worker and former race driver, Jensen Ames has just been laid off, and framed for the murder of his wife (leaving his baby daughter without really knowing her parents), and sent to Terminal where he’s forced to become the new Frankenstein…

And that’s the basic premise of Death Race a re-imagining of the Roger Corman/Paul Bartel classic sci-fi/cheesefest/satire of the 70s, this time coming from director Paul W.S. Anderson, himself no stranger to genre movies.

Anderson gives us something that lacks in the satire of the original (though it has it’s moments) but makes up for it in it’s high-octane action. Let’s make no mistake here, this ain’t high art and neither does it aspire to be, it’s simply adrenaline charged fun first and foremost with dosages of liberalism thrown in. It’s very much a B-movie, though in a different vein than the original.

Anderson’s film has a great look to it and a lot of cool action, especially around the race itself. It is rated R and it’s reflected in it’s violence and language mostly though it never goes quite as far as it could or should (Nick Marshall’s Doomsday from earlier in the year is a better example of going further with this sort of thing).

My other issue is in it’s liberal simplification of some things- in the opening lines of set-up, they say something like “Large Corporation” where they could’ve just as well as said “Evil Large Corporation” considering the tone of the film, and they play with the idea of “love conquering all” as somewhat of an absolute, especially when talking about the idea of what sort of father a man like Jensen Ames could be when presented with the possibility of finding his daughter (and it has one of the great movie cliches in it- with Jensen and his pre-murdered wife still so in love that he’s ready to just throw her up on the kitchen counter and have his way with her).

These moments weren’t deal-breakers by any means, I mean this is still a fun time, but it might’ve been elevated further had it not taken such a simplified approach.

Anderson’s got some good talent at work here- the always solid-as-a-rock Jason Statham taking on the Jensen Ames/Frankenstein role, Ian McShane as Coach, the lead in Ames driving crew, Tyrese Gibson taking on the part of Machine Gun Joe, and Joan Allen doing a great job of scenery chewing as Warden Hennessey. All concerned here know exactly what kind of movie they’re making and they deliver the goods appropriately. And for the fans of the original, you’ve even got David Carradine as the voice of the first Frankenstein seen in this film.

All in all, it’s solid fun and a good diversion more than anything else. This probably won’t change anyone’s mind in how they want to view the original film as really this one and that one are two entirely different things, just with a couple of things in common. The original movie is without a doubt one of the classics in B-movie/drive-in/grindhouse entertainment and a lot of fun in it’s own right (though really, if we were to apply today’s brand of criticism to it, well it would fail on all counts as a movie and probably be just as derided as something like Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales) and this new version, it’s own beast, is it’s own brand of fun. I enjoyed it my own self, though I can’t necessarily say if others in today’s less forgiving audience would…

In the midst of Episodes 2 and 3 of the Star Wars films and shown even further in Genndy Tartavoksy’s animated Clone Wars shorts from The Cartoon Network, there’s a period that allows for even further stories within the Clone Wars milieu itself, and that period is where the new CGI animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes place. In this theatrical release of the first five episodes, on Tatooine, Jabba The Hut’s son has been kidnapped as the Jedi Knights and the Republic are negotiating the use of trade routes owned by The Hut. Now the Jedi charge Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi with the task of finding Jabba’s son, while Anakin also has under his tutelage a new Padawan, a young 14-year old girl name Ahsoka Tano.

And right off the bat, I thought it was a lot of fun as well…

For myself, I like this look that it has, sort of a cross between Genndy Tartakovsy and Gerry Anderson, I think it has it’s own personality. The Star Wars franchise is strong enough that it can handle many different looks if need be, at least to me anyway.

The film is mostly wall-to-wall action, and there’s a lot of cool set pieces in the film, my own personal favorite being a fight handled vertically on a cliffside up to the local where Jabba’s son is being held captive.

And I like the interplay between both Anakin and his new brash Padawan, Ahsoka- almost seeming to me like she’s given to him as more of a test of his own skills more than anything else (and sort of almost setting a precedent of something that’s to come in the upcoming video game The Force Unleashed.

