John Wick (2014)

Don't fuck with man's best friend

I'd heard that Keanu Reeves decided to step back into action, which is his best genre to be honest. The man might not have the most formidable of acting skills, but those he has excels in such an environment where violence plays the biggest part. You find it utterly believable that he can wield a gun and kill people with little conscious on his part. John Wick is about John who just recently lost his wife, but where all hope has lost, his wife gave him one last parting gift expecting her own death.  One lone little puppy that brings hope into John's life again, but it's when he comes across a knob-head Iosef Tarasov played by Alfie Allen who's familiar to anyone watching Game of Thrones (besides the song Alfie by Lily Allen) - that things more or less fall apart. It turns out that John isn't just a widow grieving his loss, but an ex-hit man who one shouldn't - for a lack of a better word - fuck with. 

This is the directional debut of Chad Stahelski and  David Leitch who both have worked as stunt-men and second directors before on popular action films. It's a noticeable fact as most of the action sequences are done beautifully, even the world we're subjected to is interesting and adds an odd quality to this hyper-violent style, but makes it work. The plot isn't exactly much to boast about, but the thematic is understandable. Revenge. That tends to work out for people, as Quentin Tarantino knows all about. I'm fascinated by the world we get to see here though, as there are services for people who need to clean up post-murders. There are hotels where they've got 'laws' and basically it's just really cool. They've created a neat little universe that makes it realistic that cops don't come bandying forward around every corner to pile up their cars during chases. In this universe the law is held differently, and probably non-existent but it works. 

8/10