Wanted

A timid office worker (James McAvoy) is recruited by two strangers (Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie) into an elite corps of assassins to avenge the murder of the father he never knew; Dad was one of them, it seems, and has passed his talents on to his unsuspecting son. The script by Michael Brandt, Derek Haas and Chris Morgan (from Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ comic books) blithely violates physics and common sense, and Timur Bekmambetov’s rowdy, blood-spattered direction isn’t for sissies. Still, it’s fun for quite a while, getting by on audacity and raw energy—until a midway plot twist goes off the deep end and becomes downright silly. Besides, under all that swagger and shiny weaponry beats the heart of a pimply nerd still pouting about being dissed by the cool kids at lunchtime, and it’s not pretty.