For the presentation of a side story apart from the six live action films, I think this style works and really wouldn’t mind seeing it done further, perhaps a side story involving the adventures of Luke, Han and Leia set between episodes 4 and 5 or even a prequel of sorts to episode 4, showing the early days of Han Solo could be pretty cool.

I figure if you’ve got the intense and irrational hate for the prequel films, you’ll probably have the same for Star Wars: The Clone Wars though honestly, and I’ve been on the record with this, I don’t get it, but then I’ve never looked at these as “religion” either. I’ve seen complaints going the way of this being a pointless exercise simply because we already know what’s going to happen with Anakin in Episode 6, and that’s just ridiculous- I mean why not see other stories with these characters that don’t necessarily involve the major things that happen in the live action films (one friend to me equated that idea with the notion that we shouldn’t see any more movies set in historical times, say World War II, then simply because we already know how that ends- I see it as why then read adventures of continuing comic characters if each one of those stories don’t represent a major life change for them.

I’ve seen complaints of the new character Ahsoka and how her brashness just turns them off, when again, I just don’t get it, as I even think Qui-Gon Jinn makes some reference of the same with Obi-Wan pre-The Phantom Menace and further, like I said above, this seems to me more a test of Anakin’s skills more than building a Jedi out of Ahsoka.

I’ve seen complaints about the animation and the look that just don’t make any sense, not really allowing for a different artistic interpretation that this series certainly can stand, but you listen to the complainers, and this look seems like it’s a complete slap in the face to them.

As it is with the prequel trilogy, there’s counters to every con argument for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I saw this with two other friends, one who’s pretty much of my same temperament with the series and another who’s a little more into the whole thing, and we call came out of it having a really good time and ready for more. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a good side story to the main films and just a whole lot of fun…

Police detective Ben Carson is on suspension due to the accidental shooting of another police officer. Ben is separated from his wife and children and now he’s starting to feel the strain of all of his pressures. In order to help keep himself going, he takes on the job of a night watchmen over the burned remains of a former posh New York department store, the Mayflower. While performing his duties there, strange things start to occur that Ben sees in the mirrors that affect things on the outside… and from there hijinks ensue…

Mirrors is the latest film from French director Alexandre Aja who really impressed me with his French film High Tension and did a great job with the remake of The Hills Have Eyes. So with Aja helming this, I had some pretty high hopes with Mirrors being a fairly intense little film. Unfortunately, such is not the case, and I just have to wonder, what the hell happened?

Well, after seeing this, I found out that it was a remake of a Korean horror movie, and that explains a lot there, as I’m not really that impressed with a lot of the Asian horror films, but still one might think that someone as talented as Aja might bring something more to the table, but unfortunately he doesn’t, instead he delivers a film that follows the beats and with a couple of exceptions doesn’t really bring a whole lot of creepiness to this.

On top of that, the origins of this mystery are just as convoluted as can be, going in directions that are just constant left turns that seem to want to give the illusion of complexity but instead just feels like an overall mess (I sort of equate this to what Joel Schumacher did with The Number 23). As I was watching this, and considering what happens later in the film, I was put in the mind of an older movie like Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm which didn’t strive to put a heavy explanation on everything that was happening but more letting the audience come to conclusions of their own and thus making it far more creepy. It’s just a shame that we really don’t see that sort of thing any more.

Keifer Sutherland plays Ben Carson, and I like Keifer, I’ve been a 24 fan from the start, but here he’s just wrong for the part, and primarily because there just isn’t anything here that’s really that different from Jack Bauer. You’ll see Ben’s reactions to things here and it’s almost identical to something that Jack would do and so it doesn’t really work out to well in making Ben any sort of distinctive character. This probably could’ve worked better if you would’ve had someone like a Jim Caviezel in the part.

