John Wick Review

Keanu Reeves isn’t a particularly good actor, when stretched in certain performances it shows, what Keanu Reeves is however is a proper movie star and thankfully this film does everything right in proving that. It’s a story we’ve all heard before, man who is retired from his dark past is dragged back into the violence when bad men takes something he loves. That almost sounds like Taken, the difference is that Taken is absolute dross and stars a man that has no business in action films, unlike John Wick which takes a simple premise and makes it seriously fucking cool. Reeves plays the titular character who goes on a one man killing rampage to find and kill the scumbag son of his former boss who broke into his home, stole his car and killed his dog given to John by his dying wife. What separates this film first from other similar fare is its action sequences, unlike other films which rely heavily on editing to disguise that its stars are really a bit crap, this film has 2 directors (formerly the martial arts co-ordinators on The Matrix films) who understand the cinematic quality of a well-choreographed fight sequence or shoot out, as the camera steps back and marvels at Wick dispatching people left, right and centre it creates a character that we genuinely believe is unstoppable. This is also supported by every other characters reactions to John Wick, the name seems to strike fear into anyone who hears it, summaries of Wick being “he’s not the boogeyman, he’s the guy you’d get to kill the boogeyman” or “I once saw John Wick kill four guys in a bar fight…with a pencil”. Taken somehow managed to spawn 2 sequels, the first film was shit, it definitely didn’t warrant 2 more films from the same universe, John Wick however creates a universe that I’d love to see sequels from, there is a hit man hotel called the continental and they all have their own currency and its all these little things that make John Wick so interesting, but more than anything it just seriously kicks ass. (High 4 Stars)