john wick 100% on RT with 14 reviews

Apparently, it doesn't pretend to be anything more than it is, which is a movie with a relatively ridiculous plot that is stylish and filled with action. It is, apparently, the way action movies should be done--quick hitting, intense, vibrant fights with a lead actor who can take you away from the ridiculous premise to simply enjoying the visual treat in front of you, all set in a unique and interesting alternate reality.

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And that’s why Reeves serves as just the right star to play Wick, a short-fuse antihero whose ridiculous moniker (borrowed from screenwriter Derek Kolstad’s grandfather) clumsily conveys his explosive temper. There’s nothing clumsy about the actor who plays Wick, however, as Reeves’ lithe physicality enables extended sequences in which he moves athletically through an environment full of adversaries, shooting, stabbing or otherwise immobilizing them one at a time.

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In terms of material, “John Wick” is nothing special, but there’s a suave elegance to the way Stahelski and Leitch approach this thoroughly generic project, seizing the opportunity to deliver some pretty spectacular setpieces along the way.

The result, photographed in sleek, steady-hand widescreen by Vilmos Zsigmond protege Jonathan Sela, looks more like recent Nicolas Winding Refn pics than relatively sloppy studio fare (right down to its cool, neon-lit shootouts)

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John Wick isn’t just a terrific shoot-em-up action movie that reminds you why Keanu Reeves remains a movie star twenty-five years after Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, twenty-years after Speed, and fifteen years after The Matrix. It’s a terrific example genuinely successful world-building. I don’t presume the producers of John Wick have aspirations for any kind of Marvel-style expanded universe or sequels and spin-offs in mind. Yet ironically, despite its stand-alone nature, directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, along with screenwriter Derek Kolstad have crafted a genuinely unique and delightfully specific world in which its title character inhabits. What could have been a generic “reformed hit man takes vengeance after a personal loss” story is enlivened both by the quality of acting and action (more on that later), but by the rich world that has been created. There have been quite a few “older movie star turns into unstoppable killing machine” films over the last five years. John Wick may be the best one yet.

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What follows is a revenge flick that takes inspiration from many of the greats, from Get Carter and Point Blank to Man on Fire and Taken, with Wick going after the mobster, his son, and anyone else that gets in his way so that the body count is huge come the end credits.
But there’s a lot more going on then just that. Director Chad Stahelski’s background is in stunts, so the action is immense, the combination of gun-play and martial arts potentially giving rise to a whole new sub-genre – namely ‘Gun Fu.’

But the most enjoyable aspect of John Wick is the magical universe that screenwriter David Kolstad creates for the characters, one that’s clearly influenced by comic books, and most obviously, Greek mythology.

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