Review of John Wick (2014) by Popdod — 05 Jun 2021

Very stylish film with good close combat action sequences (and some vehicle action). Villain is made to be fairly realistic and mortal, more so than John Wick, which is a nice change as these types of films often make the villains seem unrealistically bad.

There's subtle dark humor mixed in throughout the film. Negatives, biggest is the large contrast of dialogue volume to music and sound effects, at least on a standard TV (may be better with an external sound system).

You will need the remote, trust me. You also just have to accept it's unrealistic like many action films with the main character seeming to be invincible (though constantly getting beat up and seeming on the verge of death).

The premise is borderline absurd though it's likely intentional, that he takes down a massive NYC crime mob all on his own because the son of the mob leader killed his dog and stole his car (why is explained as the film goes on, trying to avoid spoilers here).

Could use more variety in the action, most of it is indoor gun shootouts, him versus 50 mob people several times (how big is this mob anyway? law enforcement has really failed if they've allowed something this big to develop).

His dialogue is intentionally minimal but when he does speak, sometimes it comes off a bit corny and he has one mood / demeanor the entire film with a few exceptions (again, that likely isn't an oversight but what they wanted).

Soundtrack is okay, may have been better without some of the alt-rock songs, not sure.