Wild Target (Blu-ray)
Directed by Jonathan Lynn
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
Year: 2010
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 98 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English
Subtitles: SDH, Spanish
Region: A
MSRP: $ 29.99
Release Date: February 8, 2011
Review Date: February 8, 2011
The Film
3/5
Some of those droll Ealing comedies from the 1940s and 1950s featured characters who were appealing despite their larcenous (The Lavender Hill Mob) or murderous (Kind Hearts and Coronets) intentions. Jonathan Lynn’s Wild Target goes for some of the same flavor as those Ealing classics with a hit man, a scam artist, and a stoner jockeying for our rooting interests as they evade their own executions. The characters aren’t always appealing, and casting hasn’t been felicitous enough to pair two physically engaging leads into a believable couple, but the writing and directing in the piece are fairly fast and funny and make for a martini-dry romp for those in the mood for some very British comedy indeed.
After pulling off a scam of art connoisseur Ferguson (Rupert Everett) by switching a Rembrandt with a copy, con woman Rose (Emily Blunt) is targeted by Britain’s best hit man Victor Maynard (Bill Nighy). Though Victor is a fifty-five year old bachelor who’s something of a mama’s boy (mama being an experienced hit woman herself – Eileen Atkins – now in assisted living), he stalks Rose for a couple of days getting the feel for her way of life, one that involves constant stealing and scamming and becomes entranced by her devil-may-care attitude, quite the reverse of his overly controlled, highly disciplined existence. Because he botches the job, Ferguson sends another team to kill her and Maynard, and when the second hit squad ends up either dead or wounded, Ferguson decides he needs to hire Britain’s second best assassin Hector Dixon (Martin Freeman). By then, however, Victor and Rose have retreated to the country with a stoner witness to the attack (Rupert Grint) who has taken up with the pair forming their own little eccentric family unit.
Killing innocents throughout the movie is a matter of course, so if one is offended by the cavalier way guiltless people are dispatched, Wild Target is not the movie for you (in its defense, the murders are handled out of the camera’s focus). Not only are the murders handled in a droll way, but there is an eccentric attitude toward everything in the story with bodyguards who tear up at little things, a parrot that learns words quickly much to its detriment, a second tier hit man who’s insulted when he isn’t recognized, and a non-stop line of quips and breezy dialogue that replaces typical American profanity with British cheek and irony. The production team has erred in its casting, unfortunately, by hiring Bill Nighy and expecting him to generate some kind of romantic chemistry with Emily Blunt. We don’t for one second buy into any physical attraction between the two. Either Rupert Everett or Martin Freeman could have swapped roles with Nighy, and the movie would have been much better off from the standpoint of a believable romantic element. The comedy still works, but the romance angle gives the film a black eye. Director Lynn handles the car chases and some of the attacks skillfully.
Bill Nighy is wonderful otherwise as the quiet, meticulous hit man, and had screenwriter Lucinda Coxon not worked a standard romantic element into the story, it would have had a much fresher feel to its construction. Emily Blunt has the eccentric flair for the con woman, but she doesn’t bring forth much of a likable demeanor for at least half of the movie making her efforts to bring us around in the second half an effort Amazonian in nature and not fully successful. Rupert Grint does very nicely by the dim-witted underling excited to be venturing into dangerous new territory. Martin Freeman steals all of his scenes as the Avis of hit men, practically salivating to become number one. Eileen Atkins and Rupert Everett both fire off some impressive sly banter that make them British national treasures.
Video Quality
4/5
The film has been framed at 2.35:1 and is presented in a 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Color saturation reaches pleasing levels and flesh tones appear natural throughout. Sharpness is usually very good, but some scenes filmed in lower light give a chalky nature to the color with more limited contrast. The film has been divided into 28 chapters.
Audio Quality
3.5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix is nothing special. Apart from the Michael Price music score which does fill the fronts and rears, the movie is very frontcentric with its sound placement. Dialogue is nicely recorded and appears for the most part in the center channel though there are some instances of directionalized dialogue that give the rears something else to do.
Special Features
1/5
“On Target with Emily Blunt” offers only 3 minutes with the film’s female star describing her character’s part in the plot. It’s presented in 480i.
There are 1080p promotional trailers for Street Kings 2, Unstoppable, and Love and Other Drugs. The trailer for Wild Target is not presented on the disc though it does appear on other recent Fox Blu-ray releases.
In Conclusion
2.5/5 (not an average)
Fans of eccentric, dry British comedy will likely find some things to their liking in Wild Target even if the film fails in some critical areas where it tries to go a more traditional route. The Blu-ray offers decent audio and video but a really skimpy extras package that will disappoint fans of the film.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
