Wanted: Recherché mort ou vif

This is a fine romp of a movie, full of interesting plot twists and developments, and not too heavy on mindless violence. The politics of the story are a timely warning against the military industrial complex that would destroy democracy for its own greed. The true hero is the one who abides by human values rather than accepting the blind authoritarianism so common in right-wing zealotry. Jon Voight superbly skewers this insanity masquerading as patriotism in his performance. Jill Hennessy provides adept detective work in uncovering the conspirators heinous plot. A very enjoyable adventure.

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!

Enjoyable movie by today's standards. It used some technology that was exploited one year later in another movie called "Enemy of the State". More than one subplot came together nicely at the end. Contains mystery and suspense interspersed with action. Not being overly critical, I found only one sentence that I would have changed with different words. A seldom seen movie, this little gem has a few surprises that can keep one's interest to the finale.

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.