Summit Entertainment, Thunder Road Pictures, 87Eleven,
Keanu Reeves, Common, Laurence Fishburne, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ruby Rose, John Leguizamo, Ian McShane
John Wick worked in an organization of criminal masterminds, and is a skilled assassin, indeed. In the first installment, he got out of the organization only to be pulled back in. In the second session, he again wishes simply to be left alone, but he found he has a huge price on his head, and must run for his life for everyone is out to kill him. But he has one last job he must undertake to get out, but it’s obvious in this world that no one gets out alive. With everyone out for him, John has to use all his skills and call in a favor or two just to keep breathing. John is in for a hard night!
I am shocked that I cannot find any record of my having seen 2014’s original John Wick, but it seems I somehow missed it. Perhaps that was part of my trouble with this movie. In the early 70’s I went on a mission to the Philippines in the height of the Shaw Brothers great Kung Fu movies. It was the time when Bruce Lee was in Hong Kong making films, and others like Wang Yu were turning out top notch Kung Fu movies galore, and they were very popular over there. I developed a bit of a soft spot for Kung Fu Films, but I also knew they were very, very silly. One guy surrounded by 25 killers who wanted him dead armed with all kinds of weapons, and they would jump around in a circle while one at a time attacks and gets taken out by the hero one by one. 25 to 1 is not very good odds, but 25 to 1 to 1 to 1 to 1 to 1 ad nauseum seems a bit better. That is the feeling I got watching this movie, but I didn’t get a soft spot for this one, as I expect more out of a Hollywood film. The plot is so very wafer thin, and 99.9% of the movie is John Wick running and fighting and shooting with unbelievable odds, yet pulling out time and time again. Truthfully the realism of this movie is very very low. On the other hand though, there is an audience who will love this for all the non-stop action and unbelievable fight scenes. In that respect, it is very well done, which is why I gave the film a decent score. I personally was not caught up by the story, and didn’t really get into it very much, but I have great respect for the stunt choreography and the CGI effects, but especially the stunts. It is a showcase of non-stop fight sequences and they’re well done, just hard to accept, and certainly beyond belief. For that reason, I’m not going to say go out and see this film immediately, as I really didn’t care that much for the experience.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
