This is my guilty pleasure movie of the year. First off, John Wick is certainly not for everyone. This is over-the-top practically cartoonishly violent. And this certainly has no real redeeming social value whatsoever. But every once in a while you have to say, "so what?" They can't all be works of art. But in many ways this dude-centric, action, shoot 'em up revenge thriller is a work of art, in its own weird way.
In a nutshell, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is a 40 ish year old retired assassin, who somehow escaped the Russian mob 5 years ago. He asked the leader of the Russian mob to leave after serving him for years. With no intention of letting Wick out, the deal was given to Wick of an impossible task for freedom. Wick succeeded, and gave the mob boss his empire. Wick was given his freedom. Wick marries, and settled into a normal life. Then his beloved wife dies of cancer.
His wife, while alive made arrangements to have a beagle puppy named Daisy delivered to John after her death to give John something to love. John does. Then the son of the Russian boss unknowingly steals Wicks 1969 Mustang Mach 1, beats up Wick in the middle of the night while sleeping, and kills Daisy the dog. Wick re-enters the assassin game, with the sole purpose of killing the son, and taking down the Russian mob. You don't mess with John Wicks dog!
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And then the action begins. Wick, who is an amazing hit man, mows through man after man, taking out his revenge. Being honest, there is a whole lot of killing in this movie, and much of it cartoonish, almost video game like. And he does it all while looking good in his black suit. This movie is big time tongue-in-cheek. There is this hotel in New York, The Continental, that he checks into, and it turns out that all hit men live there. One of many strange and fun nuances here. You kind of have to get what they are trying to do here. This is a concept piece, and is way off the beaten path.
There is great wit here, and some very funny moments as well. This is a quirky, off beat movie that somehow works very well. If you can get past the violence and accept it as the movies calling card, the story here is really pretty good. They somehow create a character in Wick that you like and identify with. We clearly are not all hit men, but there is something remarkably real about him that brings him to our level. He is capable of great love. I mean, taking revenge on the mob, for killing his dog??
Reeves is great as the off beat Wick, and the supporting cast of Ian MacShane, Willem DaFoe and others gives this cred, and makes it fun. This is paced very well, and never lets you off the hook, once you are on it. This is certainly not for all, and this is an acquired taste, but John Wick is going to be a hit. And get ready for more, as is set up nicely for it. This will do very well on pay-per-view in 90 days, and is worth a ticket now as well.
John Wick. Slick and nonstop action, irony, humor, and enough quirk for fun. This works.
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