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Wanted | 2008 | R | - 7.8.9
Based on a comic book character: A man (James McAvoy) seeks revenge against the murderer of his father, who is himself an assassin, and his father's partner (Morgan Freeman) arranges for him to train with a brotherhood of assassins, under the eye of his assistant (Angelina Jolie). Frightened and overwhelmed at first, he agrees to participate in assassination assignments. Also with David O'Hara, Terrence Stamp, Common, Konstantin Khabensky and Marc Warren. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov. [1:52]
SEX/NUDITY 7 - A man and a young woman have sex on a kitchen countertop: she is wearing a skirt, no shirt and a bra that reveals cleavage, the woman's bare thighs and the man's bare buttocks and thighs are shown, we hear a lot of groaning and screaming from both, and see much thrusting along with the woman spanking the man as he thrusts; the woman has sex on the same countertop with another man and we see bare thighs of both and her bra and cleavage, and we hear groans from both and screams from her.
► A nude woman steps out of a soaking tank and walks away from the camera showing intricate tattoos from her shoulders down the length of her body to the knees and across the lower portion of her bare back and buttocks. A woman wears a dress that is slit on the side up to the waist, and several scenes show a woman in a tight T-shirt that reveals cleavage. A man is shown in several scenes sitting in an herbal bath nude from the waist up. A man is pictured just out of the shower, nude from the waist up, fastening the belt on his jeans.
► In an apartment scene, a woman kisses a man twice, for a prolonged period of time.
► A woman wearing a knee-length dress that is slit up the side to the waist hangs out of a speeding car (please see Violence/Gore for more details) and at one point her knees and thighs are nearly around the head and face of the male driver.
► A man and a woman are briefly shown in bed, clothed and arguing. A man in an office looks at three different women from the back and states that they are "hot."
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VIOLENCE/GORE 8 - The film depicts dozens of scenes with several individuals shooting automatic weapons at one another, with several deaths that show small red holes between the eyes or at the heart level of the chest; the scenes show the bullets entering the bodies in slow motion and several drops of blood spurting out from the wound or a large blob of bright red blood flowing out of the mouth, and additional wounds occur to arms and one foot, through a shoe.
► A man draws two guns and runs down a hall, through a glass window, and across a rooftop, firing at men holding guns: 5 or 6 are killed and one man is shot in the back of the head and dies (we see all the men, lying face down in pools of bright red blood).
► Two assassination scenes show a bullet emerging from the foreheads of the victims with drops of blood flowing out, and then the bullet goes back through the head, out the back of the skull, and is pictured flying back into the gun.
► An 8-year-old girl is held captive (we see a man running a knife blade down her back as she looks out a window) and when her father arrives, the man beats him up, duct tapes his and his daughter's mouths, ties the father to a chair, holds a BBQ lighter above his head, and we see the wild eyes of the little girl and we see flames reflected on her face as her father burns to death; we hear no sounds as a female voice describes what is happening in a voiceover and the scene ends as the voice states that the intruder branded her with a hot clothes hanger on the neck (we later see a scar).
► Several knife fights with foot-long blades occur between a young man and an older man: in several close-up shots we see the young man's jacket slashed and cuts on his arms, and knives are thrown past his head and stick into the wall behind him -- in one of these scenes the young man is stabbed cleanly through one hand and then in the abdomen (we see a little blood) and one such scene takes place in a darkened slaughter house amid hog carcasses that hang from meat hooks, with exposed bones and holes around the edges that look like they were made from gunshots.
► A gunshot sounds, a woman slams into a chair and we see small spots of blood on the wall behind her, but no wound. A gunfight involving four men occurs in an abandoned floor of a garage: one man is shot in the arm (we see a little blood) and one man is shot and killed (we see him fall to the floor and bleed from the mouth).
► Several scenes depict interrogation training sessions with a man and his trainer, who repeatedly punches him in the face after tying him into a chair (his face becomes covered in blood).
► A man is berated in a loud voice by a female supervisor at work: In one scene, the woman's face swells up like a beach ball, the man sweats as his face turns red and he grimaces, fumbles for medication as we hear a fast heartbeat (please see Substance Use for more details), takes a pill, sits back, and fans himself; in another such scene, the man's face turns red, he stands up, curses, tells the woman to shut up and picks up his computer keyboard and bashes a man's head with it (pieces scatter and the victim falls, with blood slowly flowing out of this mouth).
► A woman is shown giving a man CPR (there's a lot of blood on the victim's face and her own); the victim revives but dies and further CPR is useless.
