Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7319 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-03-08
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Running time: 99 minutes

From Amazon.com
Comic actor Keenen Ivory Wayans made a creditable effort to expand his career horizons by writing the script for this action thriller, in which he also stars. Wayans plays U.S. Marine Sgt. James Dunn, a military hero who refuses an order to shoot a young shepherd during the Gulf War. His insubordination leads to a lethal struggle with a superior officer and a subsequent murder conviction against Dunn.

Plucked from his death sentence by a covert unit of Marines, however, Dunn soon finds himself in a shadowy world of undercover wars under the command of one Lt. Col. Grant Casey (Jon Voight). Offered freedom in exchange for aiding a mission against a corrupt industrialist (Robert Culp), Dunn agrees and then discovers he's actually been set up to take the fall for an assassination. Suddenly, he's the most wanted man in the world, with police, the military, the Secret Service, and legions of reward seekers chasing him around Los Angeles. Jill Hennessy stars as an eyewitness who happened to catch the killing on videotape and can clear Dunn if she would only cooperate with him--a problem, since he has kidnapped her.

Directed by David Glenn Hogan, Most Wanted works just fine as a well-oiled action piece with a capable star and competent action sequences. The story ideas (especially Dunn's Rambo-esque flight through the city and his reliance on esoteric survival skills) feel overly familiar, but that only makes Most Wanted all the more enjoyable as a potboiler instead of a serious original. --Tom Keogh

On the DVD
Both widescreen and full-frame versions of the film
Star Highlights featuring clips from three other New Line films
Original theatrical trailer
Isolated stereo-audio track of the film score
Cast biographies and filmographies
Animated menus

Synopsis
Actor-comedian-talk show host Keenen Ivory Wayans stars in his own action thriller screenplay about a war hero who becomes the fall guy in a frame-up. During the Persian Gulf War, U.S. Marine Sgt. James Dunn (Wayans) refuses to shoot a young shepherd, struggles with a superior officer, and winds up with a murder conviction. Sentenced to death in a military prison, Dunn is rescued from a prisoner-transport bus and selected for a special covert "Black Sheep" unit commanded by Lt. Col. Grant Casey (Jon Voight). Casey offers Dunn freedom if he will aid their battle against corrupt industrialist Donald Bickhart (Robert Culp). During the dedication of a Los Angeles medical research building, the First Lady is assassinated, and Dunn discovers that he has been set up as the trigger-man. Caught in a conspiracy, Dunn relies on his own survival skills and expert military training to elude those in pursuit, including corrupt Army superiors plus police and government agents. To clear his name and expose the real killers, Dunn kidnaps Dr. Victoria Constantini (Jill Hennessy), an eyewitness who made a videotape of the assassination. Now he has the evidence he needs and an uncooperative hostage, but after a $10 million bounty is announced, his situation gets even more desperate as he finds himself chased through the streets of Los Angeles by an immense money-hungry crowd hoping to collect the reward. The freeway filming of this chase featured an unprecedented stunt -- 16 stunt people simultaneously hit by 20 cars. Another stunt required a leap from a 45-story building. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Customer Reviews

Ivory Wayans isnt that much fun
Ivory Wayans is most wanted and Jon Voight is out to get him....starts off good but then wallows in stupid twists and turns and plot points that leave your brain dead..if you wanna see Wayans in something good..check out A Low Down Dirty Shame

LEAST WANTED PIECE OF CRAP!!!
This is one of the lamest and stupidest movies in all of cinematic history.The plot was predictable and boring,while the action scenes were no better than the plot.The jokes were lame and Keenan Wayne is not an action star but a comedian.Was this movie made in a week?STAY AWAY FROM THIS GARBAGE!!!

Better than you'd expect, but not that much better
Synopsis:
In a nutshell, Most Wanted is about a death row, military convict named James Dunn who is recruited from death row to serve in an elite CIA black squad group. The convict is framed for the murder of the First Lady of the United States, a murder he didn't commit. He escapes with his life, then seeks to find the real killer and bring them to justice.

About the Movie:
Overall, this is a mediocre movie. Yet despite that and its plot holes and its fairly unimaginative plot, it can be entertaining in spots. I like this one a lot better than a lot of the action sludge out there, including a lot of the oldies. Of course, it still won't win any award, except maybe a Razzie.

Interestingly enough, Most Wanted stands a career side road for comedian Keenan Ivory Wayans, who's probably best known for his work in "In Living Color" in the 90's. Most Wanted is intended as a serious action film. While there is some humor in the film, it's the action hero variety and not the slap stick brand Wayans is known for. He stars instead as a serious action hero and surprisingly doesn't do as badly as one would expect. While he'll never make a career as an action star, he does pull off the roll, albeit with a lot of cheesy and stagy lines here and there.

The movie co-stars Jon Voight, as very predictably, the villain. This movie, perhaps more than many of the others he's been in, really does reveal what an over-actor he is. Scenes with Voight are almost painful to watch because he so overplays his character that the character becomes a grotesque characature. His over-acting is so bad that he actually was nominated in 1998 in this role for a Razzie for *worst* supporting actor. That's quite a distinction.

The movie also co-stars Jill Hennessy as a doctor who becomes Dunn's unlikely side-kick. In a movie with no female roles except for the First Lady, (who shows up just long enough to get shot and killed) she provides Most Wanted's only female lure. She isn't terrible in her role, but she does very little to make her shine either. Mostly, she's there to add the female element and look pretty.

On the up side, the best played role in the film turns out to be played by Paul Sorvino in CIA Director Kenny Rackburn. Sorvino's solid acting, and charming style help to raise the movie up a notch. It also helps that he's so easy to like. Sorvino provides a nice counterpoint to Voight's horrible and stagey overacting.

Plotwise, Most Wanted isn't really very original. Thankfully, the story moves in a good pace, and despite its predictability and plot holes you could drive a bus through, it still manages to hold your interest throughout. Some of the stunts and special effects are pretty good, and there are a number of action sequences that are a lot of fun (if also a little unbelievable). This one would never get any awards (except a Razzie), but it still can be a fun watch, especially if you've got a bunch of buddies with you to poke fun at it with.

About the DVD:
This DVD comes in a cardboard case, marking it as a budget DVD. The DVD itself is a double sided DVD with both wide-screen and full screen versions included. For the most part, it's an entirely unexciting DVD release, with almost no extra features.

The one exception is the separate music track on the DVD. It allows you to watch the movie without any dialog and just the music. I did watch it that way, just for kicks, and found it fascinating to watch from an artistic standpoint to see how the music was used in the movie. I'm not entirely sure what this feature is good for otherwise, unless you leave the TV on occasionally for background noise.

The picture on this DVD isn't too bad, but I did notice some problems with the sound. I'm not sure if this is a problem with the sound editing in the film itself, or the transfer to DVD. Either way, the sound volume seemed to fluctuate at times, lowering and raising so that I was occasionally reaching for my remote to turn up the volume, only to be blasted out of my chair a few minutes later when it returned to its previous levels. It's not a major problem, but it does lower the overall quality of the release and provides a minor distraction while watching.

Bottom Line is that this is a predictable and unoriginal movie in a budget DVD release (with some technical issues). If you're looking for a cream of the crop action film, this is not the place to look. Still, if you like this type of film, you might like this one. 2 stars.