My Blog! My Blog!

esrblog and I just got back from seeing Wanted, the new film starring Angelina Jolie by Russian director Timur Bekmambetov.

Describing Wanted, with or without spoilers, is hard. I think Anthony Lane, who reviewed the movie for "The New Yorker" magazine, came up with the best description. He said that, judging by Wanted, Bekmambetov must make his morning coffee this way. He starts by throwing a fistful of coffee beans in the air. Then, he takes a pistol and blasts them into powder. After that, he races downstairs to the curb and wrenches open a fire hydrant, directing the resulting flood into his apartment as he does so. Finally, he sets fire to the building and, as the heated water floats through the coffee particles, catches the drops of coffee on his tongue.

Nothing like that happens in Wanted, but Lane's mythological description of Bekmambetov's coffee brewing is a great metaphor for the movie. It's every bit as much over the top as that method of making java. It also has a lot of action--car crashes, things getting smashed up and blown up. Unlike the typical summer movie, it asks some very good, hard questions about what it means to have a destiny, and the choices one has to make to take control of one's life.

There's a little more I'd like to say about the movie, but in the interest of avoiding spoilers I'll put it under an LJ-cut.

( Watch out! Flying coffee particles! )

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Jet Li. Brendan Fraser. The terracotta army, coming to life. Villains that control the five elements. Two kick-ass females with fighting skills. What's not to like? August 1 is too far away!

Righteous Kill.
I don't usually do police procedural movies, but this one not only features Al Pacino *and* Robert De Niro, it has a new twist; the cop as serial killer. Moreover, the *trailer* looked intelligent--something few movies manage even when the movie as a whole is intelligent. I'm penciling it into my movie-watching schedule.

Step Brothers.
Somebody oughta sic Angelina Jolie's character from Wanted on these guys and put us all out of their misery.