Wanted (2008)

"Wanted" is a ludicrous film and its plot might fall apart like melted butter on a second viewing, but this action hit is firing on so many cylinders, I didn't care.

James McAvoy is Wesley Gibson, an office drone with a heinous job and an offensively fat, cruel boss. He also has a whining girlfriend at home who's banging his best friend/co-worker. Wesley pops a dozen or more anxiety pills a day just to keep from losing his sanity. On Wesley's routine visit to the pharmacy, the mysterious Fox (Angelina Jolie) comes up to him at the counter, tells the man his long-absent father is dead, and that the killer -- the best assassin alive -- is lurking right around the corner. Guns explode, cars shed tires and gravity, and the game is on.

Wesley learns he is part of The Fraternity, a mysterious, ancient group of assassins who bring order to chaos throughout the world on the will of a mysterious weaving device. (Am I using the word mysterious too much? I warned you about the logic here.) Wesley, after a grueling training process, learns his main mission is to kill the man who killed his father. Morgan Freeman co-stars as Sloan, the Fraternity's leader.

Director Timor Bekmambetov ("Daywatch") creates a fascinating world that doesn't exist, but it should -- cars knock down and then drive over a bus, and bullets can be fired through insurmountable objects across the entire city of Chicago before finding their target. Oh, and the trajectory of bullets can be bent at will. (So that's how Oswald killed JFK! Finally!!) In one bravo action sequence, Wesley squares off against his enemy on a high-speed European train, which Jolie smashes into with her car. I laughed at the design of the stunt, the mind-bending action and myself for so thoroughly enjoying this nonsense.

The film doesn't have the grand scope and sheer brilliance of "The Matrix," but like "Face/Off" or "True Lies," "Wanted" proves that even the zaniest action film can wow your senses and make you not notice, or even care, if the juggler on stage drops a ball or two. B+