Hit men must be the most overrepresented profession in cinema: To judge from the movies, something like one of every five able-bodied men, women, or children is an assassin. The comedyWild Target is yet another film about a gunman for hire, one who decides to protect, rather than kill, his mark, a flighty, reckless con woman. We’d write the whole thing off as manic and silly, except that the all-British cast is a who’s who of actors who are fun to watch even in the stupidest films: Bill Nighy plays the hit man, Emily Blunt the sassy con, Rupert Everett the man she duped, Rupert Grint (a.k.a. Ron from Harry Potter) the seemingly incompetent guy Nighy and Blunt pick up for the adventure, and Martin Freeman (Tim on the original Office) as the bad guy called in when Nighy isn’t up to the job. Plus, the director, Jonathan Lynn, has made movies with sillier premises and less promising casts — Clue, My Cousin Vinny, The Whole Nine Yards, uhm, Nuns on the Run — work. Oh, and there’s a “You took off a piece of my ear!†joke at the end.
