Snuffed Out
John Wick (Keanu Reeves - 47 Ronin) was once a former assassin but turned his back on his life of killing when he met his wife. And whilst struggling with grief, following her death, her final gift to him of a puppy stops him from giving up on life altogether. That is until Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen - Freestyle), the son of Russian mob boss Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist - Europa Report), not only kills John's puppy but steals his prized car. Now John is returning to his old ways and nothing is going to stop him from finding Iosef and getting justice even if it means having to kill Viggo and several other assassins who are willing to break the rules in return for Viggo's offer of millions.
Now if you hadn't heard anything about the movie "John Wick" and just read that synopsis you might think here is an action movie involving a former killer forced to return to his old ways to seek justice. And purely from a narrative level that is what you get with the seemingly indestructible John Wick dodging bullet after bullet, bad guy after bad guy on his quest for revenge. Yes he may end up beaten, blooded and almost suffocated but here is a guy who takes a licking and keeps on ticking. And he is super cool in doing so with some fighting skills which are eye grabbingly mad.
But you see there is more to "John Wick" than just this and I hinted what that is when I said that John is super cool. You see the real draw of "John Wick", beyond Keanu Reeves who gets better with age, is that this a movie soaked in a style which is a little eccentric. We have a hotel for killers, rules for guests of the hotel and a lot of highly choreographed as well as brutal action which even though I am not impressed by this sort of thing certainly grabbed my attention due to its striking styling and slight quirkiness. In fact there is almost some black humour to the action which adds to the quirky nature of some of the movie.
What this all boils down to is that "John Wick" is certainly a crowd pleaser movie with entertaining characters, some dark humour and lots of stylish action. Did it blow me away? No, but visually it certainly grabbed my attention a couple of times.
