Review of John Wick (2014) by Simplereviewz — 24 Oct 2014

"Don't set him off." After you see John Wick, you'll be saying to yourself, "Yeah, NO SH*T!" to this movie's tagline. Why? The short answer is this: Keanu Reeves, and the movie as a whole, kick some serious ass in this exciting, visceral, entertaining revenge flick.

I feel I need to talk about this portion of the movie first; the elephant in the room: the way the action is shot and framed is graceful in the best violent way possible. The action moves along at a quick pace, which compliments it even more, and mixes in just the right amount of bloody brutality.

Plus, for Keanu Reeves to be doing it, it's even MORE FUN to watch. But he doesn't just shoot his way through just to get his paycheck. He is great as John Wick, and his very best parts here are when he gives speeches about what drove him to do all this.

In terms of plot, there isn't exactly a big amount of imagination, but other good elements make up for that. The main plot is this: John Wick's wife dies and for him to keep living his life with someone, his wife's dying gift to him is a cute lil' pup.

However, Russian criminals come and kill his dog, then steal his Mustang. And that is a helluva misstep made by the Russians. John Wick then goes on for revenge. See? Not a whole lotta imagination or complexity, but what made up for it is the world-building that the film does.

John Wick is a character that can definitely be expanded on and probably will. The "Continental" in the film is a criminal's hotel where they do their work and enjoyment. This can and probably will be expanded on, too.

Let's talk about characters. The main villain here is Viggo Tarasov played by Michael Nyqvist, and I thought he played his role just as good as Keanu Reeves. I personally like villains that are likeable just as much as ones that aren't at all, and his character melds that together seemingly perfectly.

Willam Dafoe and Adrianne Palicki were pretty good. All the others were just good. John Wick is a damn good example of why I love action movies, and is a fun-and-good-ass time.