Name: Retro Film Review: Most Wanted (1997)
Item: Most Wanted
Rating: 30
Author: @drax

(source:tmdb.org)

The war, unlike any other events, tends to reveal true character in men, and the picture isn't always pretty. Protagonist of Most Wanted, 1997 action thriller directed by David Hogan, paid a heavy price for gaining this knowledge. During Gulf War US Marine sergeant James Dunn (played by Keenan Ivory Wayans) threw away promising military career when ordered to kill innocent civilian. In the resulting scuffle his superior officer got killed and Dunn later became sentenced to death. In the death row he gets second chance during the visit by Lt. Colonel Grant Casey (played by Jon Voight), shadowy government official in charge of the most clandestine operations. In exchange for freedom Dunn would have to take part in assassination of Bickhardt (played by Robert Culp), industrialist who sells biological weapons to American enemies. Dunn agrees only to discover that the real aim of the hit was First Lady and his role was nothing more than patsy. With President's wife dead and his face on posters promising 10 million US$ reward for his capture, Dunn would have to use all of his skills in order to stay alive. His only hope is Dr. Victoria Constantini (played by Jill Hennessy), woman who videotaped the assassination and who might have the essential proof of his innocence.

Keenan Ivory Wayans' script for Most Wanted is somewhat different from many Hollywood stories about White House conspiracies. While most of them prophetically added sex into the mix, Wayans' text drew inspiration from the intense real life hatred American right-wingers felt towards Hillary Clinton. By extrapolating that right-wing sentiment into all-powerful military-intelligence complex and using Clinton's alter ego as the target of their schemes, Wayans has created somewhat more believable concept of conspiracy. Unfortunately, any sense of plausibility is quashed with little care for conspiracy's finer details and Jon Voight and his over-the-top acting more suitable to comic book villain. Thankfully, the movie compensates for that with series of interesting action scenes and decent acting from Paul Sorvino and Eric Roberts in supporting roles. Unfortunately, Wayans in his script leaves too many opportunities for audience to think between action scenes, and the major flaws of Most Wanted become most visible. The film itself is watchable, but, unlike most of 1990s presidential conspiracy thriller, this one didn't need real life scandals to sink into oblivion.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on February 12th 2004)