Review of John Wick (2014) by Matthew V — 27 Jan 2016

I didn't enjoy this movie and am fairly surprised it's 'certified fresh'.

So, Keanu is supposed to be some stone-cold killer, but throughout the movie he came off as an incompetent (he should have been killed at least three times), emotional (screaming in the Russian's face about 'muh dog', 'they took everything from me'-- meaning his car and his brand-new puppy. Seems like a bit of misdirected anger there.), indecisive ('You know what, I think I AM back!'- again, pretty emotional for a hitman), CHILD (there's no way some hardened killer is going to be as idealistic as Wick was- letting his enemies go and honoring his word like that should have, again, gotten him killed a LONG time ago. This is not the kind of moral code a SUCCESSFUL assassin would have adopted).

Between his character, the Marilyn Manson sound-track, the other half-assed characters, and a couple of other details & scenes, this thing came off as just a shallow rage-fantasy catering to angst-ridden teens.

Would not recommend, and I'll have to take the ratings on this site with a bit more salt from now on.