Friday, June 27, 2008

In a sleek, sinister bid to prove she's not ready for sanctification quite yet, erstwhile earth mother and global healer Angelina Jolie takes on a gats-and-tats role as a gorgeous assassin in "Wanted," an action-thriller with a mean streak as wide as Michigan Avenue.

Timur Bekmambetov's adaptation of Mark Millar and J.G. Jones's comic book also stars James McAvoy as a neurotic insurance dweeb who finds himself adopted into the Fraternity, a coven of elite hit men. Morgan Freeman plays the Fraternity's suave leader, who runs the operation out of a Chicago textile mill; looms, guns, pig carcasses and rats figure large in a film that invites inevitable comparisons to "The Matrix" with its watery visual effects and shooters bending bullets like Beckham.

With its pounding, bloody violence, foul-mouthed language and putrid worldview, "Wanted" isn't comic book-y on a par with "Iron Man" or "The Incredible Hulk." Rather it's an example of revenge of the nerds at its nastiest and most vulgar. Still, Bekmambetov orchestrates at least two memorable stunts, involving a spectacular pickup in a red sports car and, later, an even more eye-popping train wreck. Jolie, thin as a wraith and as still as alabaster, reigns supreme as the queen of great screen objects, and Freeman has one of the film's funniest (if profane) lines.

-- Ann Hornaday

Wanted R, 104 minutes Contains strong bloody violence throughout, pervasive profanity and sexuality. Area theaters. Wanted R, 104 minutes Contains strong bloody violence throughout, pervasive profanity and sexuality. Area theaters.