john wick (2014) review
Even if you’ve seen the film it might surprise you to learn that the first bullet in John Wick, starring ageless wonder Keanu Reeves, isn’t fired until the 29 minute mark. John Wick is an action film with style and substance and a protagonist who reminds us that there is beauty in simplicity of purpose. The film sets up Wick’s primary backstory within the first five minutes and does so with almost zero dialogue. There is a conveyor belt of action movies released to theaters year after year and most don’t get that if a genre film is to appeal to anyone outside of its built-in audience, it must have a compelling story with relatable and sympathetic characters. Otherwise, the punches and kicks are meaningless. Plenty of brainlessly vacant action movies turn a profit but If the goal is a lasting phenomenon with franchise-level chutzpah a la John Wick, setup is equally important to fight choreography. Do you have a suitable framework for a film minus the gun fights and car chases? If you can’t answer that question in the affirmative, be afraid. John Wick is really good at killing but he’s a pop culture fixture because of his humanity and motivation for being the best there is at what he does. His will is invincible but he is not. The movie rightly pauses in between shootouts for Wick to evaluate his wounds and patch himself up enough to fight another day. The seemingly small decision to clearly show the consequences for each encounter makes every bullet that hits (or misses) that much more impactful. Am I the only one noting that some of Reeve’s movements seemed pulled directly from that of Christian Bale in Equilibrium?
John Wick receives a score of 8/10 for general audiences and a 9/10 for action wonks.