Wanted

I can't even begin to explain how excited I was for Wanted. I wasn't excited for Angelina Jolie's butt, (yes, it's there, in all it's glory), and I wasn't excited for James McAvoy. What I was excited about was my hope that the director, Timur Bekmambetov, would have made an awesome film for the American audience, and finally get to show a larger crowd what he's capable of. Nerdy, I know, but I am an undying fan of Bekmambetov's two Russian films, Nightwatch and Daywatch. Those movies were special effects feasts, creating amazing scenes and stories with an Eastern European craziness that I had never seen the likes of before, including even subtitles that were animated to coincide with the action on screen. When I heard that he would be directing his first American film, I was stoked, to say the least. This news came about the same time I read that one of my favorite Japanse directors, Ryuhei Kitamura, would be directing the film adaptation of Clive Barker's Midnight Meat Train, and needless to say, that was a day I almost exploded with happiness. For all of Hollywood's missteps, one thing I will never get enough of is bringing foreign directors over to the U.S. and giving them a Hollywood budget.

Wanted lives up to the hype, blasting its way through so many awesome special effects sequences that my mind is still having trouble wrapping itself around what it just saw. The story is very well-written, with twists and turns and double-crosses, leaving me wanting more when the credits rolled. My only issue was with McAvoy, who was such a whiner for a lot of the film that I wanted to grab him by the head and shake him. I suppose that's just how his character was supposed to be, but still...a bit much. The biggest treat for me was definitely the appearance of Konstantin Khabensky, the lead Russian actor from Nightwatch and Daywatch. I LOVE this guy. When he came onscreen, I had to restrain myself from jumping up and clapping, as I would have definitely earned myself a one-way ticket to Nerdsville. He's a great actor, and I only hope I get to see more of him in the future...hopefully in Bekmambetov's third film in the watch series...Twilight Watch, due in 2009!


And here's the trailers for Nightwatch and Daywatch, just because I love those movies so damn much.