Revenge films will never go out of fashion especially when there’s always new ways to kill bad guys. John Wick (Keanu Reeves) has invented what I like to call “shoot punching”, which is pretty much punching someone while shooting them at the same time.
John Wick’s love-of-his-life wife dies due to an illness and leaves behind a puppy for John to look after and move on with his life. It’s a very cute puppy. So, of course he runs into a couple of Russian mobsters who want his car, he says no, they break into his house, kill his dog, steal his car and beat him senseless. You know, that old tale. This sets up Wick with nothing to lose but to inflict unbridled carnage to the Russian mobsters.
Cute beagle pup and John Wick (Keanu Reeves)
The film then does everything it can to set up Wick as this indomitable underground legend who is touted as a boogeyman. This also serves to set up the assassin world quite nicely showing the rules and regulations that govern the world of assassins and mobsters. It’s an interesting world that the directors John Stahelski and David Leitch show with style.
Reeves is in his brooding element and shows he’s still the great physical actor we remember from the Matrix. The Russian mob leader (Michael Nyqvist) is not wholly evil like his son played by Game of Thrones’ Alfie Allen, which makes you sympathetic for the father giving a slight fresh take to the genre.
John Wick’s path of destruction
What sets this apart from Taken, Taken 2 and Taken 3 is not a lot, except the style of gun play is very fun to watch. Who knew you could shoot a gun like that? The fight scenes and shoot outs are all very entertaining. There’s also the surprise cameos from Willem Dafoe, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo and Adrianne Palicki who are all solid and add respectability to an already slick looking film.
This is a straight up revenge fest with great choreography set in a fascinating underground world. The ending I thought was an anti-climax but the ride was certainly enjoyable.
Ricardo Ramirez 