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If ever there is a time when a new warning for films needs to be introduced, it is now: "Wanted: Contains extreme acid trip, and may cause you to vomit from sheer excitement." I'm not kidding, either.

I thought I'd seen pretty much everything action films had to offer, but the sheer unintelligible insanity of this comic book adaptation took things to a whole new other level. Fair enough, there is much more than a pinch of both Fight Club and The Matrix in this, but before I even had the time to dwell on how many films set the groundwork, I started jumping with joy as the bullets, bodies, cars and even trains started flying. It's true, Picasso didn't create a work of art without any inspiration, you know?

O.K., so maybe I'm getting a little carried away here, but action (as you may already be aware from reading my other reviews) does crazy things to me. I haven't been this excited about a movie since I saw Rocky Balboa two whole years ago (and even that came with a nostalgia tag). With Wanted, however, I've never even heard of the comic books, never mind bothered to "read" them, so I had no idea what to expect. I was overwhelmed by the time the end credits rolled.

The plot: Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), much like Norton's character in Fight Club, works a dead-end job, gets no respect from his boss, suffers regularly from panic attacks, and has a so called best friend that sleeps with his girlfriend. He soon meets up with a mysterious woman belonging to the Fraternity of Assassins -- the appropriately named "Fox" (Angelina Jolie) -- in his local pharmacy. He is taken to the Fraternity's headquarters where he meets Sloan (Morgan Freeman) and starts training to be one of the assassins, with the idea to eventually kill an opposing assassin named "Cross", who is supposedly responsible for killing his father some years ago. From thereon, things start to get really messy.

Aside from the usual slow motion gun fights (which seem to be a typical feature of contemporary action films), director Timur Bekmambetov presents a bizarre and often morbid take on violence. Bullets curve, spears are blocked with gun barrels, and Gibson's "best friend" gets hit with a keyboard, with the loose keys spelling out profanity in mid-flight. There's even a moment where one of the bad guys gets shot at point black range in the eye, and Gibson continues to shoot at further enemies with the gun stuck there. It really is quite brutal stuff, in a cartoonish sort of way.

You'd hardly think that McAvoy was a tough guy after seeing him for the first time, but hilarity is all part of the movie's overall charm. Jolie and Freeman are both menacing in their roles and make fascinating characters. Of the two, though, which would you rather see hanging off the bonnet of a car at full speed with their legs in full view of your face, firing a shotgun? I ask both men and women this question because I'm pretty confident that their answer. Yes, Angelina Jolie truly is a "fox" -- that's just another one of the reasons to watch Wanted.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2008.