summer friday movies 2008: wanted
when a bullet exited someone’s skull in slow-motion within the first 5 minutes, I was a little concerned that this “ultraviolent” movie was going to be a little much for me. I don’t deal well with super-graphic cartoony violence (”Sin City” almost killed me), and I wasn’t so much looking forward to spending the next 2 hours of my life seeing exit wound after exit wound.
I needn’t have worried. While there is certainly violence, it is set in such a ridiculous premise, and discussed with such ridiculous dialogue, that the violence just seemed silly. Weavers? Really? And what’s with the meat fabrication plant upstairs? And does Morgan Freeman or Terence Stamp ever turn down work? I kept waiting for Samuel L. Jackson or Nicolas Cage to wander onscreen, because they too seem to really enjoy being in the worst movies ever. (Remember when Nic Cage was in a good movie every once in a while? Do you think he ever just stares at his Oscar and weeps?)
All in all, this movie was so bad that it went all the way round the spectrum to awesome. Any movie that combines weaving, peanut butter, and thousand-year-old secret fraternities? Gets two strenuous thumbs-ups from me.