John Wick
Posted by Itheliving 9 years, 6 months ago to Movies
John Wick / Rated R for violence, language, mean people and cartoon like subtitles.
John Wick is the main character and title of Keanu Reeves first big screen appearance since 47 Ronin. The 47 refers to the number of people who saw this film in theaters. Not being one of them I have no opinion to offer other than it must have been a big stinker. JW is a violent but well staged and edited action thriller. JW, the character, is a retired hit man. Not just any hit man but THE HITMAN. He was the hit man to end all hit men. He never missed. He took on the jobs no one else wanted to take on. He is the reason the Man in the Moon is dead.
Four years into retirement JW is living an idyllic with a beautiful wife and satellite TV that gets every channel on three different planets. Then his wife is shot dead by unknown assailants. He mourns for a while but then a puppy is delivered to his door and a note from his deceased spouse. While filling his souped up car with gas he is approached by rowdy Russian’s who want to buy the car. He needs to get home so he says no. Then they come to his house in the dead of night, wreck things, beat him senseless, steal the car and, this is the big one, they kill his cute little puppy left by his now buried soul mate.
He then un retires. The Russian baddies realize their mistake and send out a large army of hit men to hit THE HITMAN. He an annihilates them using just a letter opener and a dirty look. Actually he uses a waffle iron while actually consuming the waffle.
Then he goes to his secret room and uses a sledge hammer to retrieve his armory from under the cement while the Russian gangsters start to understand they may have really mucked this one up. A large 2 million dollar bounty is placed on his head. Meanwhile, KR/JW checks into a posh downtown NYC hotel that apparently caters just to bad guys. Violence on the premises is taboo. The bounty gets doubled and the violence carries over to the Motel 6 Million and JW goes wild. He shoots up car yards, cathedrals, nightclubs, and any where else that the bad buys hang out. Thousands die and more damage is done than if he drove a tank through town firing wildly in all directions.
The plot to JW is paper thin although there are a few nifty surprises. Since the running time sans end titles is a tidy 90 minutes the action never lets up. It doesn’t have time to do so. KR is absolutely electrifying on screen and looks great in those scenes where a double is not in use. Most of the action takes place indoors at night to help cover up the shortcomings that might otherwise be obvious. The film contains a heavy metal hard rock song play list that is more macho than the macho characters on screen. It is so bad it’s as if a concert is going on in the theater next door and somebody left the communal door open. When will they learn no music is better than the wrong music?
Otherwise this is a beautifully made film for what it is. What it is is a story of revenge. Not much else.
Rated 3.2 out of 4.0 reasons to remember not to stay at The Continental in NYC.
John Wick is the main character and title of Keanu Reeves first big screen appearance since 47 Ronin. The 47 refers to the number of people who saw this film in theaters. Not being one of them I have no opinion to offer other than it must have been a big stinker. JW is a violent but well staged and edited action thriller. JW, the character, is a retired hit man. Not just any hit man but THE HITMAN. He was the hit man to end all hit men. He never missed. He took on the jobs no one else wanted to take on. He is the reason the Man in the Moon is dead.
Four years into retirement JW is living an idyllic with a beautiful wife and satellite TV that gets every channel on three different planets. Then his wife is shot dead by unknown assailants. He mourns for a while but then a puppy is delivered to his door and a note from his deceased spouse. While filling his souped up car with gas he is approached by rowdy Russian’s who want to buy the car. He needs to get home so he says no. Then they come to his house in the dead of night, wreck things, beat him senseless, steal the car and, this is the big one, they kill his cute little puppy left by his now buried soul mate.
He then un retires. The Russian baddies realize their mistake and send out a large army of hit men to hit THE HITMAN. He an annihilates them using just a letter opener and a dirty look. Actually he uses a waffle iron while actually consuming the waffle.
Then he goes to his secret room and uses a sledge hammer to retrieve his armory from under the cement while the Russian gangsters start to understand they may have really mucked this one up. A large 2 million dollar bounty is placed on his head. Meanwhile, KR/JW checks into a posh downtown NYC hotel that apparently caters just to bad guys. Violence on the premises is taboo. The bounty gets doubled and the violence carries over to the Motel 6 Million and JW goes wild. He shoots up car yards, cathedrals, nightclubs, and any where else that the bad buys hang out. Thousands die and more damage is done than if he drove a tank through town firing wildly in all directions.
The plot to JW is paper thin although there are a few nifty surprises. Since the running time sans end titles is a tidy 90 minutes the action never lets up. It doesn’t have time to do so. KR is absolutely electrifying on screen and looks great in those scenes where a double is not in use. Most of the action takes place indoors at night to help cover up the shortcomings that might otherwise be obvious. The film contains a heavy metal hard rock song play list that is more macho than the macho characters on screen. It is so bad it’s as if a concert is going on in the theater next door and somebody left the communal door open. When will they learn no music is better than the wrong music?
Otherwise this is a beautifully made film for what it is. What it is is a story of revenge. Not much else.
Rated 3.2 out of 4.0 reasons to remember not to stay at The Continental in NYC.
