Todd’s Movie Blog

You know how you can tell if a summer blockbuster is really good?  When Roger Ebert goes on for paragraph after paragraph about what’s wrong with a film and yet feels compelled to give it three stars for being so well made.  Such is the case with the latest comic book adaptation to hit theaters, Wanted.  Based on the graphic novel by Mark Millar and J. G. Jones, it tells the story of Westley Gibson (James McAvoy), a man beaten down by a meaningless life filled with a dead end job, bullying boss, a cheating girlfriend who is sleeping with his best friend, and Westley can’t seem to really get too work up about any of it.  Then one day he is approached in a drug store by Fox (Angelina Jolie), who tells him he is the son of the greatest assassin in the world and then saves him from rouge assassin Cross (Thomas Kretschmann).  Taken to meet Sloan (Morgan Freeman), Wesley discovers that there is a centuries old organization of assassins called The Fraternity that have killed people to keep the world in balance.  It is Wesley’s destiny to join them and kill Cross who murdered Wesley’s father only days ago, or so it seems.

The film diverges greatly from the graphic novel, which had a similar set up except for The Fraternity, in the book all of the world’s greatest villains had won and now controlled everything.  One of their number gets bored with the complaisant life and starts killing them all, which leads to recruiting Wesley to save them.  It was full of hints about the fate of such superheroes as Batman and Superman without actually naming them and was pure superhero comic book action.  The film throws all of that out and tries to place things in a more realistic world, albeit one with people  who can shoot bullets so that they curve around corners or stop another bullet in mid flight.

But hey, what’s a summer movie with out some Matrix style F/X?   If you haven’t read the graphic novel , or can pretend you haven’t , Wanted is a  great action packed thrill ride full of shoot outs, car chases and a couple of plot twists that cause you to reassess everything you’ve just seen.  James McAvoy makes a good action hero, ably making believable Wesley’s transformation from put upon everyman to a steely eyed killer, though his Scottish accents pops up a few times.  Angelina Jolie is awesome as the drop dead gorgeous cold blooded assassin who isn’t as heartless as she appears.  And Morgan Freeman is his usual commanding and dignified self.

It may be preposterous when you think about it, but as a piece of mindless action Wanted is just the thing to chase away the blues on a lackluster day.

I was feeling nostalgic this past weekend and rented the classic Sword and Sorcery epic Conan the Barbarian (1982), the first and best of the eighties hack and slash films.  While watching I was reminded of how good a film it was, well made, and well acted.  The image of it’s star Arnold Schwarzenegger has morphed over the years into a nominal actor who makes action films where his most notable trait is an ability to snap out a designed, witty catchphrase after killing someone.  But Conan reminded me that before he became The action star of the nineties, he was a pretty good actor.  He runs the gamut of emotions here; rage, sorrow, love, lust, and a deep seated feeling of loss.  What really makes him shine in the role though are those moments when he is sitting alone and thinking.  Arnold is a good enough actor that he can actually convey that he is thinking.  Which is why after all is said and done, it is Conan and not the T-1 that will be Arnold’s most enduring film role.

Steve Carrell’s new film, Get Smart, an updating of the classic sixties spy spoof, is the best film based a on an old TV show, and is a good enough film that it can stand on it’s own as a great action comedy.  Instead of doing an over the top spy spoof like the Austin Powers films, Get Smart is a serious action film in which the hero is an inexperienced amateur thrust into the role of action hero.  At the beginning of the film Maxwell Smart (Steve Carrell) is an analyst for the super secret organization Control, who dreams of becoming an active field agent like his friend and hero Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson).  When he scores the highest grade by an applicant ever on the field agent exam, he is crushed to learn that because he is such a great analyst the Chief (Alan Arkin) can’t afford to promote him.  Fate steps in when an attack on the headquarters compromises all of the active field agents’ identities, and Max is sent on a mission to recover stolen nuclear weapons with Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), fresh from plastic surgery so that no one knows her either.

The film,  like the original show is a smooth blend of slapstick, situation comedy, and well done action sequences.  Carrell’s Smart isn’t an incompetent  idiot but a man clearly out of his element but is adapting, such as a scene where he is about to be killed by Kaos agent Shtarker (Ken Davitian), Smart tries to disarm him by suddenly throwing a phone at him only to have it fall short of the mark due to the cord length, then while they are both looking at it lying on the floor, Smart slams the table forward, smacking Shtarker in the crotch and dropping him.  Two laughs for one comedy bit.

The relationship between Smart and 99 is also hilarious, as she is exceedingly annoyed with being paired with this man.  A funny running gag is that they are posing as man and wife while undercover and spend most of their time bickering as if they really were a couple.  A nice turnaround is that in the beginning she is constantly  saving him from his bumbling attempts at espionage only to  have him save her during a climatic chase that involves a plane, an SUV and a train (this is an action sequence that plays like the best of Bond intermixed with one liners and physical comedy).

For fans of the old show there are quick references to past villains, a blink and you miss it picture of Michael Dunn as Mr. Big and a quick line of sight reference to The Craw (The Claw) in Max’ notes.  Carrell pops out all of the old catch phrases, but thankfully doesn’t try to sound like Adams when he does it.  A funny updating is when 99 explains the cyanide pill in his belt and Max asks how is he supposed to get the terrorists to take it.  When she rolls her eyes, he just shakes his head and says she has no sense of humor. Best of all is the way they work in all of the old gadgets from the show.  Due to a set of circumstances that make it look like he is a traitor, Smart has to break out of jail and rescue the President, needing clothes and equipment, he raids the Control Museum, which is also the location of their secret headquarters, and grabs Don Adams’ old suit, shoe phone, car, and even his snub nose .38.

But all of this wouldn’t work if you didn’t have a great villain to go up against and Terrence Stamp’s Sigfried is a cold cruel terrorist
and not the temper tantrum throwing villain of the old show.  When introduced he says the famous catchphrase, Shtarker this is Kaos we don’t say….., but it comes out menacing instead of humorous.  When an underling is curious about why they have to blow up a building after they empty it, he shoots the man dead, turns and asks if anyone else has any questions.  He is not a man to mess with.

If the film makes any missteps it is in the buffoonish portrayal of the President by James Caan.  With the election coming up, doing George W Bush jokes is just plain lame.  Luckily he is not in the movie too much.  Much funnier is the Dr. Strangelove inspired throw down in the War Room between the Chief and the Vice President, now that’s comedy.