Harkening back to uber-violent action films of the 80s and 90s, Keanu Reeves as titular character John Wick is cold, calm, collected, and quite badass assassin as he single-handedly takes down an entire underground syndicate and the crime boss Tarasov’s son kills Wick’s dog while stealing his car. Being that the dog was a gift was his late wife, Wick does not take this too well and soon is running around whatever unnamed metropolis decimating the legions of bad guys working for Tarasov who are protecting his son.
While he typically gets much grief for his limited range and acting abilities, Reeves absolutely shines here as the withdrawn, broken Wick. Many fight scenes and shootouts occur during the film where Wick executes those in his way in a cold, brutal fashion and Reeves looks mighty creepy with his blank, emotionless face while pulling the trigger point-blank at a man.
Co-directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch make what would otherwise be a silly tale about a man and his dog and play it completely straight with plenty of gratuitous violence abound. It is very tightly pieced together with a number of ancillary characters (including Willem Dafoe, Lance Reddick, and Adrianne Palicki) popping in and out to give the story more twists than a simple shoot-em-up flick.
Supposedly, John Wick is supposed to kickstart a trilogy of films about the character and I would not be opposed to that. Wick is the grim-dark version of Jason Bourne and James Bond with no qualms to put a bullet in the heads of those who wrong him. He isn’t exactly a hero (no one in this film is arguably a hero) but at the very least, he is a compelling character that I’d like to see more of.
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