(2.5 out of 5 stars)

Wanted, starring James McAvoy, with supporting stars Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie, acts like a typical action movie with insane stunts and silly dialogue, but then infuses itself with unnecessary R-rated dialogue and gratuitousness that ruins anything the movie tries to be.

If the movie wants itself not to be taken seriously, it should have framed itself in such a way that the viewer knew they weren’t trying to be Die Hard, but instead wanted to be accepted more like Sin City or Shoot ‘Em Up. Die Hard is the type of action movie where most of the action is realistic except that John McClane should have died long ago. Sin City uses comic book effects and unusual backgrounds, colorization, and lighting, along with preposterous characters to immediately allow the viewer to know that this is about absurdity, not realism. Shoot ‘Em Up also immediately tells the audience that this is a basic action movie exploiting all that is crazy about action movies. I mean, just look at the title.

Wanted on the other hand, uses actors who appear serious. The premise has an unsuspecting McAvoy finding out he is really an untrained assassin that should be working for a secret society to avenge his father’s death. This sounds like a serious action movie. The action begins with curving bullets, crazy car flips, and impossible chase scenes, but still has the feel of Gone in 60 Seconds, True Lies, The Rock or other sorts of movies that use their action pieces as fun and entertainment to their serious story. Wanted, between action sequences uses gratuitous sex scenes, profane working professionals, and other use of off color language to amuse its audience. This movie wants so bad to be serious yet dumbs itself down with R-ratedness that is unrealistic and unnecessary.

Angelina Jolie shows her minimal acting range along with Morgan Freeman. Freeman could have had so much more fun with this role if the tone of the movie was 100% humor such as his stint in Lucky Number Slevin. McAvoy, who is definitely a good actor, should stick with dramatic roles and leave the action to others. He was best in Atonement and especially The Last King of Scotland.

What I ‘wanted’ was an action movie showing me cool stunts with a decent, serious story. What I got was a sort of action movie wanting to be the ugly stepchild to Quentin Tarrantino, never quite sure if it wanted to be serious, cool, or just utterly gratuitous. Wanted is a nice past tense word. It will be easily forgotten by summer’s end 

Similar recommended titles: Shoot ‘Em Up , True Lies, Sin City and The Matrix