Apr 12 2011
Red Box Review– Wild Target #redbox
Wild Target (2010– 98mins) Bill Nighey, Emily Blount, Rupert Grint
When a world class assassin Victor Maynard (Nighey) who is close to retirement stumbles upon the target of a job he can’t quite kill, hi jinx ensues and a funny movie is had. It’s a slapstick type assassin tale but from a bit of a British point of view slapstick is quite sedated and more subtle then the “Airplane” type slapstick. Maynardis set to kill a con woman Rose (Blount), and while he is about to do the deed another bumbling assassin tries to get involved and so does a random riff raff Tony (Grint). Suddenly Maynard instead of killing the girl finds himself protecting both Rose AND Tony. From here things only get more comedic and more involved so I won’t spoil any more details but just say that this is a subtle and under the radar good movie.
I am amazed at how low key a guy like Nighey is in Hollywood. He is an actor that most people remember more as Davey Jones from the second Pirates of the Carribean movie, but when you look at his work you think holy crap he’s in a crap-ton of TV and movies and in all the ones I have seen he has been very good. Here he is amazing at using the vise of anal-retentive assassin to be the straight man in the three stooges and bringing in a great comedic role. Blount starts out the movie great but her role gets a bit muffled in all the “action”, and then she takes a back seat some to Nighey and Grint down the stretch. She’s still good throughout and meshes very well with the other 2 as well as looking hot in the process. Grint, still looking to shed the whole Ron Weasley bit and become a real actor is hilarious as a street riff raff with no real direction in life. It’s almost like this movie was a vehicle for him to show his comedic shoes. Sure he’s got some acting chops but he’s got a ways to go to grow into a good actor and shed the Weasley family name. Yet, it’s a good start for the kid and I hope he continues down the track. I can see him in a Pegg/Frost comedy as a supporting role to see if he can handle it.
Verdict–> It is a great rental, and a very good movie. It’s not a big budget monster comedy but I do like the lower end subtle comedies with both slapstick elements and intellectual comedy. I put it on the 1st tier of rentals so pick it up for a great double feature. Funny and not too long either!