Wanted (2008)

Curving a bullet is not a personality, and nobody told Wanted. Timur Bekmambetov throws physics out a train window every few minutes, and for a while that’s a blast. Cars flip over other cars. Bullets bump into each other midair. James McAvoy goes from panic attacks in a cubicle to screaming at his boss, and he’s fun to watch the whole way. Angelina Jolie mostly stares, drives fast and looks unbothered, which is the assignment, and she aces it. Morgan Freeman reads his lines like he’s narrating a nature documentary about assassins. Then the movie explains its big secret: a society of hitmen takes its orders from a weaving machine. It asks you to nod along with a totally straight face. It’s grim and smug when it should be goofy. Critics gave it 71% on Rotten Tomatoes, which feels generous. A 5.4 because the stunts are nuts but the story is literally woven nonsense. $727 says you try to curve a paper ball into the office trash can and bonk a coworker instead.

What works: The stunts are gleefully ridiculous, James McAvoy sells the nervous office guy turned killer, and Angelina Jolie is pure cool.

What doesn’t: The loom mythology is silly in a way the movie never admits, and the tone is too mean and smug to stay fun the whole way.

Who it’s for: Action fans who loved the bullet time era and don’t need their physics, or their plots, to make sense.