And on top of that, this is just needlessly longer than what it should be, and a lot of that is due to it’s convoluted plot. Oh it has a pretty cool ending, but by the time you get there, you just don’t really give a damn. Mirrors certainly isn’t the worst movie I’ve seen of the year by any means, but it doesn’t really do a whole hell of a lot to make itself stand out either and considering how talented director Alexandre Aja has been with his other films, that’s just a big shame. Hopefully he can get back on track with his next movie…

Rick and Evie O’Connell are living out a life of leisure thanks to their huge successes in the past and are just bored stiff by it. Their son, Alex, has been participating in an archaeological dig in China that has successfully unearthed the mythical Emperor Han, who is believed to have been the greatest in China’s history, ruthless to a degree and having developed powers that give him mastery over the elements. Now through a series of events, Rick and Evie find themselves In China with their son, as the Chinese military is getting ready to revive the Emperor so he can lead them and make China the power it should be.

And that’s the simplified premise of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, the third film in Universal’s Mummy series, and the first of these not directed by Stephen Sommers, but veteran action film director Rob Cohen. Now I like the first two movies as some cheesy pulpy B-movie fun, and at least in my eyes, the third film continues this and I at least had a pretty good time with it. It’s heavy duty fantasy that’s designed as pure breezy entertainment and not meant to be life-defining by any means, just a fun way to pass some time.

Cohen’s always had a pretty breezy style to his work, and this is evident here. I’m no student of history, but I’m sure this plays pretty fast and loose with everything, and really it just didn’t matter a whole lot, it’s just another adventure re-visiting the characters of the previous films but in a new, yet familiar milieu. I admit, though the trailer looked cool, my expectations were low going into this, and I went with it’s cheese and had a pretty good time.

From the previous films, Brendan Fraser is back as Rick O’Connell and John Hannah is back as Evie’s brother John. New to this are Maria Bello taking the place of Rachel Weisz as O’Connell’s wife Evie, Luke Ford as their son, Alex, and Michelle Yeoh and Isabella Leong as an immortal mother-daughter team dedicated to making sure Han never rises again, and Jet Li as the Emperor Han himself. Now a lot of people are really upset and making a big deal out of the fact that Rachel Weisz isn’t back for this film, and really just get over yourselves, this stuff happens and if the filmmakers want to keep the same character in a movie, then re-casting has to happen- I think Bello does a good enough job here, and excels at least with selling the action (as does Brendan Fraser).

My only complaint is that it plays with it’s time period a little fast and loose and Fraser and Bello are just so vibrant looking themselves, that it’s a little hard to believe that they have a college aged son and I might’ve done something that aged them a little more… but really that wasn’t anything that lessened my enjoyment.

It’s designed as a breezy action film and it has some contrivances in it’s story, but nothing that seemed to me out of place in it’s fantasy set-up. I had a good time, but looking over IMDB, I’m a minority in that, but then when I go to a movie in the first place, I’m not looking to take it apart right from the start either. I enjoyed it and basically I think that if you think the opposite of most of my reviews, then just stay away, especially if you’re going to be upset by the fact that one of the main characters have been re-cast or that there’s no actual horror in the film (of course neither of the first two have any actual horror in them either).

After six years, former FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are brought out of hiding to aid the FBI in a case involving a missing agent. Because of their involvement with the paranormal, their expertise is needed especially seeing that the FBI is using the talents of a psychic in their search. The psychic though is a former catholic priest who’s also a convicted pedophile and his name is Father Joe. There’s something with this guy though, that catches Mulder and commits him to the case. And so while dealing with their own personal issues, Mulder and Scully get involved in something that’s far more than what it appears on it’s surface.

That’s the basic premise of The X Files: I Want To Believe from writer/director and X Files creator Chris Carter, bringing his television creation back to life with it’s second feature film. For a summer filled with some big, explosive stories, The X Files is a little different, offering up an introspective and understated thriller that feels like the old show to some extent.

