What have you done lately?

Rating: 6/10 (28 June 2008)

Greetings again from the darkness. Combine "Sin City" and the "Bourne" series, toss in some humor and add a significant amount of violence and action and you get director Timur Bekmambetov's film version of Mark Millar's comic book.
Suspension of belief is a requirement for enjoying this movie, but if you can do that, it is actually a good bit of fun. James McAvoy in his first action hero role, while Angelina Jolie is utilized to perfection. By that I mean, she smirks a lot and prowls around like a panther flashing that very unique face and body of hers. Think of her in "Gone in 60 Seconds" and "Mr and Mrs Smith" ... not a lot of dialogue, but plenty of fast action. McAvoy proves to be a good mix of ultimate slacker in the beginning and transformed assassin by the mid point.
The basis of the story is actually very creative. McAvoy is the lone offspring of the world's deadliest assassin, but he is stuck in a office cubicle being bullied by his fat, female boss at work and humiliated by his not-impressed girlfriend at home. The rest of the film features him trying to find out who he really is. Well, actually he spends the rest of the film learning to unleash the assassin buried inside! The action scenes are stellar and push the envelope. The opening sequence featuring David O'Hare ("The Departed") is one of the coolest scenes you will find. Also impressive is the longest train wreck ever presented on film. Lending a hand in all of this is Morgan Freeman as the leader of the Fraternity, rapper Common as an assassin, Terence Stamp in a brief, but crucial role, and the under-appreciated Thomas Kretschmann ("King Kong", "U-571") as the rogue assassin everyone is out to kill. All of this is capped off with an excellent Danny Elfman score and some Nine Inch Nails headbanging.