Ratings:
7.2/10 from
200,307 users
Metascore: 68/100
Reviews:
572 user
|
344 critic
|
39
from
Metacritic.com
An ex-hitman comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that took everything from him.
Directors: Chad Stahelski,
David Leitch (uncredited)
Writer: Derek Kolstad
Stars: Keanu Reeves,
Michael Nyqvist,
Alfie Allen |
See full cast and crew »
Storyline
John Wick is a mob hit man who, upon falling in love, quits. 5 years
later, his wife dies and to make sure he's not alone she arranges for a
dog to be brought to him after her death. Later, some men wanting his
car break in and beat him up and kill his dog. When he recovers, he sets
to get the ones who killed his dog. He learns that the leader is the
son of his former employer. And the man wanting to protect his son,
tries to take care of Wick but he's still as good as he was.
Written by
rcs0411@yahoo.com.
User Reviews
John
Wick had been out awhile and at first I had little interest in seeing
it as, for me, Keanu Reeves is generally whatever the opposite of a
selling point is. However I kept hearing about how this was a bit of a
throw back of an action movie and upon reading the connection between
the director and Keanu, I thought I would have to put aside my
preconceived notions and give this movie a shot.
The movie had
two ex-stunt men (one of which was Keanu Reeves' former stunt double)
helming this film. This resulted in a lot of practical effects instead
of heavy reliance on green screen. Also familiarity with Reeves likely
left the directors with a base knowledge with how far they could push
the star. This left the film's action scenes clean, realistic, to the
point, and a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
If I was going to
break down the film's format, well it is of the "semi-generic Punisher
type, ex bad ass comes out of retirement to take on other bad asses"
type variety. It was 75% Japanese yakuza film, 20% Film Noir, and 5%
video game. One stylistic element that jumped out at me right away was
the choice to go with a narrow scope of field for focus. At first I
thought maybe this was the projector in the theater but then I realized
it was a choice made for the film. Normally this would annoy me
slightly, and I suppose still did, as I am a big fan of depth of field,
mise–en–scènes set ups (Citizen Kane is one of my favorite films). I
came to terms with the stylistic choice made for this film as it
reminded me so much of Eastern influences, in this case it was
reminiscent of Zen ink and brush compositions, where the sharpness lies
in where the brush first touches down and the edges disappear into an
almost mist like effect.
While Keanu sold the action pieces well,
he wasn't asked to do too much to stretch his stoic emotional range,
which is just what the film required. He was pretty much perfect for
this part if I had been for some reason been asked to recast this film, I
would be hard pressed to find a better fit. This would have been right
up Jason Statham's alley, however there is nothing more he could have
added to it. There was something quietly instance about Reeves that made
you feel that he was one not to be trifled with. Statham will always
remind me of the character he played in Snatch, which was not at all
overly menacing or intimidating. Rather, if I had my choice of an
alternative, I would delve further into the Japanese gangster genre and
extract Chow Yun-fat. Reeves was 49 in this film and still convincing as
an ass kicker. Chow Yun-fat would have been ten years older, but that
would have further added to the realism of a retired hit man that is
unwillingly dragged back into the 'business'.
Speaking of
performances, this film was full of great character actors from the
action genre and otherwise. One of these performances that I was not
overly fond of was that of Alfie Allen. You probably know him as the
dickless Theon Greyjoy. He worked in the part in that he was highly
unlikable, however I was not sure which accent he was trying to commit
to. This brings me to another flaw of the film. Many of the baddies
simply did not measure up to be worthy of the John Wick challenge. A
spoiled brat son of a crime boss nor the crime boss himself, an old man
that the film gave no hint as to any physical prowess until the
anticlimactic final battle gave any feeling that the fight would go any
other direction except to a single minded John Wick killing stroke.
I
highly recommend this film if you are a fan of good action. This easily
ranks as one of the pure action movies of 2014. Judged as just a movie,
it is simple in story structure, but what it does it does very well.
Blarv Score out of 10: 8.8
