Sifting through the talkbacks for my deluxe Summer Movie Preview, the overwhelming consensus seems to be that a) I’m gay, and b) I overestimated Timur Bekmambetov’s Wanted by a good $60 million (predicted final tally: $145 million). Sounds reasonable. Keep the invective flowin’, and you just might win me over on both counts.
If Wanted fails as Wall-E counterprogramming, it’ll be due to the target audience taking the weekend off after nearly two months of non-stop empty spectacle (while they prepare for the much more promising Hancock). But I’m sticking by my prediction for now: James McAvoy feels like he’s ready to happen, Morgan Freeman’s been huge with teenage girls since Street Smart, and Angelina Jolie looks great with firearms.
While I don’t know how Jolie squares the gun fetishism with her humanitarian efforts, the sex and death shtick sure is good for business. So kudos to Universal for selling the obvious. Click over to AICN for the whole image.