16 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, JULY 25, 2008 • TAIPEI TIMES

Death becomes him and her

The frenetic action in ‘Wanted’ barely lets up

By Lisa Kennedy NY Times News Service, Denver

all it mayhem interruptus. greatest assassin” — has just been killed (a death Years ago at the New York Film Festival we witness), it comes as something of a shocking C premiere of Pulp Fiction, a man had what cosmic joke. was murmured to be a heart attack during the Only there’s no time for laughing. A Fraternity scene in which Travolta’s character revives Uma Wanted renegade named Cross (Thomas Kretschmann) Thurman’s with a shot of adrenaline to the heart. intends to kill Wesley, as he did his father, and The lights went up. The paramedics came. The DIRECTED BY: Timur Bekmambetov destroy the Fraternity. film resumed. In Wesley’s case, the D in DNA means “deadly.” Another episode occurred at the Sundance STARRING: James McAvoy (Wesley Gibson), He has the rare ability to bend the trajectory Film Festival in Utah just as Christian Bale’s Morgan Freeman (Sloan), Angelina Jolie (Fox), of bullets at will. And so he’s taken to the American Psycho killer was gleefully revving a Terence Stamp (Pekwarsky) Fraternity’s compound, a working textile factory, chain saw. That time the film kept rolling. Park to train to become the killer of his father’s killer. RUNNING TIME: 110 MINUTES City is a cruel place. Jolie often appears to be exorcising some So it was no surprise when at a screening of TAIWAN RELEASE: on general release demons when she takes roles that require she Wanted, starring James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman do physical damage. Here she does plenty. More and Angelina Jolie, the fire alarm began its strobing devouring than sly, Fox is a she-wolf. Yet she pulls flash sending the audience into the dusk. versus the exhausting gunslinging as character off the most surprising and touching scene in a Something had to give. The action had reached development. movie that is 99 and 44/100 percent violent. a fevered pitch in Timur Bekmambetov’s bold Wesley Gibson (McAvoy) downs anti-anxiety Wanted is all about over-the-top. rendering of Mark Millar and J.G. Jones’ graphic pills and hunkers down in his Chicago office Bekmambetov made two of Russia’s biggest novel series about a loser who begins to know cubicle trying to avoid his harpy of a boss. He’s box-office hits, Night Watch and Day Watch. As himself when he is recruited by a secret society of aware that his best friend is shagging his girlfriend. in those films, he’s too willing to sacrifice story assassins whose day job is weaving. As the movie is fond of declaring, Wesley is sense and emotion for a frenetic ride. The script For hundreds of years, the Fraternity’s Loom of a wuss. will likely please the graphic novels’ fans. But the Fate has spun a code that names its next targets: OK, that’s not quite the word screenwriters filmmaker misses an opportunity to deepen the people who sow chaos. Michael Brandt, Derek Haas and Chris Morgan existential aches implied in the material. A chase on a train had ended with the cars use to describe weakness in a flick that earned a As the Scottish actor McAvoy makes his way tumbling down a gorge, one hanging wedged “Restricted” rating in the US, but you get the point. through the demolished textile factory, with its between rocky walls as two assassins come face His inner voice is much angrier than his busted looms and unraveled spindles, the wisdom to bloodied face. pasty-patsy demeanor lets on. Wanted begins with of a different Scott comes to mind: Sir Walter, to While not a good thing, the break wasn’t Wesley’s voice-over, which is mighty contemptuous be precise. entirely bad either. for a guy who is acutely aware of the lameness of “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we Catching the final two reels a few days later his existence. But one thing it tells us is that his practice to deceive.” It’s a lesson brutally learned. allowed me to ponder anew the admirable and father abandoned him when he was an infant. the aggravating in the Russian-Kazakh director’s So when a woman named Fox (Jolie) arrives After going on this white-knuckle ride, audiences may feel like first English-language film: the cast, the craft to tell Wesley that his father — “the world’s a lie down. photos courtesy of UIP

The last robot standing Andrew Stanton, the human behind ‘Finding Nemo,’ brings robot WALL-E to life. The film’s mix of technology and spirit of silent films is a brilliant move by Pixar

