Bill Nighy is, indisputably, awesome; one of those actors who is generally the best thing in whatever he appears in, elevating the dismal likes of “Love, Actually” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.” Emily Blunt is equally great — while she’s much earlier in her career, she’s given reliably excellent performances in more-or-less everything she’s done since her breakthrough in “My Summer of Love,” even if, like Nighy, the material hasn’t always done her justice.
So pairing the two in a dark comedy should be a recipe for success, right? Right? “Wild Target” is a remake of the 1993 French comedy “Cible emouvante,” and follows a lonely middle-aged hitman (Nighy) who’s asked to kill a conwoman (Blunt) after she rips off a mob boss (Rupert Everett). When he’s about to take her out, he has a change of heart and goes on the run with her, along with a delivery boy (Rupert Grint; yes, Ron from “Harry Potter”), who becomes his apprentice.
It’s a fairly generic set-up, but considering the talent on board, we’d hoped it might be something more interesting. Sadly, the trailer looks sort of awful, as you might expect from veteran helmer Jonathan Lynn, who was behind such comedy classics as “Clue,” “The Whole Nine Yards,” “Nuns on the Run” and “Sgt. Bilko.” Blunt seems to have mistaken ‘light and funny’ for ‘shrieky and irritating,’ while Rupert Grint mugs helplessly for the camera. There’s a couple of moments that raise a vague smile, mostly thanks to Nighy, but otherwise there’s little to be optimistic about here. The film opens in the U.K. on June 18th — there’s no word on a U.S. release yet (and don’t hold your breath for one). (via /Film)