Short version: if, like myself, you are the sort of person who can see a review from the Atlantic with the title “John Wick: An Idiot Killed His Puppy and Now Everyone Must Die” and say to yourself This sounds intriguing: I should maybe go see it then you will enjoy this movie. It’s not the best movie in the world, or the best action movie, or even the best Keanu Reeves movie* – but it’s a solidly entertaining flick. If you want to watch a movie where a retired hitman kills everybody bad who was even remotely associated with murdering his dog.
Slightly longer take: John Wick feels like it was a movie that was made as a reasonably faithful adaptation of an extremely popular assassination-themed video game. I am not criticizing when I say that, although the major problem with films of that sort is that they are quite often horrible. But that’s because a lot of absurd-but-functional video game conventions don’t actually work on the big screen; since John Wick is not actually based on a video game it can instead pick absurd-but-functional conventions that can work on the big screen, while still being (consciously or unconsciously) evocative of the video game aesthetic.
All in all, it was entertaining to watch, and I didn’t mind shelling out matinee prices for it, but I find no compelling reason to either watch it again or buy the DVD. If you like this sort of thing, you will have a good time at this movie; if you do not, this will not change your mind. Either way, nobody embarrassed themselves by being in this picture, even if (as somebody noted online) the entire cast was pretty much just a little bit too good for the film.
Moe Lane
*:scowl: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. And don’t vex me on this.
Point. Break.
I will fight with knives over this.
Bill/Ted is a movie Keanu is in, but it is not a Keanu movie, i.e. he was not the driving force behind its production.
But, Point Break was a Patrick Swayze movie that Keanu happened to be in…
Ps. San Dimas high school football rules.
I enjoyed it, and probably would watch it again on Amazon Prime. We paid matinee prices and would’ve been good paying evening show. Is it the best action movie I’ve seen this year even? Eh. I don’t know. It wasn’t as pretentious as Winter Soldier.
And there are scenes that stuck out after I left in a good way. And not just for my wife boo-hooing at the dead dog either.
Am I the only one who mentally inserts ‘Whoa’ after every dramatic thing Keanu Reeves ever says?
I second citing Bill & Ted as the finest Keanu film. He looked and sounded perfectly natural in the role. Not snarking at all.
See, I thought that about his role in “Much Ado About Nothing”.
That would be my choice as well. A plain-dealing villain indeed.
Have you seen any of “Lillehammer”? It’s about a mobster who turns state evidence after a failed hit kills his dog. They send him into witness relocation, and he picks Lillehammer, Norway, because he liked how it looked during the Olympics.
Little Buddha.