ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

SCOTS ACTOR James McAvoy never seems to put a foot wrong. He keeps making all the right choices from The Last King Of Scotland to Narnia and Atonement. Now, he edges his way into the American blockbuster market with the explosive, eye-catching Wanted, and proves that he is equally adept at playing the action hero. Is there no end to his talents?

Wanted is based on the comicbook by Scot Mark Millar, and directed by the Kazakhstan-born Timur Bekmambetov, who made the Russian blockbusters Night Watch and Day Watch. It has a breathless, hyper-active urgency as it unleashes an orgy of bullets, bloodshed and death.

Even if this doesn’t sound like your kind of movie it has a certain style and humour that encourages the suspension of your disbelief.

McAvoy plays Wesley Gibson, a young accountant trapped in a dead end job with the boss from hell and a girlfriend cheating on him with his best friend. His self-esteem is virtually non-existent and he suffers from crippling panic attacks.

Everything changes when he is saved from a gunman’s bullet by the slinky Fox (Angelina Jolie). He is subsequently told that his long absent father was a member of a secret society of international assassins called The Fraternity. Rogue agent Cross (Thomas Kretschmann) killed his father and now they want Wesley as a new recruit.

A brutal training regime begins that turns Wesley from geek to killer and sets the ball rolling for a preposterous tale of international intrigue, death-defying acts and betrayal. If you enjoyed The Matrix and prefer action over logic, then this ultra-violent film is highly recommended, and the admirable McAvoy invests it with a credibility it really doesn’t deserve.

Nationwide release

Director: Timu Bekmambetov
Cast: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann, Marc Warren
Screenwriters: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, Chris Morgan based on the comicbooks of Mark Millar and J.G. Jones
Certificate: 18
Running time: 111 mins
Country: USA
Year: 2008