Kathmandu:

There is no such thing as Hollywood anymore. I mean no specific place. Gone are the old studious and their backlots where you could create a Casablanca. It’s all CGI or computer generated today and is generally done in front of a blue screen so the actors and actresses have to imagine much more than ever they had to before.

In Wanted which has the young James McAvoy, who was splendid in Atonement and The Last King Of Scotland, get up there with the biggies Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Terence Stamp and be directed by the latest ‘Hollywood’ craze Timour Bekmambetov, the Russian genius who did Night Watch and Day Watch.

Malina Saval from Premiere says, “Wanted should be at the top of your list for big budget thrill rides.”

Kathleen C Fennessy says, “For those who’ve been following McAvoy’s career to date, Wanted will surely come as a surprise. In adapting Mark Millar’s comic series, Timour offers buckets of blood and a smidgen of depth, but fans of The Matrix and Mr and Mrs Smith will want to give this one a look.”

Says Pete Hammond, “Based on a graphic novel, the violent tale revolves around Wes (James McAvoy), a meek 25 year-old office worker who hates his life. His boss berates him, and he can’t even summon the balls to tell his slutty girlfriend to stop sleeping with his best buddy. But his world is suddenly rocked when Fox (Angelina Jolie) — a mysterious, tattooed woman with a gun and a red sports car — takes him on the ride of his life. She takes him straight to The Fraternity, a centuries old legendary group of hired assassins who live — and die — by their code: Kill one to save a thousand. Seems Wes’ long-lost father was a member who has just been whacked, and he is now summoned to join up and unleash the inner killer in his genes. After a rigorous training regimen in which he is almost beaten to a pulp, he emerges as the organisation’s new golden boy and finds self-esteem in his new exciting alternative lifestyle. However, the group’s enigmatic leader Sloan (Morgan Freeman) may have other plans in store for Wes that he isn’t quite sharing at the moment.

“McAvoy simply rocks as the most unexpected action star of the summer, and that includes a season so far that has given us the quirky offbeat castings of Robert Downey Jr and Edward Norton in Marvel comic book franchises. McAvoy has buffed up for the part but still looks like the average Joe, exactly why the audience has a rooting interest as he becomes a fish-out-of-water in a group of hit men (and women). You’re with him all the way. This unusual choice is exactly what sets the film apart and makes it a complete original in an over-worn genre.

“Hiring the Russian director Timur Bekmambetov for a summer action flick like this might have seemed an odd choice but anyone who’s seen his Hollywood-style homebaked hits, Night Watch and Day Watch would know this is a visual stylist with no current equal in the action genre. His English-language debut is vibrant and pulsating, alive in every way and thankfully more comprehensible story-wise than his previous work, if no less fantastic. You still have to completely suspend belief for complete enjoyment, but it’s all worth it. Bekmambetov seems incapable of staging anything in an ordinary way, taking routine set-ups and turning them into violent, bruising works-of-art.”