“He’s not the boogeyman, he’s the guy you send to kill the boogeyman.”
The H-Bomb: Retired assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is mourning the recent passing of his wife (Bridget Moynahan) when he runs into a young Russian thug, Iosef (Alifie Allen), who takes a liking to Wick’s vintage muscle car. Iosef offers to buy it on the spot, but Wick blows him off. Turns out, Iosef does not handle rejection well, and follows Wick back to his home, with his goon squad in tow. There they beat the shit out of Wick, kill the Beagle puppy that his late wife left him, and steal his car.
As it happens, young Iosef has no idea who John Wick is or what fucking with him could mean, but his father, Russian mobster Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist) does, as Wick was one of the underworld’s most lethal and feared hit men. Viggo knows that Wick won’t let this lie, and assembles a small army of hired guns to protect his son and take Wick down. Surely enough, Wick digs out his old stash of firearms, and comes gunning for Iosef, willing and able to mow down anyone who gets in his way.
After all, they did steal his car, and kill his fuckin’ dog… what else is a man to do?
When the ruthless bit of B-movie bad-assery that is John Wick blasted its way into theaters last October, pretty much the entire movie going public, myself shamefully included, opted to go see Ouija, instead. That is a tragic mistake that I will forever regret, because not only did I contribute to that piece of shit board game movie becoming an undeserved hit, I also helped cause John Wick to become an undeserved flop. This is the Dredd 3D of 2014, a ferocious, blood drenched bullet fest that not nearly enough people paid attention to. Now that it’s available for home viewing, it is high time we right that wrong.
Keanu Reeves may not be a name that is always synonymous with good movies, but I’ve always thought he was perfectly adept at playing strong, silent types, and as the title character here, he makes for a perfect anti-hero worth rooting for. On the surface, Wick does seem like just another scumbag in a sea of scumbags, however, Reeves plays him with enough humanity to make the audience get behind him. That… and they did kill his fuckin’ dog. If you’re not on his side after that, you’re not fuckin’ human.
There is no real depth or subtext to speak of, just ninety-something minutes of this Wick guy kicking ass, taking names, and blowing holes through people’s heads. And that’s really all the movie needs to be. There is no pretentious philosophical babbling like we got in The Matrix flicks, and for that I am deeply Goddamn grateful. All bullets and no bullshit, just how I like it.
The “Gun Fu” on display here is an astounding sight to behold. With extensive choreography and stunt work, the carnage takes on an almost ballet-like quality. Much like in The Raid films, the bloodletting becomes a kind of sick art form. The non-stop barrage of gunfights are not only entertaining, they become these things of beauty. First time feature director, Chad Stahelski, and cinematographer, Jonathan Sela, give the film a stylized, shadowy look that creates a great noir-ish atmosphere, which, for the most part, I loved. At times, though, the film is so dark, that during the frequent shootouts, it’s a little difficult to tell who is doing what to whom. Not a huge issue by any means, just a couple of instances where all I could see were shadows darting around the screen.
While Reeves cooly underplays the stoic Wick throughout the picture, Nyqvist (of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) gets to liven things up as the short-tempered Russian gangster, Viggo. He doesn’t really want to tangle with Wick, and in a way even sympathizes with him, but he’s honor bound to do right by his fuck-up of a son, and Nyqvist plays that inner conflict nicely. Willem Dafoe has some fine moments as a fellow killer with a conscience, and Adrianne Palicki scores as a luscious, lethal female assassin. John Leguizamo and Ian McShane are sadly underused. McShane, in particular, as the proprietor of a hotel for hit men (the film’s coolest location), I really wanted to see more of, but that, like the movie’s dark cinematography, is a minor gripe.
My one and only real major gripe would be the killing of the Beagle. As a dog lover myself, it seemed manipulative and entirely uncalled for, and perhaps others felt the same way. Perhaps that’s the real reason why the movie under-performed. Who’s to say? Setting aside that one terrible scene, which is brief and happens entirely off camera, I’d say action junkies owe it to themselves to give John Wick a look, as it is a brisk, brutal, audacious spectacle that gives even the wildest John Woo flick a run for its money.
