1812. Wild Target (2010)

Starring: Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt, Rupert Grint

Director: Jonathan Lynn

Running Time: 98 mins

Wild Target is a British film about a legendary hitman who, on the verge of retirement, ends up being thrown back into one more case when he fails to take out the young woman he has been instructed to kill.

As fun as the cast and farcical premise may seem, Wild Target isn’t all that much of a laugh. With irritating characters, jarring twists and a story that sometimes doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, you’ll more likely be sitting in confusion rather than laughing your socks off at this movie.

However, let’s start on the bright side, with the fact that the performances here are good. For one, Bill Nighy is pretty entertaining as the quirky hitman with a heart of gold (although he can overdo it from time to time), and Emily Blunt portrays her selfish and irritating character well too, but also goes a little too far on occasion to the point where the effect just isn’t as funny.

There are also a good few enjoyable supporting performances. All are with a couple of faults here and there, but the likes of Rupert Grint, Martin Freeman and Rupert Everett all put in decent enough turns to put a smile on your face at times.

Despite those relatively entertaining performances, this film doesn’t manage to make any of its comedy work. From what seems to me like poor directing, the actors all go way over the top when it comes to trying to be funny, and coupled with a screenplay that’s no work of comedic genius, the film starts to get frustrating very quickly.

And then there’s the story. On the face of things, Wild Target looks like a fun little laugh, but its plot is so all over the place that it’s a lot more difficult just to have some light fun. For one, the characters in the film are completely inconsistent throughout, and on numerous occasions, we see people act completely out of character for no other reason than the fact it suits the plot, with various painfully jarring twists that barely make any sense taking away a huge amount of fun from the film as a whole.

Now, Wild Target isn’t a hateful film, nor is it one that’s so irritating that your teeth will be ground down to sawdust, however the problem is that its inconsistent story and poor comedy take away from the work done by the actors, making for a rather lackluster watch throughout, so that’s why I’m giving this a 6.8 overall.