JOHN WICK

Summit Entertainment

Rated R

Running time: 101 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of John Wick from YouTube.



In Summit Pictures John Wick, widower John Wick/Keanu Reeves has his car - a vintage '69 Mustang - stolen by punk Alfie Allen from his home. After losing everything he cares for, Wick/Reeves - also known as Baba Yaga, or the Bogeyman - goes after Allen and Allen's father Michael Nyqvist, who is the head of the Russian crime syndicate in New York City and for whom Reeves used to work for, in revenge.

The movie is really a personal story between former syndicate associates Nyqvist and Reeves, with Allen almost being a MacGuffin. The respect that Nyqvist had for Reeves as a surrogate son - as opposed to his arrogant spoiled son Allen - was nice to see. The same relationship, but on a different level,  between hit men Willem Dafoe and Reeves was also nice to see - and you never know which way Dafoe was going. It was also nice to see Adrianne Palicki in the movie, who also learned judo and ju-jitsu. After several action roles, Palicki has become the new action heroine of this generation.

Reeves was pretty bad ass in the movie as a retired hitman. He was not psycho, but very reserved and focused. Reeves trained in judo, Japanese ju-jitsu, and Brazillian jiu-jitsu as well as training with members of the LA SWAT and the Navy SEALs that Director Chad Stahelski and Co-Director/Producer David Leitch had known and did 90% of his stunts for this role. And Wick's/Reeves double tap shooting of his opponents was quite believable as a result. Because of all this, I liked this movie better than The Equalizer. I really liked Wick's/Reeves beagle puppy Daisy and I thought that his dog humanized him a lot. Wick's/Reeves wife Bridget Moynahan did not know anything about Wick's/Reeves past, but she is not onscreen long enough to really know and care about her. I did like the hotel, owned by Ian McShane, in the middle of the movie that was used as a neutral ground centerpiece for this underworld.

The subtitles for the Russian language were most interesting in that they were not shown at the bottom of the screen as with typical subtitles, but in the style of a graphic novel.

The last few shots of the movie I felt were too rushed story wise as I felt it was too cute. I would have preferred a couple more shots to bring out the emotion of the movie tag.

On a technical note, when I saw this movie there was a problem with the video projection when the movie started so all we heard was the audio. It was a 9:00 a.m. showing and there were only a half dozen of us in the theater. There was a girl in the audience with us, and she laughed saying that all but one of the guys, including me, went out to complain. I thought what she said was funny. John Wick is definitely a guy's movie.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of John Wick from YouTube.



Rated R for violence, language, sexual situations. Running time: 101 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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