Wanted

Every year, along comes a trained-killer thriller that aims to outgun the last. 2006’s Crank gave us Jason Statham on a non-stop adrenalin rush. Then we had Clive Owen offing people with carrots in Shoot ‘Em Up. 

But when it comes to crazy plotting, Wanted tops the lot.

A thousand years ago a brotherhood of textile workers called The Fraternity decided to retrain as assassins, choosing their targets according to bits of coded fabric churned out by an olde prophesy contraption, ‘The Loom of Fate’.

So begins this fantastical tale of destiny and hidden identity which revolves around one of life’s doormats, Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy).  

Harassed at work and cheated on at home, Wesley is queuing for his anxiety tablets when – bam! – up pops a gun-toting fox called, er, Fox (Angelina Jolie).  

Turns out Wesley's dad was one of the finest assassins in The Fraternity’s history. Or he was until recently having his brains blown out by rogue hitman Cross (Kretschmann).

Following his first shootout and car chase, Wesley arrives at Frat HQ to meet shadowy leader Sloan (Morgan Freemason, sorry, Freeman) who makes him shoot the wings off flies, thus proving he has his inherited his father's gift.  

To business, then. Cross must die and Wes must kill him. But first, he must endure a brutal induction/instruction regime which – speeded up by frequent healing baths - includes target practice, knifework, surfing on trains, making bullets swerve, and training rats to become suicide bombers.  

Then it’s time to practise on some baddies (as picked by the aforementioned Loom) before seeking out Cross via his personal bullet-maker Pekarsky (Stamp).

Pekarsky lives in a monastery in Eastern Europe, allowing director Bekmambetov to stage a spectacular action sequence on a mountain railway pass without endangering any innocent Americans.  

Anyone familiar with the Night Watch/Day Watch saga will be aware that the Kazakh filmmaker is less interested in making sense than frying the senses.

But his brand of viciousness and visual fireworks always guarantees bang for your buck.

With Jolie reloading Lara Croft, Freeman adding gravitas, and the unassuming McAvoy making an unusual kind of hero, Wanted never spirals out of control.  

Like bullets that bend round corners, it might be a load of ballistics but it looks really, really cool.

Elliott Noble