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Oct 24, 2014 By Stephen Danay Web Exclusive

Following the death of his wife, all retired hitman John Wick has left is his mint ‘69 Mustang and the adorable puppy his wife left him for company. When Russian mobsters steal his car and kill his dog, Wick becomes a man with nothing left to live for but spectacularly violent revenge.

If you are an action film fan, you’ll like John Wick. Directed by David Leitch and Chad Stahelski—who stunt doubled Neo and Agent Smith in The Matrix films—it very much plays as an action film made by action fans. The hero is slick, straightforward and relentless. The villains are unrepentant, puppy-killing shitheads. The action is clearly shot, cleverly choreographed and surprisingly vicious by the standard of American action films. The film, like Wick himself, has simple goals that it achieves with maximum efficiency. This extends to the tone of the film, which is achingly earnest when it needs to be—Wick saying goodbye to his wife and bonding with the adorable puppy—to aggressively silly and over the top. John Wick is a film that features a hotel for hitmen in which no violence is allowed and the only currency accepted is gold doubloons. This is played completely straight and it totally works.

Despite the internet memes pointing out that he’s barely aged in the past 25 years, close-ups of his increasingly battered face reveal that Keanu Reeves is settling comfortably into the Liam Neeson/Denzel Washington phase of his career. The role of the worn-out badass suits him well and his laid back, benignly vacant persona only requires a slight tweak to transform him into a dead-eyed killing machine. His physical commitment to the role is admirable too. Wick’s fighting style is a unique combination of jujitsu-based grappling and close-quarters gun-kata that both looks impressive and results in an almost comical amount of point blank head shots. It’s been a while since I’ve felt this bad for the villain’s cannon fodder in a film.

If the film has one major drawback—other than ending with a bit of a whimper—it’s a sprawling and talented cast that it doesn’t quite know what to do with. Alfie Allen essentially reprises his Game of Thrones role as a whiny, arrogant mobster’s son and John Leguizamo and Ian McShane appear in what amount to little more than glorified cameos. The always great Willem Dafoe makes the most of his appearance as an old friend/rival of Wick’s, but the part could have been played by anyone and asks far too little of him. The only actor with room to breath is Michael Nyqvist, star of the original The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo films, who shines as the vicious but believably human mob boss who grows increasingly, hilariously incredulous at Wick’s refusal to die. More than any other actor in the film, he seems to have grasped the vibe of the film, which is just ridiculous enough for its own good.

www.johnwickthemovie.com

Author rating: 7/10