# Was Wanted the dumbest movie of 2008? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883 "2009-07-22T18:20:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/41 "2009-07-23T13:50:06Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Because stupid is never good. Action movies are good but stupid action movies are bad. Comedies are good but stupid comedies are bad. Horror is good but stupid horror is bad. Don’t excuse stupidity just because of the genre - it’s an insult to the genre. There’s a difference between a movie being stupid on purpose, because the filmmakers wanted a fun, stupid, ridiculous movie like Wanted, and a movie being stupid because the filmmakers failed in the movie they were trying to create, like with a movie like X-Men 3. I would say that intentionally stupid movies like Wanted are not bad, while unintentionally stupid movies like X-Men 3 are bad. Wanted is a stupid movie, but when it was being created, the director’s set out to make an over the top movie that showed a gleeful disdain for the laws of physics. It wasn’t high art that made a statement on the human condition, but it wasn’t intending to make a statement, it was meaning to look cool and be fun, and I thought it succeeded on those accounts. I probably won’t ever buy Wanted on DVD, but I’ll probably watch it on TV if it’s on while I’m channel surfing. X-Men 3 tried to be deeper, with it’s plot on the mutant cure and the parallels to prejudice in the real world. But it had a bad script and ended up being pretty stupid. Movies that end up distracting you from the fun action scenes because you are still thinking of the stupidity of the plot are bad movies. I realize I might not be completely coherent here, but I wanted to say that stupid movies can be bad, but they aren’t always. And I don’t think that fun stupid action movies are an insult to the action genre. I think there’s room in Hollywood both for stupid action movies like Wanted and Shoot 'Em Up, and for more intelligent action movies like The Dark Knight and The Bourne Trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/42 "2009-07-23T14:07:11Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > As stoopidly awesome as that scene was, the car-flip scene was also worth a look, as was the trainwreck, IMHO. Yeah, the car flip scene was pretty cool, but gloriously and shamelessly dumb. Laws of physics: not so much violated as completely repealed. He accelerates and the front of his car rises by an inch. She decelerates and the hood of her car falls by an inch. That’s enough to make a perfect launching ramp that sends his car not only into a perfect roll, but also seems to impart momentum in the direction perpendicular to the original direction of the car. As a side note, cars seem much more durable in the Wanted universe. Meanwhile, our highly trained super assassins are skilled and talented enough to put this auto choreography together with nothing more than a glance in a rearview mirror, but are dumbshit enough not to anticipate that a mob boss might have bulletproof glass on his limo. And hell, if you can shoot bullets in circles, couldn’t you direct one \* down \* through a sunroof? One more super assassin huh? After the car chase at the beginning of the movie in which Jolie/Fox is driving a bright red Corvette (or something similar) during a prolonged gun fight through traffic (which includes yet another car jumping stunt), they simply drive away, looking smug, sparks flying from their rims. You think maybe the cops might be looking for a dinged up bright red sports car? My biggest gripe about the movie isn’t the stupid physics, it’s the stupid assassins. They seem to pick flashy and dangerous methods of assassination when the best assassination is the kind where no one’s even sure it happened. They’re basically idiots. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/43 "2009-07-23T14:24:18Z")
I fell asleep during the fight scenes in this movie, so I missed a lot of the plot points and dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/44 "2009-07-23T14:24:43Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Turns out that scene is available on YouTube. [Enjoy](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S-7OdAc3ws&NR=1). Watching this I knew instantly the inspiration. It’s nothing less than a level from the uber FPS _Doom_, skill setting Ultra Violence. I expected a Cacodemon to come floating around the corner any moment! ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/45 "2009-07-23T14:25:55Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > If you watch the entire movie, this has an explanation. Not that it makes a lot of sense, but it is not unprecedented within this story. > > It’s all based on [a comic book](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanted_(comics)), incidentally. I was just browsing my Netflix queue and realized that, for whatever reason that I no longer recall, the [anime version is in the “waiting for release” part of my queue](http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Wanted/70095393?trkid=226872). It will be interesting to compare it. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/46 "2009-07-23T16:43:24Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > See, I could have handled that: I’ve enjoyed stories from the point of view of bad guys before. My problem with the movie is that the filmmakers seemed to think that they were good guys. This, I didn’t think it was the stupidest movie of the year, just one of the more repugnant ones. I’m all good with bad guys being presented as bad. But when one of those bad guys looks at the camera at the end of the movie essentially says “hey audience, at least I’m doing something with my life you boring sheep who wouldn’t kill on faith” it completely lost any acceptance I had. Be bad, revel in being bad, but don’t try to tell me that it’s good. Almost as repugnant as _Four Brothers_ was in this way. Plus the silly idea that expecting evidence or justification before killing is wrong and that they should have just been doing it because they were told to. Have faith, question not the sanity of what you’re commanded. But I did like the directors Russian creatures of the night movies. So I’m cool with the style. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/47 "2009-07-23T22:14:23Z")
Hancock, Wolverine, Jumper and Wanted could have been combined into a single stupid superhero movie. You Don’t Mess With The Zohan and The Love Guru could have been combined into one single dumb comedy. But 10,000 guesses what the ACTUAL dumbest movie of 2008 was? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/48 "2009-07-23T22:26:15Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > You Don’t Mess With The Zohan and The Love Guru could have been combined into one single dumb comedy. Hey now! Zohan rocked! You can’t even tell it’s Adam Sandler. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/49 "2009-07-23T22:36:41Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > But 10,000 guesses what the ACTUAL dumbest movie of 2008 was? I would’ve snuck in and watched that movie twice in a row if it were playing next door to **The Happening**. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/50 "2009-07-23T22:45:12Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > I would’ve snuck in and watched that movie twice in a row if it were playing next door to **The Happening**. **The Happening** was bad, but it was mildly entertaining in a really bad way. **10,000 BC** was just so bad it’s bad. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/51 "2009-07-23T22:50:47Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > **The Happening** was bad, but it was mildly entertaining in a really bad way. **10,000 BC** was just so bad it’s bad. Well at least it had f/x that were a little better than an offscreen electric fan. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/52 "2009-07-23T22:55:42Z")
I liked Hancock. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2009, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/53 "2009-07-23T22:59:52Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > I liked Hancock. So did I. And Jumper was pretty decent as well. The book was better, but the book would make a terrible movie. They needed to jazz it up with more Jumpers and have Davey be older than 16. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/54 "2009-07-24T02:42:46Z")
I just watched Wanted. It wasn’t even in the running for the worst movie of 2008. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/55 "2009-07-24T04:22:06Z")
wow. I may have to rent Wanted again, because I don’t remember ANY of that scene. (see above post about drinking contest) ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/56 "2009-07-24T05:15:14Z")
I haven’t seen a lot of the aforementioned movies, but so far I’d say _Fool’s Gold_ followed by _Pineapple Express_. Jesus Christ Judd, you are just phoning it in. BTW, I thought _Superbad_ was hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/57 "2009-07-24T12:21:19Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > Hey now! Zohan rocked! You can’t even tell it’s Adam Sandler. I can still tell it sucked. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2009, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/58 "2009-07-24T17:19:24Z")
I’d nominate Disaster Movie for worst of 2008, myself. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883/59 "2009-07-25T03:13:22Z")
Ahhhh, excellent. Two movies (_Wanted_ and _10,000 BCE_) for me to [del]poop on[/del] go to sleep to this week. I remain, as always, indebted. Snooky [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-wanted-the-dumbest-movie-of-2008/503883.md?page=2)