► A man draws two guns and runs through a factory shooting several people; a knife wielding man sticks his blade down the barrel of one of the guns, and the man fires it into his chest, following it up with a stomping boot kick to drive it through the back, where we see a lot of blood. Several people are shot in the temple and we see the bullets passing through their heads and blood flows out from the wounds. Two men shoot at each other and one man dies from his wounds.
► A man knocks another man who is tied to a chair to the floor; the man in the chair unties his bindings, gets up and breaks the chair over the other man's back. A man stands up out of a bath, fully clothed, pulls down his sweater arm to reveal blood on his bicep, and reaches into the patch of blood to pulls out a bullet.
► A series of night scenes on a train show a man and a woman jump and ride train tops: The woman lies down to pass through a tunnel while the man jumps up to an overpass, two scenes show the couple together on the train roof with the man pointing his gun toward a window, and he fires and we see his target struck in the chest by the bullet (we see the bullet enter the heart area of the chest and splatter some blood outward from a small red hole).
► A number of car chases show many near-crashes and crashes with few people hurt: we hear police sirens, crashing metal, gunshots, explosions, screeching tires, shrieking brakes, and grinding engines, and we see smoke and a few flames. During a chase, a car jumps over a police barricade of cars, followed by a truck that hits two other cars first and deflects them. A car zigzags in and out of traffic quickly, the driver shoots out her own windshield, pushes it aside and climbs onto the hood after giving the passenger the wheel; she hangs off the hood, firing two guns at people in other cars and leans around the fender to avoid being struck by a bus in the next lane, and another bus flips and crashes on its side while several cars run into one. A car catches up to a limo, flips over and the driver shoots and kills a man in the limo through his open sunroof. A man driving a garbage truck speeds toward a man standing in a parking lot, a car speeds toward him from the other direction, spins sideways, and scoops him up in the passenger compartment while the truck turns away at the last second.
► A series of scenes involve handgun target practice in a slaughter house where four men and a woman practice curving their shots around a hanging butchered hog.
► A foot chase scene is taken onto a train where a man draws a gun, passengers scream, he chases another man through several cars, fires a bullet around a terrified woman, and more bullets are fired; then a car speeds into the train, becomes wedged in the side of the train and is dragged through a tunnel (there are lots of sparks), and the train derails and falls into a river.
► Thousands of rats booby trapped with explosives skitter into a textile mill and explode amid men who are trying to shoot them; a lot of smoke billows out of the windows and doors and some flames flare in one room -- we see several men lying down, some with small amounts of blood around their noses and mouths.
► A man is accosted by a woman in a convenience store, she pulls a large handgun from a bag and drags him to the floor by one arm, as she fires at another armed man across the store; gunfire ensues, no one is hurt, but glass shatters and food and sundries fly off shelves amid loud gunshots and people screaming.
► In three scenes, two men shoot at each other and the bullets split each other in mid-air. A man is threatened that if he does not shoot the wings off a fly, he will be shot in the back of the head, the man hesitates, picks up a gun and fires many times to a point off screen (we then see three wingless flies). Two men draw guns on each other, a woman appears, pulls another gun and all three drop their weapons.
► A man practices catching the fast moving shuttle out of an electric loom in several scenes, each time cutting his knuckles on the machinery; we see overly bright red blood splashed over the back of one hand each time.
► A man is told that his father was still alive, but died in a train. A man says that he killed his father. A man tells a man that a rogue assassin murdered his father. A man asks why assassins murder people and is told, "You kill one and maybe save a thousand." The film's opening scenes are made up of text describing a secret society of weavers that are actually assassins. An older man tells a younger man that he has superpowers caused by an increased pulse rate.
► A man experiences several nightmares where everyone around him moves in slow motion and he always wakes up with a gasp.
► An unkempt man in a dirty sleeveless shirt and showing underarm and chest hair bites his fingernails and spits them onto the floor.
LANGUAGE 9 - 44 F-words, 1 obscene hand gesture, 21 scatological references, 25 anatomical terms, 13 mild obscenities, 3 religious profanities, 6 religious exclamations, name-calling.
SUBSTANCE USE - A man is given a shot of vodka. A man smokes a large cigar. A man says he has anxiety that requires medication, we see a vial beside his bed and later he is seen taking a pill; in another scene, he takes out the vial when he becomes nervous but a man takes it and throws it away. One man tells another: "You seem all pepped up. You OK?" -- the man had just stopped taking anxiety medication and we hear a fast heartbeat.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Murder and assassination, guns and knives, risk taking, superpowers, healing potions, revenge, brainwashing, justice, secret societies, mysticism and prophecy, reality vs. fantasy, relationships.
MESSAGE - Take control of your own life by determining what the facts are and by taking a stand.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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