Rating of
3/4
The Greatest Anti-Hero of 2014
Chris Kavan - wrote on 01/24/15
John Wick is the rare action movie that, while it has an impressively high body count, actually seems to take itself seriously. I mean, the hero actually re-loads his weapons, he uses a contemporary (and useful) fighting style (a variation of Judo) with a lot of arm holds and throws, chokes and take downs (none of this over-the-top wire-fu nonsense) and he and his friends follow a strict code.
We open the movie with our "hero" saying goodbye to his wife (probably to cancer or other illness) and while grieving finds out she left him an adorable puppy - to have a purpose in his life other than his (kick-ass) car. But, of course, things can't stay happy. A group of Russian thugs happen to be at the same gas station and admire his car, when he tells them in no uncertain terms to stay the f back, they take it personal. A late night visit leaves him battered, his car stolen and, most heinous of all, his cute puppy dead. Thus he gets back in "the game" he left behind.
We then follow Wick as he tracks down the Russian upstart, going up against his father as well - a former boss that, through one of his last actions before retiring, essentially laid the groundwork for his current empire. He also has to dead with a bounty on his head - what this all means is the body count is high (according to IMDB, 119 deaths, 78 attributed to Wick himself). And believe me, the movie earns its R rating as there are plenty of head shots, blood and some wicked fights to go around.
The casting in the film is superb. Keanu Reeves has been kind of MIA since The Matrix films. 47 Ronin was a disappointment, and he has bounced between big-budget mediocrity (The Day the Earth Stood Still, Constantine) and little-seen indie films (Henry's Crime, Thumbsucker). I think John Wick is a return to form for the actor - often called a bit wooden, but here his stoicism pays off in spades as he comes across and calm, cool and as badass as possible.
The rest of the cast is great - Alfie Allen (best known as Theon Greyjoy from Game of Thrones) is the Russian who starts this whole mess, The talented Michael Nyqvist plays his father. Adrianne Palicki is given the role of a duplicitous female assassin/hitman while Willem Dafoe is a sniper with a connection to Wick. Look for Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, Lance Reddick and Dean Winters (aka that Mayhem guy in the insurance commercials) in small but memorable roles themselves. All in all, though I found the faces familiar, it was nice seeing them playing some different parts on the big screen from what I was accustomed to (though Allen is as annoying prat her as he is on GoT).
I also found the idea of the code of these cold-blooded killers as interesting and quite well thought-our. When you break said code - watch out - because it will catch up to you, as it does multiple characters in the film. Not enough other films give their characters an incentive to behave - bad or good - but here, actions do have consequences - and the resulting pile of bodies is going to keep the cleanup crew busy for a long time.
John Wick is pretty much a pure action/revenge film - but it marches to a different beat than a typical film of this kind. If you don't object to a lot of violence, this film is worth the watch and hopefully Reeves once again finds his footing, because this has been his best film in ages.
