Wanted: Recherché mort ou vif

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!

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.

**SPOILERS** Ridiculously inept action movie with funny-man Keenen Ivory Wayans playing on the lamb and on the run escaped murderer James Dunn who was set up to take the rap for the assassination of the First lady, Donna Cherry, of the United States.

Dunn who was sentenced to be executed by an army court-martial for killing his superior officer, who ordered him to shoot a 10 year-old Iraqi boy, during the Gulf War is rescued as he's being sent to Levenworth Prisons death row. Dunn is to be recruited by this gong-ho and very unstable nut-job Gen. Woodward, Jon Voight,in a complicated scheme to off big time pharmaceutical businessman Donald Bickhart.Robert Culp. Being the designated hit-man in this covert operation Dunn never gets off a shot as the First Lady is gunned down by an unknown gunman and he ends up being accused of her murder.

On the run with his face plastered all over the newspapers and on TV Dunn seems top have no trouble at all eluding the police and US Army. kidnapping hospital administrator Dr. Victoria Constantini, Jill Hennessy, Dunn has his ace in the hole that can prove his innocence, her video tape of the assassination. It's then that he stupidly hands the tape over to a reporter who's even more nuts then he is by not bothering to make a copy of it and then having the tape turned over to Gen. Woodward! The every person who set Dunn up and more then anything else in the world wan't him dead!

The movie "Most Wanted" get more and more outrageous as it goes along with Dunn on the run and not bothering to even keep out of sight with the police army CIA FBI with even almost half the population of L.A is out looking for him with a 10 million dollar reward on his head. With the help of a first very reluctant Victoria Dunn tracks down the reason for the First Ladies murder to non-other then Bickhart, the person he was to assassinate. Bickhart together with Gen. Woopdword was involved in some kind of secret experiment on the men of the 82nd Air-Borne division during the Gulf War that had almost all of them end up either dead or hospitalized for life. The First Lady a champion for veterans causes was about to expose this fiendish experiment to the public and had to be silenced and Dunn, a perfect pasty, was the one picked to be framed for her murder.

If he didn't have enough trouble already Dunn who thought that CIA Deputy Director Rackmill, Paul Sorvino, was on his side in this whole mess found out later to his, but nobody else's, surprise that he wasn't. Rockmill, like Gen. Woodward, was setting the guy up in order to get the 10 dollar million reward, offered by Bickhart, for his capture dead or alive. Dunn for his part being very experienced in electronics explosives and all around covert activities ,including the unique ability of being able to fool people to who he is without even having a disguise on , gets to the bottom of what Gen. Woodward & Bickhart are up to. It's then that he plays them off against each others without them even knowing it. By the time the movie is finally over with about as much explosions car chases and all around destruction that you would see in half a dozen of these type of mindless actions flicks Dunn or Keenen Ivory Wayans is off to the races with him free as a bird. Dunn is no longer wanted by him being falsely reported reported on the TV news as being captured as executed by the government. I could only hope that some other innocent pasty, like Dunn, wasn't the one who took his place in Levenwoths execution chamber.

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.

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.