Wild Target [DVD]

I'm not a great fan of comedy films regardless of their country of origin but I do like Emily Blunt so decided to give this a go. What a treat, this is a really funny black comedy with a superb British cast. Bill Nighy is perfectly cast as uptight middle aged hitman Victor Maynard and his timing is spot on. Emily Blunt is truly charming as kleptomaniac Rose whom he is originally hired to kill but falls in love and Rupert Grint demonstrates that of all the Harry Potter kids he is the one most likely to break free. Rupert Everett is suitably sinister as the villain of the piece and the rest of the ensemble though lesser known to film fans perhaps all do a sterling job. This may not have you laughing out loud but it had me chuckling all the way through. Finally I have to add that the quality of the dvd I watched was so good I had to remind myself that I wasn't watching a blu ray. Buy this, you won't be disappointed. A single one star review does not a bad film make.

I had a feeling from seeing the trailer for "Wild Target" that I'd enjoy it - and like many others - I was more than pleasantly surprised.

Jonathan Lynn's 2009 film is a hugely enjoyable romp - a kicking little movie with a very witty and warm script. That it stars the truly scrumptious Emily Blunt is good enough for most guys - but mix in real comedic talent like Bill Nighy, Rupert Everett, Martin Freeman and Gregor Fisher - and you're going to have your funny bones tickled - a lot.

What's also unexpected is the genuine (if unlikely) chemistry between Blunt and Nighy. And while the camera simply adores our Em in every scene she appears in - it's Nighy who's steals the entire film. He is just superb as the twitchy po-faced assassin Victor Maynard still unable to live without his mother and properly pleased with his lifetime of strangulations, poisonings and a good clean bullet in the head (his preferred trademark). His mad upper-crust mother Louisa has even made him a lovely newspaper-clippings memento of all these killings and put them in a scrapbook for his 52nd birthday (how thoughtful). Veteran and classy British actress Eileen Atkins gives an equally scene-stealing performance here too - a great combo with Nighy.

The story goes like his - Ruby (Blunt) falsifies a rare painting, pawns it off on bad guy Rupert Everett for a cool million quid, but gets rumbled. Victor is called in to `remove' said rumbler. But of course he is completely unhinged by the lovely kleptomaniac Rose and their initial mutual loathing eventually develops into something worth fighting for. Rose doesn't need to be extinguished by Victor, but protected by him instead (even if it costs £30,000 a week to do so). And Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley from Harry Potter) is cleverly cast too as the footloose and parentless young lad Tony - who simply gets tangled up in the whole shooting match, but turns out to have natural gun-slinging capabilities - and therefore become the apprentice Victor never had. They form an unlikely trio as (slightly bumbling) professional killers pursue them (Martin Freeman and a very funny Geoff Bell).

Hardly original stuff I know - but as other reviewers have said, I'd rather watch this 'again' than sit through some of the truly awful rom-com pap thrown at us these days by Hollywood. It may not be an oil painting, but it's a bloody good copy mate.

Like "Tamara Drew" - "Wild Target" is a very likeable British Ealing-Comedy kind of movie - with a great cast and a very, very witty script.
It's a good night in and well worth a punt. And the BLU RAY is cheap too.

I'm off now to dream of lovely Emily and put down the fact that's she's happily married as a minor inconvenience and trivial detail...

BLU RAY Specifications:
EXTRAS: Cast & Crew Interviews
VIDEO: High Definition 1080p 24/16.9 2.35:1 Aspect
AUDIO: DTS-HD Master Audio English 5.1
SUBTITLES: English SDH

I went into this movie really not sure what to expect. Given that there had been some films recently which had lots of stars and failed as being any form of entertainment [Hello Valentine's day and Killers!]. I loved this movie! Sure, it's not got a complicated plot but I think that's what makes it work. It's just a good bit of fun. I laughed several times. Very funny movie. I loved the cast. Emily Blunt is on top form as always, Bill Nighy is great as usual but for me the cast member who impressed me the most has to be Martin Freeman. His performance was chilling, really quite amazing. I didn't think he would be able to pull of a sadistic hitman but he pulled it off. A fantastic performance. I did like Rupert Grint as well. I loved the lobby scene "He tried to kill me" [runs with luggage] [Emily Blunt comes by soon after with her suitcase shouting "WAIT! WAIT!] Hands down the funniest moment in the entire movie.

Rupert Everett also really impressed me. He was great. It wasn't particularly any different from what he played before [he was a meanie in Shrek 2] but I expected him to play the same kind of role. He did it superbly. I loved the music in the movie. So much so I even bought the soundtrack. I love music in films, it really creates the tone for the film and gets you into the film basically [like the music did for this film].

Overall rating: 10/10
One of the better comedies this year [better than Grown ups, Knight and Day, Dinner for schmucks, The other guys- just to name a few]. If you're into a movie like this where there isn't a complicated plot as such but a very straight forward one and if you're a fan of Emily Blunt, Bill Nighy or Rupert Grint or all of them then I definetly recommend checking it out. On one final note, it turns out I'm one of the only people who have seen this film like the other reviewers. Spread the word about this movie, heck even I will just to get more people to watch it [getting the family to watch it in 2 weeks when it comes out on dvd] because this movie deserves it. It's a brilliant movie. I loved it and can't wait to see it again.