Remarkably stylish, fiendishly thrilling, and giddily kinetic, Keanu Reeves’s latest explosive thrill-ride “John Wick” serves as a rather satisfying return to hard-core action for the underappreciated cult-classic actor while also appearing to be the first of a potential adrenaline-fueled franchise. Full of bullets, wicked hand-to-hand combat, and relentless mayhem, this surprisingly exceptional revenge narrative turns out to be not only a thoroughly well-suited genre reboot for Keanu Reeves, but it also manages to reinvent many clichés and tropes by exaggerating them to a whole new level, thereby rendering the film a truly fun and entertaining experience. “John Wick” legitimately deserves 84 stars – one for every anonymous thug Keanu Reeves murders with a brain-splattering head shot, the number of which surpass the quantity of stars in the freakin sky! John Wick actually killed 15 men in the time it took me to write that opening paragraph :D The movie, itself, actually earns 4-and-a-half out of five stars for being a proudly pulpy piece of genre filmmaking that bites off a little more than it can chew in its final minutes but still crams enough convincing thrills and kills into a slick, dark, neo-noirish package. “John Wick” is the type of movie actor Nicholas Cage thinks he’s making, every time; except Cage routinely strikes out while swinging for these fences, and Reeves instead connects on a bases-clearing triple as Wick. Reeves stars as the titular anti-hero, John Wick. His character can best be described as a beehive at midnight: he’s dormant, he’s docile, he may even be harmless, but he’s most certainly potentially dangerous. In other words, John Wick isn’t necessarily a problem unless he’s poked and provoked – which is exactly what happens in the story when the spoiled, arrogant son of a powerful Russian mobster takes a liking to Wick’s prized muscle car, a near-flawless 1969 Mustang. Together with a gaggle of oily henchmen, the snotty brat breaks into Wick’s home in the dead of night, and together they beat Wick until he’s lying coiled on the floor. They steal his car, but only after they first kill the adorable puppy John’s late wife, Helen, left for him following her recent death. Leaving Wick bloodied and unconscious on the floor, these brutes think they’ve gotten away with it – until it’s later revealed to them that the man from whom they stole and have savagely beaten (Wick) is in fact a retired but highly-trained assassin. Simultaneously, allowing the death of both his wife and puppy to fuel his rage and vengeful thirst for blood, John regains his composure. He arms himself with wits and pistols as he mercilessly hunts down the punk who dared to intimidate him, obliterating anyone and everyone who stands in his way. Wick is at first in mourning…..until that right is forcibly taken from him. Now the man has a reason to live. He has an entire army of Russian baddies to exterminate. If only these villainous pricks had understood the film’s slogan: ‘Don’t Set Him Off.’ By the time you have read this far, John Wick has now killed 17 more men ;) Filmmakers David Leitch and Chad Stahelski – both of whom directed “John Wick” – have specifically proven themselves to be competent artists in the field of action, and upon studying their backgrounds, one will find their talents unsurprising though noteworthy. Both men came up through the stunt departments of major-budget films like “300”, “V for Vendetta”, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, and the original “Matrix” (where Stahelski in fact stunt-doubled for Keanu Reeves). This helps explain why, at the very least, there’s a stirring fluidity to the violent choreography of “John Wick”, and every single scene is lit for maximum action authenticity. Shootouts occur in neon-drenched nightclubs, where Reeves tirelessly – OK, exhaustively – eliminates wave after wave of incompetent foes. Boss-level battles between Wick and members of the Tarasov family (the gangsters who have wronged him) take place in pounding thunderstorms, primarily because the genre demands it. For the most part, though, “John Wick” is a film which makes small decisions that help set it apart from disposable entries in the hitman genre. Directors Leith and Stahelski engineer the film so that we instantly sympathize and root for John Wick on his ridiculously amusing rampage. Though “John Wick” is unapologetically violent, it isn’t mean. Things get vicious as John stares down insurmountable odds, but the movie finds unstable ways to help our damaged hero overcome numerous obstacles. There’s an odd dichotomy to John Wick, though. We learn very little about Reeves’ mourning character, and even less about the men he’s eliminating. But the film occasionally goes the extra mile to explain away questions some might never really know they had about action movies – namely, how does one get rid of the thugs that have invaded your house, then met their demise? Answer: you make what Wick describes to a cleaner on the phone as a “dinner reservation” (hintity hint-hint). John Wick is undeniably a total badass, and it’s any man’s wonder why Reeves was never asked to be a part of Stallone’s “Expendables” franchise since Reeves would most definitely make the cut. Being a stylish piece of genre filmmaking as well as a kick-ass 65-minute story banging around in a 96-minute package, this year’s “John Wick” is a well-conceived and brilliantly executed action spectacle that surpasses expectations in multiple different ways. It’s funny, it’s dramatic, its exaggerative, it’s explosive, and it’s just an all-around good time at the theater. Go see it. You’ll recognize the exact moment where the movie should have ended…but doesn’t, and that’s only because Wick has to kill as many bad guys as he can before the sun sets and rises again. Speaking of, this review is now finished. But John’s kill count has reached triple digits, and continues to climb :D https://youtube/watch?v=C0BMx-qxsP4
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 01:44:49 +0000
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