Willing Suspension of Physics
I went to see the movie Wanted today, mainly because I am home alone and tried to pick the movie I was least likely to take my wife or kids to.
If you like non-stop action movies with computer game physics and lots of CGI close-ups of bullets drilling through people's skulls that were fired by a smoking-hot assassin babe played by Angelina Jolie who actually had to add tats rather than hide them for this role (and, really, who doesn't?), then you will probably enjoy the movie. The lost opportunity in the film was the very beginning, which sortof tried to be Office Space without being nearly as good. But there is certainly a big hint that Office Space was on the director's mind - don't miss the red stapler, though it didn't look like a classic Swingline.
As an additional note, I see from the previews that someone has done a remake of Death Race 2000, though it seems to bear about the same resemblance to the original as the Running Man did to the original Steven King / Richard Bachman book. The whole fight-against-the-dystopic-state thing seems to have been lost. By the way, can't they find any actor other than Jason Statham to portray someone who drives cars fast?
As a final shout-out to SF geeks out there, trolling around on IMDB led me, via Morgan Freeman of all people, to this page which seems to imply a Rendezvous with Rama movie is in the works.
Postscript: I will never be mistaken for a social conservative, but I did find it odd today that in a preview that was supposedly "approved for all audiences" there were numerous F-bombs dropped. Update: OK, I can't be sure that this particular preview was "all audiences." All the ones that followed were, but it may be they have grittier versions of previews they show before R-rated features.
Clarification: Sorry if it was not clear, but I actually did enjoy the movie. Sort of a guilty pleasure. Fixed Jason Statham's name, thanks to commenter.
ErikTheRed:
I went out with my wife last night and saw Wanted. Yes, there were many, many things that could have been done better - script (choke), casting, editing, Angelina Joile looking too damned skinny even for my taste - but we both thoroughly enjoyed it (7.5/10). We liked the visual style and the really dark humor. Morgan Freeman dropping a Samuel L. Jackson line was some fun cognitive dissonance. It's was just nagging us that it could have been a really great flick (on par with the first Matrix movie) with a bit more work.
Yes, I saw the trailer you're talking about for the Step Brothers movie (which looks insanely un-funny), but I did note before it started that it was a "red-band" trailer, and therefore not approved for all audiences.
Re: Death Race - looks like a thoroughly unnecessary movie, but sometimes those can be fun. And yes, I agree a bit about Jason Statham (no "r" in the last name), but think about the last actor who got typecast into driving fast in every movie (not to mention furiously as well), Paul Walker, and choose your poisons carefully my friend.... (remembering that Hollywood fears doing anything original and untested, especially in throwaway flicks like this).
June 28, 2008, 2:46 pmM. Hodak:
Since I was with my wife, I had to pass on Wanted last night and saw WALL-E instead. It was a good movie, but I'm realizing its much easier to get the engineer than the economist in me to suspend disbelief.
http://www.hodakvalue.com/blog/2008/06/walle.html
June 29, 2008, 8:31 amStreaker:
I saw 'Wanted' last night, too. I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't already read the comic books it was based on. Unfortunately, it bared no resemblance whatsoever to the comic book (which was quite good).
June 29, 2008, 12:48 pmrichard:
> [...] and tried to pick the movie I was least likely to take my wife or kids to [...]
... ynd you choose 'Wanted'?
What's wrong with you?
;-)
June 30, 2008, 11:19 am