"In a bar, I once saw him kill three men... with a pencil."
After the son of a Russian mafia boss kills John Wick's dog, the last gift left behind by his dead wife, John Wick comes out of retirement as a hitman and goes after the Russian mob.
After what seemed like a lifetime since it was released in the US, we finally get a UK release of 'John Wick'. I was interested to see the film that is being hailed as Keanu Reeve's return to form and saw it on opening weekend.
What I loved about 'John Wick', straight from the start, is the level intrigue about his character. We get pieces of information about his dead wife and little snippets of his personality but nothing in black and white. As the film progresses we begin to understand that there is a hell of a lot more to him than meets the eye. He has a legendary, almost mythical, reputation surrounding him that almost no one could ever live up to...
Almost.
John Wick is a badass.
It is so refreshing to see an action character who actually deserves his reputation for violence and fear. No matter where this guy goes he seems to be known by everyone. He is the most skilled hitman in America, who is slightly rusty from being out of the game for so long, but he is still a force to be reckoned with nonetheless.
When it's all going down, he almost always hits his target, he lands headshot after headshot and is ruthless in his violent delivery. You can tell that it's a natural motion for him and it comes across as effortless. It irritates me when a character, in other films, is meant to be as skilled as John Wick but can't seem to hit anything, it takes me right out of the film and that's why I applaud 'John Wick'. You better believe when he sets his sight on someone, chances are, they are going to get a bullet in the face.
The action in the film is great. Watching Keanu Reeves kick some serious mafia ass is always going to be entertaining. The world that is created in ‘John Wick’ feels something like a video game. You, the audience, are playing as John Wick and there are different levels to get through which are progressively harder. There are rules in the film and principles that people live by that are fun to learn as they come along. You meet lots of interesting characters that are scattered through the film with bucketloads of unique details about the world that just bring the film to life. It makes for an extremely textured viewing that seems amiss in a lot of films of today.
A fantastic soundtrack is also heard in 'John Wick' that features Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard alongside artists like Marilyn Manson and Ciscandra Nostalghia, so it's a mixed bag of sounds and styles but one that suits the film perfectly.
Keanu Reeves is the perfect actor to play John Wick. He is likeable and relatable and you genuinely root for him the whole way through. They killed his dog, who wouldn't go on a vendetta?
Despite having some very questionable dialogue he still manages to make it work in a way only Keanu Reeves can and steals every scene he's in. It’s one of the few films I’ve liked him in since ‘The Matrix’ and I can definitely understand why ‘John Wick’ is being hailed as his return to form. He does all of his action sequences flawlessly and, from what I could tell, all of his own driving? CGI is so advanced that they could fake it but I think it was actually him doing the driving scenes in camera.
Alfie Allen plays Iosef Tarasov, the nasty piece of work who kills John Wick’s dog but, for me, the stand out supporting role is the mafia boss Viggo Tarasov played by Michael Nyqvist. He is likeable and you understand where he is coming from. He doesn’t want to take on John Wick because of his utmost respect (and fear) for him but because his son is being targeted, no matter how extremely stupid he has been, he has to stand by him. This is an interesting character and one that caught my attention straight away. Michael Nyqvist is a fine actor which helped give some believability to Viggo rather than turning him into a caricature of a mafia boss from every other film you've seen.
The film is a bit cheesy at times but in a playful way that actually seems to work in the film. There are lines of humorous dialogue and scenes that are totally ridiculous but are absolutely believable in the world that the film creates. If you were to pluck lines of dialogue from scenes and drop them into a different film then they would come across as totally hammy and pantomime but within the confines of ‘John Wick’ they are entertaining and apt for the situation.
Overall, ‘John Wick’ is great fun.
It’ll keep you entertained and on the edge of your seat. It creates a unique world that you can dive into and has some high voltage, white knuckle fight sequences that put Liam Neeson to shame.
Let’s just hope there won’t be a John Wick 2…
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