Hello dear reader, well it’s that time again. It’s time to regale you with a story of retribution, death, violence and cute little puppies. The film in question, as you probably all too aware from the bloody great poster above, is John Wick. It’s a film that takes its aggression and carnage and turns them all the way up to eleven. But before I amuse you with stories of hitmen, hotels and baddy Russians I feel I need to go back a few years and start at the beginning.
Over the last five or six years there has been a growing trend in Hollywood to make revenge movies. Someone in tinsel town obviously realised that that particular cash cow hadn’t been flogged to death yet and after what must have been a very long and in depth meeting (yes, that is the sarcasm claxon you can hear in the background) they’ve been pumping them out ever since. We’ve had Liam Neeson playing Bryan Mills in Taken. A trilogy that should have been stopped after the first movie in my humble opinion. Robert De Niro tried the genre in 2011’s Killer Elite. Sean Penn, or captain grumpy as I like to call him, got his best hand cannon out and went to work in The Gunman. The list goes on and on. Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, Michael Caine in Harry Brown, Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. Hell, even the last Fast and Furious movie falls into the revenge melting pot. The point I’m trying to make is that in the same way that Sequels and reboots seem to be in fashion at the moment, I think the revenge franchise is well and truly grabbing onto the bronze medal position with both hands and is very unlikely to let go anytime soon.
So that brings us back to Keanu Reeves in John Wick. Now even by his own admission Mr Reeves isn’t the greatest actor in the world. It’s unlikely that there will be an Oscar statuette adorning his mantelpiece anytime soon but the one thing he is good at is action films. He can phone these kinds of performances in, and some would argue that he does, without breaking too much of a sweat. Where’s the proof I hear you ask after such a malicious accusation? Well your honour I would like the following to be entered into evidence for the prosecution. Point Break, The Matrix Trilogy, Speed and Constantine. Now before any or indeed all of you Bill and Ted fans rise up against me and send the ’69 Dude’ army to wipe me off the face of the planet I would also like to enter the following for defence. My own private Idaho is by far and away the best performance I have ever seen Mr Reeves commit to the silver screen. It is head and shoulders above anything else he’s ever done. It’s moving and very poignant. I’d also like to say that I personally have nothing against the man and the aforementioned Point Break does, depending on what sort of mood I’m in, make it into my top ten films of all time.
John Wick is the story of a man who falls in love with a woman who he thinks is too good for him given his past actions. A woman who makes him realise that there is more to life than being a professional hitman and then promptly retires from the killing business and settles down for the quiet married life and to live happily ever after. The preverbal spanner in the works comes along in the form of a terminal illness and before you can say ‘don’t die within the first ten minutes of the film’ the wife goes and dies within the first ten minutes of the film. This understandably leaves John Wick very upset and heartbroken. However the wife in question has organised a little gift to be delivered after the funeral so that John is not left alone. The gift turns out to be a puppy and with the cuteness button firmly depressed the film continues to plod along. Now the second and much bigger spanner that then turns up are the nasty Russians I mentioned earlier. Now these pesky East European rapscallions come across John in an out of town petrol station and with the swagger that comes with thinking you’re untouchable enquire how much John’s beautiful 69 Shelby Mustang would cost to buy. Now Mr Wick tries to inform them to the best of his charming abilities that the car is not for sale, firstly politely and then fairly bluntly. John drives away and believes that he’s never likely to ever see these three annoyances again. Unfortunately for John they find out where he lives and then promptly break into his house after sunset and then set about beating him black and blue, killing the puppy and then stealing his car. This understandably leaves John the wrong side of irked and he then sets about hunting these guys down, who indecently have Lilly Allen’s brother Alfie Allen fresh from Playing ‘Man without penis’ in Game of Thrones, or if you want his real character name ‘Iosef TaraSov’ amongst their ranks and without wishing to go too far into spoiler territory let’s just say that Mr Wick is very good at his job.
John Wicks Reputation as a man that gets the job done has almost attained legendary status. When he was active as a Hitman he was a man that hit hard. A man that didn’t take any unnecessary risks and a gentleman that was so good at his chosen trade that he could well have attained a gold medal if killing had ever made it into the Olympics. This reputation is further fortified by the fact that when the Russian trio that stole John Wicks car take it to the local ‘fence’ garage to get rid of it the gentleman in charge of the garage, once he realises who the car belonged to, punches Mr ‘no willy’ Allen in the face.
John Wick is a film that doesn’t take itself too seriously but that said it does do what it needs to very well. It has a tight and sharp script that almost but not quite dips its toes into the black comedy genre. Its directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch are both established stunt men and regarded by Hollywood as being the best at what they do. They both have worked with Keanu before, most noticeably on the Matrix trilogy. They know how action scenes should work and more importantly they know how to shoot them. Some on the set pieces in this film are breath taking. There’s a shootout in a night club that is as good, if not better than, the nightclub fire fight that Michael Mann brought us in Collateral. Its action is choreographed properly and almost stylised to perfection. It has martial arts, attitude and a plethora of on screen weapons that are used to dispatch victims in a quick and timely manner including guns, vehicles and even household items.
What John Wick also has is a very good supporting cast. John Leguizamo, Willem Defoe and even Ian ‘Lovejoy’ McShane rocks up as a hotel owner that has a very strict set of house rules. Without taking up too much screen time they underpin the story and help move the narrative on when required.
John Wick is a breath of fresh air when you consider what has come before it. My only niggle is that we here in good old blighty have had to wait the better part of six months for it to arrive on our shores. I’m pretty sure there will be a sequel and I’m pretty sure that as long as Keanu, its directors and screenwriter Derek Kolstad return it will be a film worth watching.
So if you like to plant your flag in the action revenge category and you think that Taken is a good film. Please go and watch John Wick and see how these films should be done properly.
Twitter Review:
‘It’s not what you did son. It’s who you did it to…’
#WreakMyRewengey
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2911666/?ref_=nv_sr_5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0BMx-qxsP4
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?FID=139014
