Wanted: Recherché mort ou vif

Keenan Ivory Wayans! Jon Voight! Action! Thriller! Suspense!

Yawn...

Well, I can't say it's a bad movie, it's just not a good one. Basically, it's Mr. Wayans in the tried, tired, and true role of The Honest Soldier Being Framed By an Evil Army Official. If it wasn't so formulmatic, it'd be a lot more enjoyable. Alas, the movie does nothing to establish it's own identity separate from other similar films. The acting is suspect in parts and some of the one-liners make you cringe. Jon Voigt is the only actor who seems remotely believeable, but even his acting seems a bit forced in parts.

Final Analysis: I wouldn't rent it, but if you're not doing anything else and you come across it on the TV, it might be a good guilty pleasure.

Although the movie has a couple of slow and boring parts, it's considerably more intelligent than the average action/thriller flick. There are also a couple of hilarious scenes, but I wouldn't want to spoil them for you. But the acting from the supporting cast is pretty abysmal, even though Wayans himself is good. So it evens out to be a fairly average, unmemorable movie.

I think I've finally seen all of this movie, which one channel seems to run every week.

It's fairly ridiculous. Jon Voight has an absurd accent to which he is fully committed. Jill Hennessey plays most of her part in what appears to be a summer pajama top (and wonderfully perfect makeup). The military has whatever resources they need to advance the plot, but never enough to crush the hero. The twists are visible from miles ahead. But it remains entertaining.

I think that it is an advantage to the watchability that the hero (Keenan Ivory Wayans) is also the writer. Banter comes out more believable when the writer has to put it in his own mouth.

This may be the first time I have seen Eric Roberts so mis-cast as to be in a "non" part. Or seen Jon Voight prancing around in a stilted and artificial state in scene after scene. Or listened to incredibly corny and bad lines delivered by normally "star" actors.

But it was definitely not the first time I saw the "special" effects in the movie -- they were all clumsily stolen from vastly better movies.

What went wrong with this one? Almost no story, and what is present is not new, nor well thought out. Extremely poor direction, to the point of it being non-existent. Very poor casting, especially the "star", and the aforementioned Mr. Roberts.

For some reason IMBD gives this movie a 5.7/10. It is really a 1/10. Avoid it at all costs, even if it appears on TV...without commercials!

Ex-soldier Sgt James Dunn is on his way to death row when he is taken from his transportation by an elite military unit headed by Col Grant Casey with the offer that he join their assassination squad or be killed. When he joins his first assignment is to kill Donald Bickhart, head of a biochemical company. However when the First Lady is taken out by another assassin, Dunn finds himself set up as a patsy in a conspiracy that seeks to frame him and kill. As Americas most wanted man he goes on the run to clear himself

Written and starring Wayans this has a bit of a vanity project about it. The story is ok at the most basic level - everyone likes a good conspiracy story and a good action movie. However this has so many elements that are just plain daft. One scene in particular - where Wayans is recognised on the street and is chased by about 600 people along a motorway, causing a major pileup, I assumed that this was a dream sequence if was so daft - but sadly it wasn't. This is stretched out throughout the whole film in that whole scenes are daft - the main problem is that Dunn just walks into any building he wants unnoticed. He gets past major security anywhere, he even gets into a high security military unit by hiding in the boot of a car. You can see Wayans' idea was good at the start but he doesn't know where to draw the line - the story is full of wish-fulfilment action scenes (jumping off a building with a parachute - without explaining how Americas most wanted got it from!).

Wayans is not great, he does OK at the start but his one-liners are weak and his performance as an unstoppable force towards the end doesn't set well with the story. Voight is absolutely terrible, what was he thinking. His character is full of stupid characteristics and never comes across as menacing or believable. Paul Sorvino is OK as the FBI director, but with this and Knock Off, he must really wish that someone would make a Goodfellas 2! Hennessey is ok as the only female role in the film, but she doesn't have much to do. Eric Roberts wisely takes an un-credited role and does OK with it. Robert Culp rounds out quite a famous cast - which is surprising when you consider the material.

Overall this is enjoyable for the most part. However most of it is daft and any clever bits are lost in a sea of stupidity. 5 out of 10 for effort.