Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I was watching The Daily Show on Monday and they had James McAvoy on. Jon Stewart told him that WANTED was a movie that should suck, but doesn’t.

I thought then and there that I couldn’t really explain it any better than that.

To start, Timur Bekmambetov’s NIGHT WATCH was hugely hyped and I found that when I got to it (yay iffy imported DVDs) that it looked great, had a good style, but I could give a shit about the story or the characters. It’s a hollow movie to me. I heard DAY WATCH was more of the same, so I haven’t gone out of my way to watch it. I’m sure I’ll see it at some point, but I’m not all that excited for it.

My immediate thoughts upon exiting the theater after WANTED was that this was NIGHT WATCH with a story. A ridiculous story, but a story nonetheless.

I’ve heard the film bears no resemblance to Mark Millar and JG Jones’ comic book. I can’t speak to that. I purposefully avoided reading it before seeing the movie knowing full well (thanks to the early buzz on it) that if I fell in love with Millar’s book then I’d be pissed when I saw the movie.

The movie is absolutely goofy, it’s fucking ridiculous, but yeah… it’s really fun and everybody really looks like they’re having a blast. I’m a big fan of James McAvoy, have been since I first saw him in a little seen dramedy RORY O’SHEA WAS HERE (although I think I might have seen BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS before, however it was RORY that made me really go, “Who’s that guy?”) and he really hits this leading action hero guy role with zest.

You know the movie from the trailer… fish out of water learns that he has inherited a special talent that allows him to be a master assassin. Take Ron Livingston from Office Space and give him the ability to shoot around corners and you have an idea of where we are.

The twists in the movie are obvious from the end of reel 1, but that doesn’t stop it from being enjoyable.

What’s great about this movie is how unapologetically R-rated it is. It’s been a long time since we saw a balls-out fun crazy R-rated huge actioneer.

You have bullets ripping through every part of the human body, some nice knife work, inventive cursing, a crazy-hot Angelina Jolie ass-shot, Morgan Freeman cursing up a storm and my favorite character in the film known as The Butcher.

A guy by the name of Dato Bakhtadze plays the role, looking like a cross between Guillermo del Toro and Mark Boone Junior (the crooked cop Bale hangs upside down in BATMAN BEGINS) decked out in a Leatherface outfit. He teaches McAvoy knife-work and constantly calls him Pussy. I don’t know why, but the way he delivers the line… whispering and taunting… cracked me the fuck up. He’d also draw out the u… “Puuuuusssay…” like Cheech in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN.

Besides how easily the plot twists can be anticipated, the only other criticism I had was with McAvoy’s voice-over work. It felt overly enthusiastic, like he was narrating a toilet paper commercial half the time.

Other than that, I was happy. It’s definitely an audience pleaser, with crazy action sequences that are easy to follow and not muddled.

Count me happy that we have a retarded fun unapologetically R-Rated big budget studio action film out again. Like Mr. Stewart put it, this movie should have sucked, but with the casting, Bekmambetov’s kinetic eye for action and the undeniable fun charm the movie exudes it doesn’t.

Maybe I’ll change my tune after reading the original graphic novel and seeing what could have been. I don’t know. But as of now I had a great time at the movies with this one.

-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com