John Wick - Film Review

Recently, I had the chance to check out Nobody (sorry, no review this time around), but I felt that something was lacking to truly make that film special. With that, I decided to revisit this and make a bit of cross-comparison.

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Where You Can Find It: I saw this on Amazon Video where it is available for rent/purchase.

General Information 
John Wick is a Neo-noir action film that was released on 24 October 2014. It was directed by Chad Stahelski and written by Derek Kolstad with Jonathan Sela providing the cinematography. It was primarily produced via Summit Entertainment and Thunder Road Pictures with Lionsgate distributing. It is the first entry in the John Wick trilogy (which is expected to become a tetralogy in March 2023). With a budget of approximately $20 million, it hauled in highly respectable $86 million at the box office. It has a fairly positive critical reception with a 68 Metascore on Metacritic, along with an 86% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Since its release, the John Wick series has become a considerably successful franchise that boasts its own video game spin-off, as well as comic books. The strategy video game, John WickHex, was released on 8 October 2019 and is now available on most gaming systems, while a five-book miniseries was released in 2017 showing John Wick’s origins. Beyond these, John Wick has also appeared in popular PC video games like Fortnite and Payday 2.

The Story

John Wick (played by Keanu Reeves) is grieving the recent loss of his wife when he receives a puppy in the mail as part of his deceased spouse's final wishes. The pup breathes new life into his world, but this newfound sense of catharsis is cut short when a group of Russian gangsters breaks into his home to steal his car and inadvertently snuff out the poor pooch. Only after the violent robbery does the whiny leader of the thugs, Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen), discover that John Wick is a legendary assassin who had gone into early retirement. Wick's on a quest for revenge now, and the New York City criminal underworld may not be ready for the coming rampage. 

 

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Iosef just had to bring the boogie man out of retirement...

Generally speaking, the classic revenge tale of this film is fairly run-of-the-mill and could easily have been featured in one of the several action movies from the 1980s. Despite that, we see a great deal of world building in the background as the story progresses and organically provides glimpses of a secret society of contract killers complete with mysterious hotels and body disposal services. The future sequels of this film arguably ruin this element of the film as they further explore this society, but this particular film gives just the right amount.

From a character perspective, I’m genuinely at a loss about the relatively simplistic approach used. I really dig the legendary hitman status encircling John Wick, which is conveyed through both words and deeds; however, the majority of the characters lack substantial depth. Nobody attempted to rectify this error (as did the future John Wick sequels), however I would argue that many of their characters weren’t all that appealing either.

Special Effects/Atmosphere

As action films go, presenting frenetic set pieces is where John Wick makes its money, and it does this with impeccable style. Every action sequence is a joy to see and the choreography is absolutely top-notch. Keanu Reeves’ preparation for this film has been well documented, and it’s clear that this training was put to good use. Seeing Wick fight his way through Russian mobsters and assassins is pretty darn cool, and I’d say it’s even more fascinating on a re-watch as there’s plenty of tricks he pulls that are hard to keep up with on a first-time viewing. The crown jewel of the film is the sequence at the Red Circle nightclub, which is only further improved with one hell of an adrenaline-pumping score. 

 

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Reeves has some killer moves in this one

In conjunction with the choreography, I was also impressed with the camerawork here. It’s not particularly arthouse in execution, however the way many of the set pieces are shot is very professional as the audience gets a good idea of the obstacles in John Wick’s way before he cuts through them like a buzz saw.

The Acting

Despite his resurgence in popularity, I think many critics would agree that Reeves isn’t particularly well-known for his acting chops. I absolutely adored Point Break and I last heard it’s a crime in the state of Alabama to dislike The Matrix, but I would doubt anyone would say those movies are good because of Reeves’ acting abilities. With all of that said, I think we get to see some raw emotion from Reeves with his “I’m back” speech being one of his better monologues.

The ones who really shine in this film are arguably the antagonists, Alfie Allen and Viggo Tarasov’s Michael Nyqvist. Despite being integral to the plot’s inciting incident, we don’t get to see too much of Allen’s Iosef, but Allen does a great job of presenting the self-entitled princeling he’s well-known for portraying. Nyqvist is arguably the best actor of this film though, as he commands nearly every scene he’s in and this is all only further enhanced by the first scene's opening lines.

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Nyqvist burns hot in this one

The Best of the Best: The shoot-out at the Red Circle is awesome.

The Worst of the Worst: Murdering a puppy.

Calhooey Score: 7/10 - Good

Would I Recommend?

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Definitely worth a belly-rub

John Wick is a solid action film with some great fight choreography and gunplay that makes for a fun watch. It reminds me of the older action films like Schwarzenegger’s Commando or Stallone’s Cobra, but it offers a sleeker and edgier presentation than its forebears. This is an action movie through and through and it is certainly worth the watch if you haven’t seen it already.

-------------------------------------------------Spoiler Comments-----------------------------------------------------

• I hope Wick didn't keep the puppy in the car while he was angry-driving on that airstrip.
• Words could not describe my initial horror and shock at the death of Wick's dog. No fate is too painful for such an atrocity.
• I could watch John Leguizamo punch Alfie Allen all day.

 

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• I would like to take this moment again (as I do in all my reviews of his work) to profess my undying admiration for Lance Reddick. He has a pretty small part in this, but I still really enjoyed seeing him in this.
• I like the fanfic idea of Willem Dafoe’s assassin character just being the worst hitman ever and actually trying to kill John Wick on multiple occasions but abysmally failing every time only to be executed for his ineptness at the end.
• I wince every time I see that part where Wick gets hit with that SUV. Ouch…
• I’m on the fence over how I feel about Viggo selling out his son. In one hand, he put his entire organization on the line for Iosef’s safety and that still wasn’t enough. On the other hand, his son was a puppy-killing Alfie Allen. I suppose I’ll just settle with saying that I don’t think he’s father of the year.
• It was an interesting touch that Iosef’s death is met with little fanfare. He just dies. No monologue, no slow-motion mixed with Evanescence, and not even a roar of vindication from Wick.
• Ah…there’s nothing like watching an action movie that ends with a rainy showdown at the docks.

----------------------------------------------------References--------------------------------------------------

(1) John Wick. (n.d.). John Wick film image. IMDB. Retrieved from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2911666/. 

(2)  Nevaehbrown. (2015, January 24). I'm back gif. Imgur. Retrieved from: https://imgur.com/t/john_wick/fLG82ih.

(3) DimTheLights. (2014). John Wick Red Circle fight gif. Makeagif. Retrieved from: https://makeagif.com/gif/john-wick-2014-the-red-circle-fight-scene-iE70an.

(4) JohnWick. (2020, May 28). Nyqvist smoking gif. Tenor. Retrieved from: https://tenor.com/view/puffing-a-smoke-chilling-out-smoking-blow-out-smoke-not-happy-gif-17340057.

(5) Alexander, B. (2014, October 21). Keanu Reeves and puppy. USA Today. Retrieved from: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2014/10/21/beagle-john-wick-keanu-reeves/17649691/.

(6) JohnWick. (2020, May 28). Punch Strike gif. Tenor. Retrieved from: https://tenor.com/view/punch-strike-hit-hard-punched-punched-in-the-face-gif-17339984.