I thought it was pretty good my own self, though not at all in the same league as other movies that I’ve seen this year, but still fun to see these characters back and with a pretty gruesome crime attached to it. This isn’t anything connected to the series core mythology, other than continuing the relationship that Mulder and Scully had (and I must admit, buy the end of the show’s run, I’d not been paying attention that closely as I just wasn’t as interested any more as I was during it’s prime period- this was one show that went on for maybe two seasons more than it should’ve).

The case itself is pretty interesting, as is the character of Father Joe, but where the film stumbles is in the ping-ponging of the Mulder-Scully relationship, sometimes putting them on the same page and other times acting like they hadn’t had all their familiarity. Now this didn’t really bother me that much as I sorta thought this was part and parcel of the relationship, but then, like I said above, I’d lost some interest by the time the show ended as well, so I might not be the best judge of that.

Of course, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are back (as is a surprise character late in the film) and joining them for this film are Amanda Peet (as the FBI agent who calls them back into service), Billy Connelly as Father Joe, and Battlestar Galactica’s Callum Keith Rennie as one of the suspects, and the cast does a pretty nice job here- there’s really nothing that felt out of place. I give really good marks to both Peet and Connelly, they really got themselves into this well.

Carter certainly seems on the mark as well for this considerably quiet movie. Like I said, it’s quite understated in this summer of gigantic comic book action, so understated that it might seem a disappointment to those expecting something a bigger, but I thought it was a cool change of pace and I certainly enjoyed it. Duchovny is already on the record for wanting to do more films, and I wouldn’t mind seeing them make a few more as well…

If you don’t mind having something smaller in your summer movie repertoire, and your an X Files fan, you might have a pretty good time with this. I wouldn’t exactly urge you to get right out there right now and see it, but if you want to kill some time at the theatre, this isn’t bad, but if the size of our audience was any indication (under 20 people for a 10 P.M. show), more are probably waiting for the DVD release, and I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing either…

It’s been about a year since The Batman made his debut in Gotham City and in that time, crime has gone down and imitators to Batman have sprung up, much to Batman’s own consternation. Organized crime has had it though, and realizes that they need to turn to a new method to combat against this mysterious vigilante and so they turn to a new type of a criminal, a madman who’s been making himself known called The Joker. In the Gotham City heirarchy, another new figure is making himself known, new District Attorney Harvey Dent, also inspired by The Batman to take a tough stance on crime, vowing to clean-up the city. And now, all of these forces converge…

A very simplified take on what The Dark Knight is about to be sure, but to go further would just be wrong, as this movie, is as multi-layered as it gets, and I’d hate to spoil that for anyone. It’s complex, but not hard to follow, and long, but expertly paced so it never feels long. Technically proficient in the extremes, incredibly well acted and edited, this is one comic book movie that transcends the term “comic book movie” and could stand well with films like The Departed, Zodiac, Training Day or Heat. And so far, it gets my pick as the best movie that I’ve seen this year…

Christopher Nolan is again at the helm as he was for Batman Begins and Nolan’s dictate for these movies has been to keep it as real as he can and that’s just not confined to effects work, but character motivations and story and story flow. And what he does here, oh man, what he does here is buck every trend that most other comic book movies have and creates something that stands above all the rest.

Nolan’s set pieces in this are worthy of guys like Scorcese or DePalma and he’s willing to intercut various actions at once within them, really giving this a lot of subtext. He has high opera type of scenes, but they just don’t feel the same as they might in another comic book movie, and by that, sets a new standard that these movies should follow, a maturity that raises them above just being “another comic book movie” and something that can stand with the very best of “legitimate” drama and action films.

And yet, it’s all so true to just what Batman is in the comics… it’s about as perfect a combination as it gets.

As he did with Batman Begins, Nolan has assembled the best possible acting talent for this film, Christian Bale reprises his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman, and Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman are all back as well. Joining the cast this time though are the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent and taking over the part of Rachel Dawes is Maggie Gyllenhaal, who (and this is a moot point) is probably the weakest part of this group (I think Katie Holmes actually had just a little more intensity to this). You’ve even got guys like Eric Roberts, Michael Jai White and Tiny Lister in some pretty cool parts in the film. Highest marks go to Ledger though, and really all of the hype around his performance is entirely justified, he’s just an incredible joy to watch here. I’ve also got to give Aaron Eckhart extremely high marks. But really, this cast behaves more as an ensemble than anything else, everybody gets their moment and they all work really well together.

