Wild Target - His Sharpest Target - DVD

Film: Jonathan Lynn, director of "No Half Measures" or "My Cousin Winnie", returns after a seven-year break from directing with a remake of the 1993 French comedy "The Killer and the Girl" starring Jean Rochefort. With a delightfully British sense of humor and a charming cast, he's managed to pull off a nice comedy that just could have used a little more bite.

The story centers on aging professional hitman Victor Maynard (Bill Nighy), who is hired to take down the attractive Rose (Emily Blunt), who has ripped off Maynard's client (Rupert Everett) at the sale of a supposedly valuable painting. Too bad the loner is strongly attracted to the manipulative, kleptomaniac Rose, making him a target for a professional killer (Martin Freeman) himself. To make matters worse, young Tony ("Harry Potter" star Rupert Grint) hangs onto Victor's heels, becoming an apprentice of sorts to the killer. But protecting the stubborn Rose doesn't necessarily get any easier as a result...

"Wild Target - His Sharpest Target" has some very nice moments to offer, especially coming from the clash of the different characters. On the one hand there is Bill Nighy ("Actually...Love") as a professional killer who lives and works in seclusion according to strict rules and always fights for the approval of his bossy mother (wonderful: Eileen Atkins). On the other side Emily Blunt, chaos on two legs, who lives entirely by her own rules and manipulates the people around her at every opportunity. This mismatched duo provides quite a few laughs, which are intensified by the appearance of Rupert Grint in a pleasantly different role from the character of Ron Weasly. But other actors, such as the soon-to-be-roaming across screens as the young Hobbit Bilbo Baggins, Martin Freeman as a crazed killer, also make the film a real treat from a purely performance standpoint.

Moments like the one where Victor sees his beloved cat again, briefly breaking out of his reclusive behavior, or when he notices what his mother has done to a very chatty parrot, quickly make you forget about any small hangs in the production. However, even though many scenes work really well, the overall work ultimately lacks the spark to make this comedy more than just "nette" entertainment. For an entertaining DVD evening that is enough, but with the template and the great actors would certainly have been more in it!

Picture + Sound: Both the clean image, as well as the coherently mixed sound are on a good level. The very big revelation should not be expected especially in the sound, but since there is no real reason for real complaints, the overall verdict for the technical implementation is quite positive.

Extras: Unfortunately, there is not much to find in the bonus section of the DVD. Only a barely 15-minute look behind the scenes and the trailer are included on the disc.

Conclusion: "Wild Target - His sharpest target" is a nice, well-cast comedy that unfortunately can not play to its full potential, but overall entertains well. The DVD is technically well implemented, but disappoints with the rather meager bonus material. Overall, however, there is still a: Recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp