When was the last time anyone said, "I
heard the new Keanu Reeves movie was great." Acting since the mid 1980s,
Keanu first came into fame with movies like "Bill & Ted's Excellent
Adventure" and "Point Break." He gained further fame as an
action star with 1994's "Speed;" but with "The Matrix" in
1999, he became a household name. Unfortunately Reeves has fallen from grace
since then, doing terrible movie after terrible movie. He's one of those stars
we want to like but he's just not a great actor and constantly chooses bad
roles. So to everyone's surprise when the first reviews of his new movie
"John Wick" came out, they were overwhelmingly positive. Many said
this was Reeve's comeback role, the one that would reestablish him as a real
action movie star. Granted we have heard that statement many times over the
years, but this time is may actually be true.
John Wick is a simple,
retired man whose wife had just passed away. Stricken with grief, he's not sure
how he's supposed to go on with his life. The day of the funeral he receives
something from his recently deceased wife, a dog that she had delivered to him
upon her death. Meant to help him move on, he does his best and becomes attached
to the dog. One day while at a gas station a young man and son of a Russian mob
boss comes up to John offering to buy his classic muscle car, John responds in
a way the man finds unsatisfactory. Later that night, the man and his
associates break into John's hose to steal his car. Not only do they take it
and rough him up, they kill his dog. When they take it to a chop shop to get
forged papers for the car, the owner refuses to help after recognizing the car.
Shortly after the man finds out who the John Wick is from his father, a world
class hitman who used to do work for the mob. Really, really pissed off, John
is not going to take this lying down; and will go through hell to get his
revenge.
Going into this movie, I knew
absolutely nothing about it; I hadn't even seen the trailer. All I saw was that
it had a lot of great reviews, so I gave it a shot. And knowing nothing going
into it, I was pleasantly surprised. First off, I have to give it to Keanu
Reeves; he does a great job in the leading role, and I can't imagine anyone
else in the part. This might be his best performance, and that's including
"The Matrix." It helps that John Wick is a likable character.
Despite being a hitman and a murder, you root for him and want him to get his
revenge. The movie manages to be surprisingly emotional at times, there are a
few scenes where you feel for the title character; but on the other end of the
spectrum, the movie does a good job interjecting unexpected humor into several
scenes. More than once was the theater cracking up. But where this movie really
shines would be the action, and it’s pretty awesome. There are several
fantastic action sequences filled with beautiful fight choreography. The fights
feel similar to "Taken," they're brutal, efficient, and in your face.
It also helps that the movie has great cinematography which only ads to the
action. The way it's shot and how the action plays out, it feels like if you
took the action of "Taken" and combined it with the style of
"Drive." The movie does have a few drawbacks though. "John
Wick" suffers from more than a few action movie clichés that may take you
out of it. Also, while the writing works fine there are some lines of dialog
that aren't particularly good. Those complaints aside, this movie works. It may
be the best American action movie since "Mission Impossible: Ghost
Protocol." "John Wick" is a fun, badass action movie that is
worth your time and money.
Pros: Great performance by Keanu Reeves,
fantastic action scenes, beautiful fight choreography, great cinematography,
surprisingly emotional at times, does a good job interjecting comedy, likable
main character.
Cons: Suffers from several action movie clichés,
some dialog isn't particularly good.
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