I just cannot heap enough praise on this film and so far, it seems like it just might be the biggest crowd-pleaser of the year as well, and that’s rare for a movie like this, intelligent to the extremes and yet delivering the type of big action that you expect from a summer “blockbuster.”

So do not miss this one, it delivers the goods and look magnificent on the big screen. Hell, I’m hoping to get a chance to see it again within the next few weeks. It’s just that good. As I said above, for me, so far, the best movie of the year and obviously, highly, highly recommended…

Thanks to the perception of an ancient truce being broken between the world of man and the creatures of myth, the prince of the Elves, Nuada, wants to wage war against humankind with an army of unstoppable warriors. Now it’s in the hands of Hellboy and B.P.R.D. to stop Nuada and save the world, while dealing with their own issues of the heart.

And that’s the simplified premise to Hellboy II: The Golden Army the sequel to Hellboy based around Mike Mignola’s popular comic book character. It’s been awhile since I’ve read any of Hellboy’s stories (I’m waiting for Mignola to come back and do it all again(, but I did watch the first movie again right before seeing this one. And in comparison to the first, I think this one is simply OK on a theatrical viewing, but bound to improve on future viewings at home (which is how the first one works for me as well, though I was way more enthusiastic about that one on the first theatrical viewing).

Guillermo Del Toro is back at the helm for this and while he’s still certainly up to speed with what he does visually and with the action of the piece, there’s a couple of key character pieces that have been changed and not at least on my first viewing for the better of the film. The first being the character of Tom Manning (played by Jeffrey Tambor), who at least in the first film was a pretty strong-willed character and here is made much more of a buffoon. The second is that Abe Sapien (played and this time also voiced by Doug Jones) is just a little more gawky this time around than the first, some of which can be explained by something that happens to Abe in the space of the film, but still even at the start, Abe doesn’t quite seem the same this time around.

There’s also a few moments that just seem there for pure audience pandering for the quick laugh (in particular Hellboy and Abe Sapien singing while being drunk and lamenting their love lives) that induce a little bit of a cringe here and there… I get why Del Toro would make the choice to do these things, but I don’t necessarily think the movie needs these moments in order to get their point across.

On the plus side though, I thought that the new character introduced here, the new head of the B.P.R.D., the ectoplasmic Johann Kraus was pretty cool and wonderfully voiced by Seth MacFarlane.

Ron Perlman as Hellboy is just solid as a rock though, and totally at home with this character. Selma Blair as Elizabeth Sherman is just sort of “OK” this time around, not really arousing much of anything here, but fulfilling the part. but I also give high marks to Luke Goss as Prince Nuada, who does a great job of this driven prince who feels wronged by the world of man.

Most of my problem though is just with a few choices made by Del Toro (as mentioned above) and as I said, these are things that will probably play better on later viewings at home more than on the big screen. So in the end, I enjoyed it, but it has it’s problems, so you’re own mileage might vary- It’s amazing though, no less than four comic book-based films in theatres right now, and next week it’ll be five of them and so far Hellboy II: The Golden Army is the weakest of those, but still worthy of viewing on other merits.

Scientist Trevor Anderson is continuing studies from his missing brother Maxwell about mysteries pertaining to geologic conditions within the Earth. When Anderson’s sister-in-law, drops off his nephew Sean to stay with him, she also leaves with him some of Maxwell’s things, among those things, a copy of Jules Verne’s Journey to The Center Of The Earth and within that book, notes that say that Verne was onto something here, something true. So Trevor and Sean take a trip to Iceland to pursue this further, and with their Icelandic guide begin their own trip into the Earth.

