Yowazzup: A Directory of Happening Things

James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie star in the action-packed thriller, Wanted. Based loosely on a comic book miniseries Wanted by Mark Millar, the film also stars Morgan Freeman, Thomas Kretschmann and Konstantin Khabensky.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie in the movie "Wanted"

Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is an account manager and a total loser who leads a dull and pathetic life. His girlfriend even sleeps with his colleague, Barry (Chris Pratt). His boss, Janice (Lorna Scott) has never stopped annoying him by her persistent nagging and making stapling noise. Most of the times, Gibson needs some sort of medication to calm himself down.

While shopping for groceries in a convenient store, Gibson finds himself face-to-face with Fox (Angelina Jolie) who claims that Gibson’s father is dead and was killed by a stranger named Cross (Thomas Kretschmann). Gibson, facing great dangers, has no choice but to trust Fox after his bid to escape fails. Action-packed car chase pursues after that with both parties, Fox and Gibson and the enemy, Cross manage to escape from the cops.

Angelina Jolie in the movie "Wanted"

Fox introduces Gibson to meet Sloan and the rest of the Fraternity Assassins and invites him to join them in order to seek revenge for the murder of his father. Fox mentors Gibson and trains him to become a ruthless assassin by killing targets following death orders issued by The Fates.

In the end, when Gibson sees Cross in the street, he gives him a chase only to end up killing one of the members of the fraternity. The rare bullet shell left by Cross (Cross rarely leaves any evidence) gives Gibson enough clues to pursue him. As a result, the chase continues in Europe which ends up having Cross revealing himself as Mr. X, Gibson’s dad, after he was shot by his own son. While in disbelieve, he verifies the truth by asking Fox, who gives him a strong yes.

In the end, Gibson knows about the truth when Pekwarsky (Terence Stamp), his father’s close friend reveals the truth to him that Sloan tries to save himself from The Fates by creating his own death orders.

Remembering what The Repairman (Marc Warren) has told him, Gibson drives a truck loaded with thousands of rats, all strapped to time bombs and intrudes Sloan’s textile mills. His plan works perfectly as the explosions caused by the exploding rats has messed up the entire mills, making it easy for Gibson to kill everyone in the mills.

Eventually, Gibson finds himself surrounded by the members of the Fraternity, including Fox and Sloan. Gibson tries to convince the members of the Fraternity that Sloan has broken the code by hiding his own death order and that his father has found out, instead, Sloan attempts to finish off Gibson’s father. When The Gunsmith (Common) says he will ignore the rule and tries to fire a shot at Gibson, Fox makes a 360 degrees shot which kill all the members of the Fraternity standing in the circle (except Sloan) ending up killing herself as well.

Gibson gives Sloan a chase but Sloan has managed to escape. In the end, Gibson manages to trick Sloan with the same technique his father once used and killed Sloan.

The movie is quite entertaining with action-packed moments that never fail to impress despite the fact that bullets bending, jumping across buildings and healing oneself with candle wax seem to fake to believe. Angelina Jolie showed she still has the curves while James McAvoy gave an emphatic performance despite his first full-feature film.

The film ends up with Gibson reminding you (yes, you loser) to take control of your own life as he has already done so.

My ratings: 8 out of 10.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Atonement, meaning “Amends or reparation made for an injury or wrong; expiation” is a movie about atonement, of course. Its tagline says “You can only imagine the truth”, which brings us to the story.

Directed by the director of Jane Austen’s classic, Pride and Prejudice, Joe Wright, the movie Atonement has already created an Oscar buzz before even the movie is released.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In 1935, young Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan), a 13-year-old girl fledgling writer, is furiously typing the last act of her play. Briony and her family live a life of wealth and privilege in their enormous mansion with her cousins, Lola Quincey (Juno Temple) and her twin brothers, Pierrot (Felix von Simson) and Jackson (Charlie von Simson).

On the hottest day of the year, the country estate takes on an unsettling hothouse atmosphere, stoking Briony’s vivid imagination. She observes a flirtation between Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), the educated son of the family’s housekeeper and her older sister, Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and childishly misconstrues the intention of Robbie.

Keira Knightley and James McAvoy in Atonement

Leon Tallis, the brother to the Tallis sisters, comes home with a special guest, Paul Marshall (Benedict Cumberbatch) who is believed to own a chocolate factory. Paul shows keen interests in Lola, especially when he chooses to give Lola a piece of chocolate from his factory instead of the twin brothers.

Everyone, included Robbie is invited to a reunion dinner in the Tallis mansion. Before the dinner, Robbie has asked Briony to pass the apology letter he has written for Cecilia. Briony obeys but when she reaches the mansion, she rudely opens the letter and reads it. Robbie then, realizes he has given Briony the wrong letter but Briony has already read the letter, which is way too inappropriate for a 13-year-old. Before the dinner, as the nosy Briony ponders into the library, she sees Robbie kissing Cecilia but the two coolly walk off the library and pretend nothing happens.

During the dinner, the Quincey’s twins has gone missing. The disappearance of the boys has initiated a search in which only Cecilia and her mother, Emily (Harriet Walter) stays behind.

During the search, Briony has seen something she should not have seen. She has seen a guy’s raping Lola. When the police has arrived, Briony - who has a secret crush on Robbie, without hesitation, accuses Robbie of a crime he did not commit. Though Cecilia and Robbie declare their love for each other, Robbie is arrested due to Briony’s false testament. And with that, Robbie’s ambition of becoming a doctor is destroyed - by Briony.

As time passes on really quickly, the movie takes us into another time frame. Many years has passed since Robbie’s imprisonment. During those years, Robbie is given a choice to serve the country as an army or stay in the prison, he chooses the latter and therefore have served the country for several years. During the war, Robbie and several other soldiers are separated from the rest of the crews and are stranded in France.

Robbie returns to London and stays with Cecilia, who is a nurse. Briony who has also decided to become a nurse due to her seeking forgiveness, has tried very hard to seek forgiveness for her childhood misdeed. She finally manages to meet her sister and Robbie in a small house downtown to tell them she wants to change her testament as the actual criminal is Paul Marshall. But, on her way to Cecilia’s house, she has witnessed the marriage of Paul and Lola, therefore void the possible charges against Paul. Somewhat, Robbie is disgusted at the sight of Briony.

The movie then jumps into the modern day, in which Briony Tallis is being interviewed about her last book, “Atonement”, or rather it should be her first book. She talks about the childhood she had and the misdeed she carries which causes the three of them separated. She then tells the interviewer that part of the story has been altered to satisfy the readers - the part which she finally manages to meet her sister and Robbie through a terrible and courageous act of imagination. The actual fact is Robbie has died in France for a disease he suffered and Cecilia is killed by a bomb.

My ratings: 8 out of 10. Another great movie by director, Joe Wright, this movie is surely set to be nominated for Oscar once again.

Popularity: 1% [?]