By Lisa Kennedy fish, turtles and sharks trying to Rockport, Massachusetts. personality,” says Burtt. to infinity and beyond had been NY Times News Service, Denver turn over new dorsal fins. Instead, “What a lift. You almost got to “The conflict is always, how clanking around Pixar for years. The wee cube of a hero at the heart it’s occupied by one lone Waste the point where you believed you much of this character is going to But he says they weren’t sure they of WALL-E has military binoculars Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class were guaranteed something like be made from a human input and were up to the challenge. for eyes, tank treads for feet and and his pal Hal, a cockroach. that every year. I don’t know if I WALL-E how much of it is going to be a “Honestly, I have said this and metallic hands he interlocks in a A kids’ movie dystopian Philip got older or it really changed, but result of some electrical process, it’s true: I’m glad it didn’t get made pantomime of what it might be like K. Dick might give a thumbs-up to. by the late 80s going into the 90s, DIRECTED BY: Andrew Stanton some synthesis, something only a till now.” to grasp another’s hand. “It’s one of those things that they were few and far between, machine could do?” he adds. The technology is much It’s a gesture that came to him when you think about it, you could movies in the sci-fi genre packed STARRING: Ben Burtt (WALL-E), The mixture is vital. “On the improved. And Pixar’s finest as he watched a loop of an old convince yourself not to go there,” with that kind of wonder and awe.” Elissa Knight (EVE), Jeff Garlin one hand, it has to have enough — John Lasseter, Brad Bird, movie in which two lovers sing It says Stanton. “But the reason he’s Hence the homages like the (Captain), Fred Willard machine that you believe it Pete Docter among them — have Only Takes a Moment. so charming is because he’s the last name of WALL-E’s companion. (Shelby Forthright, BnL was created by technology. But gotten better too. And, adds WALL-E, a robot with a robot on Earth. You can’t have that HAL was the computer in Stanley CEO), MacInTalk (AUTO), John there has to be enough of the Stanton, the ninth employee fondness for Jerry Herman’s and separate out the dystopian. Kubrick’s 2001. (Stanton’s next Ratzenberger (John), Kathy human element so you detect and second animator hired by a Najimy (Mary), Sigourney Weaver Hello, Dolly, is the child of the You can lessen it or soften it. But project is John Carter of Mars.) (Ship’s computer) the character has a full range of fledgling company that became brainiacs at Pixar. In particular: you can’t get rid of it. That’s part Stanton lets out a guffaw when emotions and intelligence, in a one of the most successful Andrew Stanton. of why you like him. It was very asked if Pixar is on a mission to RUNNING TIME: 98 MINUTES sense, has a soul you care about.” enterprises in moviedom, “There’s In 2003, audiences, and later intentional to push the envelope.” make the world right for pests with And we do. Love-struck the trust we compounded in the the Oscars, reacted swimmingly Turns out the evocation of cult- movies like his and last summer’s TAIWAN RELEASE: TODAY WALL-E’s whirrs and ahs are bank with the audience.” to the writer-director’s fish tale, fave author Dick isn’t such a reach. rodent-infested Ratatouille. as recognizable emotionally as On a personal level, Finding Finding Nemo. Dick wrote the story that became “I don’t think that’s an agenda. sci-fi flick years came when our own sighs and harrumphs. Nemo was a turning point, says the Today, Stanton returns as a Blade Runner, one of the movies But definitely as an animator, you’re Stanton and company brought in When sleek, ultra-tech robot filmmaker. “I remember being so director and co-writer. that influenced Stanton’s interest always wondering, ‘Can I make Ben Burtt to create the sounds of EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation blown away by the response ... As And what a difference five years in science fiction. Add to the list: you like this?’ People always say, WALL-E. The Academy Award- Evaluator) arrives on the scene, an artist it made me start to trust make. Rather, what a difference Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, ‘Oh, you modeled him so cute.’ And winning sound designer famously WALL-E is smitten. So much so, he the little voice in me that battled 800 years into the future make. Alien, as well as more fan fare we say, ‘No, actually, we modeled gave voice — or the ’bot equivalent follows her into space, where her obstacles to get certain things Instead of undulating ocean, such as 1972’s Silent Running. him to look like a real cockroach.’ — to R2D2 of Star Wars. hefty human programmers have made in that film. It made me want WALL-E opens onto a desolate, “Those were my formative I think it’s because of how WALL- Chief Creative Officer of Disney and Pixar “What I discovered on Star lived on cruise-style spaceships to listen to that voice.” beige Earthscape of trash piled as movie-going years, 1962 to 82,” E sees him as a pet and how we Animation Studios John Lasseter, left, and Wars with R2D2 was you want for centuries. What did it say? high as skyscrapers. This weird says Stanton, who was born animate him, how he moves.” Andrew Stanton, director of Disney-Pixar’s to create the illusion that a Stanton admits the little “‘I want to try that weird little new world isn’t teeming with clown and raised in the small town of A greater nod to those halcyon film WALL-E. photo: reuters machine is talking, that it has a machine who takes his love pangs robot movie.’”