That’s the opening premise of the film, and there are some nice ideas in the film, but it still needs a little fire in the belly. There’s hints at immediate threat here, but because of a bigger desire to make this more family friendly in all ways (and there’s nothing wrong with that per se), the threats aren’t as all played up as they could be. The film could’ve used something that would’ve been a little more sinister, maybe a fourth player in the film, just a little something extra to add some needed conflict.

It’s not horrible by any means, and the 3D aspect is without a doubt the reason to see it, if that’s your desire, though the 3D here isn’t say as good as it is in something like Beowulf it’s still not bad either, but they just don’t stretch the potential as far as they could. Like I say, this isn’t bad, but I could’ve done with this being a little more theme-park amped up, and that could’ve really helped more with the lack of conflict.

Brendan Frasier plays Anderson and he’s really rock steady here, absolutely solid as hell, and it’s just a shame that there wasn’t another actor that could’ve countered him more. The other two actors who play Sean and their guide Hannah, do a fine enough job, but there’s nothing that’s really making them stand out either, though I do have to give credit that the kid playing Sean could’ve been really played as more obnoxious as anything else and thankfully, the kid ain’t that…

But as others have said in other reviews, the reason to see this is for the 3D, and while it’s good (and for a live action film, probably better than anything else has been out there), it’s not as good as it has been in other computer generated efforts. The way I see it, if you’re interested enough to see this in 3D, it’s not a horrible time-waster by any means, but at the same time, if you miss it, you’re not missing too much either…

On the other hand though, if I was a little kid, I could see this thing being the coolest thing I’d ever seen…

In the world shown in this movie, there’s one man who stands differently amongst other men, he has super-powers, his name is John Hancock and he’s an asshole (and I’m going to use the term here, as it’s used repeatedly in the movie). Oh, Hancock gets out there and helps everyone else, but he does it with little regard to the safety of others and the damage costs. And when he’s not doing that, he’s usually getting drunk. Enter in Ray Embrey, a Public Relations man with aspirations for changing the world into a better place (wha??). Embrey’s life is saved by Hancock early in the story, and in return, Embrey wants to help him out, put him back as popular in the public eye, and after a little soul-searching, Hancock agrees to this…

And that’s the opening premise to Hancock, the newest movie from one of my favorite directors out there these days, Peter Berg who’s made such great movies in the past like The Rundown, Friday Night Lights and last year’s The Kingdom. And it just goes to show you that even your favorites can stumble from time to time, and Hancock is one huge stumble, so much of a stumble that I’d put this slightly ahead of Get Smart as one of the worst that I’ve seen this year.

The thing is, there are some good ideas here, but the mix of these ideas doesn’t work because none of them are ever given much of a chance to really follow through to any sort of logical conclusion, and what you get is a schizophrenic piece. One moment, this goes from wa-wah sit-com comedy and then it becomes as dark as can be, and it never feels natural, it feels like a bunch of big name talents getting together to make a summer blockbuster, and to hell with anything even remotely resembling logic…

… and that doesn’t even begin to cover the “twist” that the film has about 2/3 of the way through, which totally feels like it’s been pulled out of a scriptwriter’s ass. This twist, which has ties to Hancock’s origin, feels utterly contrived, like there was no natural way to end it, and that combined with it’s schizo nature just had me wondering why the hell this was done in the first place.

Some might see this as a deconstruction piece for the current wave of comic book superhero movies, and there’s really nothing wrong with doing that, this just doesn’t do it right. Hancock is an incredibly powerful person who pretty much does what he wants and to hell with the damage that follows in it’s wake, to the public at large though, the guy’s an asshole not the type of menace that he should be treated as. Then, with having Will Smith as the lead, well, it has to carry some sort of likability factor as well, so Hancock is an asshole, but he’s just a funny and misunderstood asshole… in the real world of course (they go to great lengths to include CNN commentator Nancy Grace calling for an outcry against this guy- which is probably one of the more logical pieces in the film).

