Keanu Reeves has had a pretty interesting career. He did an “excellent” job in the mid eighties with Bill and Ted, and while Alex Winter will always be Bill, Keanu made a new path and became an action star with movies like “Point Break” and “Speed”. Reeves wasn’t able to maintain his own speed and tried a few different films, while at times still trying to still be that action hero he had been before. Everything changed in 1999 for Reeves when a little film called “The Matrix” made us all say “Whoa” and Reeves was once again on top of the world. Lately, when he isn’t directing, Reeves has been playing a bad ass villain, and than there is John Wick.
John (Keanu Reeves) has just lost his wife to an illness and is in the process of morning. While putting gas in his car, a few guys inquire about his vehicle, and do not like the answer they are given when they ask if the vehicle is for sale. Later that night Wick is attacked and his car is stolen, something that should have not been done, because Wick is not just some Joe Nobody, he is a retired hit man. They say the man with nothing to lose is the most dangerous, and John Wick has lost it all already, and we get to see how dangerous he really can be. Wick racks up a body count like he is in a video game, in his quest to get the men who took his car and killed his dog. The man he seeks is Iosef (Alfie Allen), who is the son of the man Wick used to work for. When he is refused his request for Alfie, Wick just goes after everyone around him as well, making for the perfect revenge.
Reeves has always been a man of few words, he seems to play the ‘quite one’ so well. If you look at most of his roles he is always listening a lot more than talking, which makes some people think he can’t act, but as any man will tell you it takes a lot to pretend to care about what someone else is saying. “John Wick is directed by two stunt specialist in David Leitch and Chad Stahelski and their expertise shows in the films action sequences. Which in this film’s case is pretty much most of the time. There are very few quiet times in this story which was written by Derek Kolstad (The Package), and very little story either. This is a revenge flick in all its glory, simple, easy, and no complications. I referred to the amount of deaths as video game like, the whole movie has that feel, only you get to sit back and watch instead of gripping a controller. Movies are made to entertain, and for every great story that needs to be told, it is good to just sit back and enjoy the magic that is happening in front of you, without having to put much thought into what you are seeing. “John Wick” is just a fun film and one that will have you going “Excellent” and then “Whoa”.
Brian Taylor
