John Wick
John Wick is a 2014 action film starring Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane and Willem Dafoe. The film was directed by David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, the two are well known Hollywood stuntmen who have worked on films such as ‘V for Vendetta’ and ‘The Bourne Legacy’.
The film is about a legendary, but now retired assassin known as John Wick (Keanu Reeves). Wick’s home is broken into by a bunch of mobsters who beat him and steal his car, but the truly unforgivable mistake on their behalf’s was killing Wick’s dog, who was a final gift from his recently deceased wife. Wick then vows revenge on them, and goes on a one man killing spree to avenge his dog.
The film realises what it is. A fun B-movie action romp. Knowing this is but one of the films many strengths. It combines this with truly amazing fight choreography, an interesting crime world, memorable characters and a catchy soundtrack. The film leaves itself open to a sequel (Which is being released February 10th 2017) but the movie also tells a standalone story that is a satisfying conclusion to the character and his journey.
The action in this film is truly something to behold. There is a perfect balance between hand to hand combat and gun combat. Reeves did his stunts as well which makes it even more impressive as he had to go through extensive hand to hand fighting and gun handling training to learn how his character would “carry” himself in fights. The action is shown in this film in such a way that it genuinely feels plausible that it could be done in real life, which adds to the movies believability. Wick is shown to be this force of nature that can’t be stopped, yet he is not invincible. Throughout the film he does sustain injuries and there is a legitimate threat at times that he may not be able to succeed, this always keeps the action interesting.
Most of the cast give decent performances. Nobody stands out as being exceptional but nobody holds the film back. Reeves is an actor that is often criticized for having the acting abilities of “a wooden plank”, however he does prove to be quite capable of showing genuine emotions in this film. Whatever woodenness he does have also lends itself to the character of John Wick, as he is meant to be a widely feared assassin (at one point a character refers to him as “The person you send to kill the fucking Boogeyman”), who should be showing little to no emotion.
The pacing in the film is ok. It does admittedly start of somewhat slow and dull. However this is perfectly fine as the film uses this time to drop hints here and there as to exactly why people know not to mess with John Wick. This then builds up the suspense leading towards the first action scene wherein we are shown just how dangerous Wick truly is.
The plot as previously mentioned is nothing special. It is refreshing to see the motivations for the protagonists actions being the loss of a pet, rather than a shoehorned in love interest. However that doesn’t change the fact that this movie still has a very standard B-movie plot.
Overall I enjoy this movie quite a lot and find it very re-watchable. There is some humour to be found and it usually gets a laugh. The action is definitely the highlight of the film and is some of the best I have seen in recent action films. I highly recommend this movie to anybody that just wishes to have a good time, and isn’t looking for a film that requires much thought to truly enjoy.
Score: 7.5/10