Smith’s backed up with Jason Bateman as Ray Embrey and Charlize Theron as Ray’s wife, and someone who’s even more important to the “twist” later, and really, along with Smith, this just felt like you were seeing three big name actors on the screen without too much consideration to actually inhabiting a part. The biggest fault in casting though, is probably with Will Smith himself. Now I really like Smith (I thought he was absolutely terrific in I Am Legend), but the way things are done here, there’s just some fundamental realities that are just totally ignored, primarily with Hancock’s origins and the fact that Smith is a black man, but playing with that in the midst of this would’ve added too much meat to the idea, and obvious that Peter Berg didn’t even want to deal with something like that.

There’s just so much squandered potential here, and it’s squandered at the expense of creating some dumb-ass sight gags and wise-ass lines rather than giving you something that you could truly sink your teeth into. Peter Berg’s style is ill-suited to the kind of big comedy that they think they’re presenting here (sorry, again like with Get Smart I didn’t laugh once, but we had one guy in our very small audience who thought it was funnier than hell, so there you go). There’s some good ideas, that if fleshed out properly would be perfectly suited to Berg’s style, but no one takes the time or has the inclination to flesh that stuff out so what you have in the end is an all over the map piece with a final act that’s meant to resolve everything that ultimately feels like no one had a real clue how to logically end this.

But again, checking over at the IMDB, it looks like I’m a minority in this, but not to the same extent as say with Get Smart, so who knows, you may very well like it, but personally I didn’t, and further, it’s right up there with Jumper, 10,000 B.C., The Happening, The Love Guru and Get Smart as one of the worst movies that I’ve seen all year…

For over a thousand years, an extraordinary order of assassins called The Fraternity have existed to “balance the scales” and keep the world adjusted by the decree of Fate. With superhuman abilities, these assassins can do things that normal men can’t, and in their way, they’re protecting the world. In the present day, a young man by the name of Wesley Gibson believes himself to just barely register amongst others, think low of himself, he’s in a state of just not caring about his station in life… but all of that is about to change…

I’m keeping this one real vague, because to say any more would just lead me to say even more and really you should just discover this one for yourself. The movie I’m talking about is Wanted and adaptation of the comic mini-series from Mark Millar and J.G. Jones directed by Russian director Timur Timur Bekmambetov, who’s best known for directing the genre films Night Watch and Day Watch. And it’s just a hell of a lot of fun… and in my mind, the movie that Jumper should’ve been.

I sort of see this movie as like a comic book equivalent of Fight Club in some way, and I think if you see it, it’ll make sense. I’ve not read the comic, though I know there’s a point of major deviation from the book, but I don’t really know if it matters here, or at least it didn’t to me. But what I got was an imaginative and very fun ride, and something just a little different from the rest of the comic book movies out there.

Timur Bekmambetov certainly demonstrated with his other movies that’s he’s a strong visualist, and he continues to do so here, but this, at least to me, goes a step further and even evokes the artwork of J.G. Jones through each frame, with some shots in particular just looking like they could’ve been covers drawn by Jones.

There’s already been lots of comparisons to The Matrix in terms of both it’s structure and action scenes, and I suppose they’re going to happen, but this manages to go just a little further over-the-top, especially with it’s characters, and Bekmambetov certainly has a fine assortment of actors at work here.

James McAvoy plays Wesley Gibson, and he looked to me like he’s just been waiting to do a movie like this, he really looked like he was totally into this in a big way. He’s backed up by Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann, Common and Hustle’s Marc Warren and they all do a great jobs, and of course Jolie just looks magnificent. I don’t really want to say too much though about the parts each of them play though, as again, I just think this needs to be seen for all to be discovered.

I’ve got to say though, I had one hell of a good time with this movie, it delivered quite the thrill-ride and had it’s own nihilistic slant that I think is a lot more relatable (at least to me) than what something like Jumper had. And it’s even inspired me to seek out the trade paperback of the original comic series, which I don’t think is a bad thing at all… obviously, highly recommended….