John Wick: Movie Review
The new Keanu Reeves action flick “John Wick” has been getting a lot of great buzz. Having just seen it for myself, I can assure you that all the positive things you have been hearing are spot on. In fact, John Wick is one of the best action films I have seen this year (coming a close second to “Snowpiercer”). I haven’t seen “The Raid 2” so I can’t make that comparison. It came as no surprise to me, that first time directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski are both stunt men with an impressive body of work. What did surprise me was just how well the self-aware humor worked, especially since the screenplay was written by Derek Kolstad who had only written two direct-to-video Dolph Lundgren flicks before “John Wick”. I seriously didn’t go into this expecting to laugh as much as I did.
John Wick (Reeves) has just lost his wife to a long-term illness. Her final gift to her husband was a cute puppy named Daisy. While mourning the loss of his other half, a group of Russian thugs break into John’s house to steal is much loved 1969 Mustang. In the process they not only beat John to a bloody pulp, but they kill his puppy as well.
What the thugs didn’t realize at the time, was that John Wick is a retired mafia hitman and leaving him alive was a big mistake on their part. One of them is Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen), the son of Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist) the most powerful crime boss in the city. He also happens to be John’s former employer. When Viggo learns what his son has done and who he did it to, he explains to Iosef just exactly who he messed with and they he is essentially screwed.
Some of the best dialogue in “John Wick” is when people actually talk about the title character and how dangerous he is. Thankfully, the filmakers/stuntment help their leading men live up to those words, because there are some incredible action sequences here. The one that takes place in a bathhouse/nightclub is my personal favorite. Reeves actually seems faster and stronger than he ever did in “The Matrix” series. It helps that this is more of an old school action film rather than a modern day CGI fest.
The screening I attended was in IMAX and I have to tell you, it did justice to the action sequences..but that puppy was adorable-overload on the mega-screen. It just made you hate the bad guys even more when they whacked it. If you love action then go see “John Wick”, it is absolutely Wick-ed.
By: Marc Ferman