This movie was a letdown for me. It looked like an innocent enough shoot 'em up action movie, but ended up being belligerence for belligerence's sake with a dash of gore. I found this to be incredibly stupid and rather obnoxious. Every other breath someone was swearing and every other move someone was getting either the crap kicked out of them or killed.
Spoiler Alert!
Wow, what a great plot, so incredibly sophisticated that I couldn't possibly have guessed the end in the first ten minutes (which might have been the best part of the movie). Basically the movie is about the son of this incredible assassin who was part of the 'Fraternity' which was a group of weavers (who decided they needed something more interesting to do everyday than make table clothes) who found a mystical cloth that was mysteriously being inscribed with a secret blanket code by one of the weaving machines. The incredibly bored and slightly psychopathic weavers magically decoded the code, found out that what was in the code was a bunch of names of people that 'fate' wanted them to kill, so they did so without question. Anyway, this guy's son is named Wesley. Wesley is a normal guy with a lying, cheating, annoying girlfriend who is having an affair with Wesley's best friend. Wesley has a normal job with a horrible boss. He also has 'anxiety attacks' when he is under stress. One night when Wesley is getting his anxiety attack prescription refilled he encounters Fox (or moreover Fox encounters him) who seemingly saves his life from some creepy fellow who has been stalking him since he entered the store. She 'rescues' Wesley and takes him to a Fraternity safehouse where he is given a gun and forced to shoot the wings off of a fly, after doing so he goes home and wakes up the next morning realizing that the previous job was not a horrific nightmare. That day the stress of work, his best friend, and his girlfriend makes him crack, he quits his job and smacks his friend with a keyboard before exiting the building and leaving in a car with Fox to the Fraternity headquarters which turns out to be a tapestry factory. There we re-encounter the head hancho who's name is Sloan (which to Alias fans such as myself was a red flag) who asks Wesley in many more words if he thinks he has what it takes to join the Fraternity, stupid child Wesley says "I'm ready." then is taken to a room to start his 'training.' He is asked why he's there and when he gives the wrong answer he is brutally beat upon until he passes out. He wakes up in a tub of white goo that apparently has healing powers to fix any physical (but obviously not mental) malady. The care-taker of the people in the tubs is an estranged Russian man who enjoys blowing up rats (just like Wesley's father according to said man). The rest of Wesley's training involves knife-fighting, bullet curving/gun shooting, running on top of trains, and grabbing one of the weaving instruments off of the machine. He is also continually asked the question and beaten when he gives the wrong answer until he answers that he is there because he doesn't know who he is. After he successfully completes the rest of his training he is shown the magical tapestry and given his first assignment (person to assassinate). I just realized that I forgot to mention earlier that Wesley's 'panic attacks' are the result of an overburst of adrenaline which allows him to experience life in slow motion; all the members of the Fraternity also possess this quality. He is also told that Crow (the stalker guy from the store who 'tried to kill him' on that fateful night) was the man who killed Wesley's father and that Wesley is supposed to kill him. After Wesley comletes his first assignment he is attacked in an alley by Crow who leaves the first 'traceable' bullet he has ever used. Wesley then tracks down the guy who made the bullet, Fox follows Wesley to meet the guy and shows up when the guy pulls a gun on Wesley, the guy sets up a meet with Crow at a train station, Wesley and Fox watch the guy from a closet while he waits for Crow, the guy runs, Wesley sees Crow and follows him onto a train while Fox chases the guy, blah, blah, blah, Fox crashes a car into the train in order to board, bad things happen, the train is derailed on a bridge, Wesley is hanging out the side of the train car he is in about to fall to his death when Crow grabs his arm (saving his life), Wesley shoots Crow who falls backward pulling Wesley onto the train, and then my favorite part ever:
Wesley: "You killed my father, bastard (some other profanity takes place)!"
Crow: "No Wesley I am YOUR FATHER." (dies)
Wesley: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Wesley (to Fox): "Did you know?"
Fox: "Duh, his name came up and you were the only one he wouldn't kill, your name came up too."
Wesley: (shoots window he is sitting on and escapes with Crow's body, wakes up in bath tub of white goo)
The rest of the movie is Wesley getting revenge on the Fraternity, he finds out his father quit the Freaternity after finding Sloan's name encoded in the cloth (big surprise there) then he lets a bunch of explosive rats loose in the factory then goes in guns blazing and kills all his trainers save for Fox. The almost final scene is him standing in the middle of a circle of Fraternity assassins at the headquarters with no ammo and lots of guns pointed at him. He accuses Sloan of having his name in the cloth and Sloan reveals that every person standing in the room has had their name come up and if the other assassins want to follow the code of the Fraternity they should kill themselves otherwise they should kill Wesley. Exit Mr. Sloan. One of the assassins is about to kill Wesley when Fox curves a bullet around the room so that it kills everyone in the ircle including herself. Sad moment. Wesley monologues in a voiceover as you see someone who looks like him sitting at a desk at his old office, Sloan shows up and holds a gun to the guy's head then swears when he finds out that the person sitting before him is in fact not Wesey, but a decoy. Oh crap! Then Wesley shoots him with an untraceable bullet from across town then swears at the audience. End worst movie I saw this year.
If you like to swear and kill people with unbelievable stunts than this movie is for you (it's out on DVD) otherwise save your money and your time.
