John Wick Movie Review

by Lewis Robinson

John Wick is a neo-noir action thriller directed by Chad Stahelski. The 2014 film stars Keanu Reeves, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe, Bridget Moynahan and Adrianne Palicki. It is the opening film of a franchise that now has four installments and a fifth on the way.

Plot

The film tells the story of John Wick. At the beginning of the story, Wick is living a mundane life with his wife Helen. The pair have normal everyday concerns, such as what has gluten in it, until Helen gets sick and dies. John is struggling with the loss of his wife when he receives a beagle puppy, named Daisy, that Helen had made arrangements to send him before she died. John bonds with the puppy, but more tragedy befalls him when Russian gangsters break into his home, steal his car and kill his puppy. 

Iosef, the gangster who killed Daisy, learns that John is a famous assassin who used to work for Iosef's father, Viggo. After failing to talk John out of seeking revenge against Iosef, Viggo sends hitmen to kill John, but John kills them all instead. Viggo puts a $2 million bounty on John and offers the contract to John's mentor, Marcus, who accepts the job. 

John heads to the New York Continental Hotel, which caters to the underworld crime scene and forbids assassinations on its property. However, Viggo offers to double the bounty for anyone willing to break the hotel's rules. John carries on his mission to get revenge against Iosef, while Viggo continues to attempt to assassinate John. Eventually, Viggo's men capture John. However, Marcus interferes, allowing John to escape. 

John gets Viggo to reveal Iosef's location and then kills Iosef and his bodyguards. Viggo learns that Marcus has been working with John and tortures and then kills him. Viggo tells John about Marcus' fate, in the hopes that John will run into an ambush and be killed by another assassin, named Ms. Perkins, who had unsuccessfully attempted to kill John at the hotel. However, the hotel has Perkins killed for violating its rules before she can spring her ambush. 

John learns that Viggo is trying to flee by helicopter and races to New York Harbor to stop him. John kills Viggo's henchmen and then confronts Viggo, mortally wounding him and leaving him to die. After the confrontation, John breaks into a vet clinic to treat his wounds and sets a pit bull puppy that is scheduled to be euthanized free. The film ends with John and the puppy walking home on the boardwalk where he had his last date with Helen.

Review

The movie features impressive visuals, thrilling action sequences and good performances from a stellar cast. The frantic action and B-movie fun has a lot of appeal for the mostly male fanbase of the franchise. The movie has been praised for creating a fully-realized universe as a backdrop for its shoot-em-up storyline. Reeves is excellent in his first return to the action genre since the Matrix franchise ended.

The action is well-choreographed and while the film may be too violent for some viewers, it is a satisfying revenge tale for fans of the genre. The film doesn't try to be more than it is, with its focus on over-the-top action, but still manages to pack in some style and wit to go with the shooting. 

While there is a lot to like about this film for fans of the genre, there is also a downside. The story doesn't bring much new to the genre. It is the classic bad guy gone good who has one last job to do plot that you have seen on screen many times before. 

If you don't like violent action films, John Wick isn't going to change your mind. However, for fans of the genre, the clever writing, strong performances and excellent cinematography are a treat. If you're a fan of gangster movies or Keanu Reeves, you will probably enjoy John Wick.