Watch Wanted

OPRAH SIZED SPOILER WARNING!!!


Nutshell: I saw Wanted last night, and it's one of the best movies this summer.

Full explanation: It's better than Wall-E. I can very easily and confidently (rare occurance) state that as of July 14, 2008, it is the best movie this summer so far. Likely The Dark Knight is going to be better than Wanted though. However, I can accutely state that if you're going to see one movie this summer, make sure it is Wanted. Why? Because you're inevitably going to be seeing Wall-E, The Dark Knight, or Iron Man on DVD when they're released. Wanted? There's no explicit reason to see it other than word of mouth. There's no A-list hollywood diector, there's no gigantic action movie star. If anything it feels like an indie action movie, which on paper doesn't sound too good.

But oh my god is it good.

I've been a fan of the director, Timur Bekmambetov (pronounced Vod-ka), for quite some time. Quite some time as in his two movies prior. He's from Russia and over there he created the movies Night Watch and it's sequel Day Watch. Night Watch is the highest grossing movie in Russia's history, surpassing even the shit-loaded movie known as Lord of the Rings. Serving as both writer and director, Night/Day Watch are fucking fantastic movies. Non-stop crazy intense action, great characters, and a surprisingly good plot. I also highly recommend watching these movies. Make sure you watch the official subtitled versions though. Anything else and you'll highly regret it, hint hint.

So in lieu of the greatness of TB's previous movies, I had pretty high expectations for Wanted, though I was a bit scared at the same time. I mean it's great to take a great foreign director, give him gobs of money and tell him to make a Hollywood movie, so they can show their greatness to our virgin eyes. But as of late such tactics haven't panned out so well. Wong Kar Wai anybody? What about Del Toro? Both are foreign directors who really should be sticking to their native language. But alas, I think I have found the secret code to a foreign director's success in Hollywood...

DON'T WRITE THE SCRIPT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exhibit A: My Blueberry Nights by Wong Kar Wai. Kar Wai's a fantastic director and in his native Asia-land he's also a fantastic writer. So when he wrote and directed this Hollywood-flick, it should come as no surprise that all the characters are talking like immigrants.
Exhibit B: Hellboy I/II by Guillermo Del Toro. Again, another fantastic writer/director from his native Taco-land, who brought us masterpieces such as Pan's Labyrinth. However the writing in his Hollywood flicks have a tinge of awkwardness to them that leaves a sour flavor at best at the end of watching his movies.

For Wanted what did TB do? He very well could've wrote a script, but instead he took a script by people who KNEW the native-language and just directed the hell out of it. Giving us the masterpiece known as Wanted. Having seen Night/Day Watch, it's incredible how you can actually see a director *improve* upon himself given the right circumstances. All TB needed was a real budget (no Russian rubles here). It has alot of the classic stylism's he's developped within the 'Watch' franchise, and put it on steroids for a Western audience. Great script, great acting, great production design, everything about this movie is great great great. Ya, I do recall while I was watching thinking "that's dumb", but it was such a fleeting moment and immediately dispersed by the next moment of awesomeness. For other movies, a single bad moment can ruin the entire film (cough Wall-E ending cough). But Wanted starts strong and just keeps getting better so any bad moments are immdiately forgiven and forgotten. Enjoy action choreography? This single-handedly has one of the best action scenes I've ever seen, if not *THE* best.

Again, I can't praise this movie enough. After leaving the theatre it left me so incredibly energized and with an adrenaline rush that I was up all night because I couldn't sleep with so much energy pulsing through my veins. When was the last time a movie had that effect on you? What, never? Then go see Wanted. TB is inevitably going to be a household name over his next few films. Catch his early stuff in theatres while you still can.