You Should be Watching; Mad Men Pilot

AMC has posted the pilot to Mad Men online, and I'm beginning to feel guilty that I haven't been watching the show from the start.

You can watch the first half of the episode here, or just skip to the whole thing on AMC's Website.

Quantum of Solace Trailer

The new James Bond, Quantum of Solace trailer was released today. Badasssss.

Movie Review: Wanted

Directed by Timur Bekmambetov

Starring: James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman

Russian director Timur Bekmambetov makes his American debut with the latest graphic novel-turned motion picture with Wanted. Contrary to the comic (which seems to be a glaring mistake, if one knew what the comic was like), the film's protagonist Wesley Gibson - played by McAvoy - is presented as the son of a great hero assassin, yet in the comic he's the son of a villainous anti-hero. The film starts (after a ridiculous action scene) off with Gibson detailing a funny, off-pitch narration of his own life, tauting all his spites and anxieties off to the audience about his dead-end, average American life. The film may try to pull in the audience by making Gibson one of them, but even then, at the film's most realistic point, it seems somewhat fabricated. His life changes for the odd-enough better when Angelina Jolie enters and the entire film shifts to a high-end, over the top ridiculously enjoyable action movie.

It's odd, but there has been another tiny niche discovered in the Hollywood market; super-action, not to take seriously, shoot em ups. One could argue that it all started with the Matrix, but those movies all seemed to take themselves very seriously. No, Wanted falls more into the category of movies like Equilibrium, Shoot 'Em Up, and (one could say) even Robert Rodriguez' Planet Terror - those being films where the audience cannot help but appreciate how ridiculous and unbelievable that these movies appear to be. In another term, they are the hybrid blend of target audience action movies. The fatal flaw of these movies, however is when a massive audience is brought in, and people of different tastes cannot appreciate the genre.

As for Wanted's case, the audience was much larger than mentioned than with the previous films, and that large demographic will have it's heavy detractors in line. Those who know the genre well, however, can pick apart Wanted's unoriginal appeal - the film feels very much borrowed from the aforementioned films, especially Equilibrium - and feel dissatisfied. But for Wanted's sake, the film does not need to be brought up to normal standards; Wanted works well enough as an action movie that you can ignore the bullshit.

Score: 7.6 out of 10