Jolie at her peak..?

Rating: 8/10 (13 January 2014)

There is an old saw in the movie review biz that, if a stranger asks you to retell the plot of a film, and you become uncomfortable or excessively self-aware in the process, chances are it wasn't that much of a plot to start with. Which pretty much sums up WANTED, based on a "graphic novel" (ie, "comic" to anyone over the age of 7) about a bunch of weavers (not a misprint) who, centuries ago, decided to become assassins when one of their looms starting telling them who deserved killing. (Which might possibly be seen as a cockeyed tribute to Son of Sam, who allegedly took his marching orders from a German Shepherd, except that, in terms of this bizarre backstory, Sam is the more recent historical figure...?) As directed with manic persistence by Russian wonderkind Timur Bekmambetov, however, the movie is less about plot than it is about action. And there is indeed action, lots and lots, until the very last half hour or so. At which point most theatergoers will be more interested in what's for dinner that night than in how WANTED ultimately resolves its many dangling, and equally uninteresting, plot threads. The street "buzz" in Tinseltown is that Angelina Jolie is much more of a drawing card for the testosterone set than than any other face in this opus. There is much truth to this, but with a serious caveat. The film that established Jolie as an action hero was her "Lara Croft" gig in 2001. It is now 7 years later and, in spite of lips that merit their own zip code, Jolie is simply not getting any younger. In fact, this Oscar-winner does not so much "act" in this film as "haunt" it, always just on the edge of the shot, somehow always surveying the action rather than participating. She seems to be at the odd stage of her career where she is paid, very handsomely mind-you, simply to do an impersonation of her younger self — a task she does (arguably) better than anyone else on the planet.