John Wick (2014)

Burning the wick at both ends

Remember when action movies had tons of guns. Bad guys you wanted dead, and men of few words that took care of em... with extreme prejudice. I'm talking the glory days of Segal, VanDamme, Chuck (believe in the beard) Norris... The good old days. When a film didn't need a 100 million dollar budget to be successful. Just a lot of ass kicking and cool...

Well...

At least for this film... Itsssssssssssssssss BACK!

Ok the story. Super bad ass Killer guy, JOHN WICK gets out the mob world to be with the love of his life. She then dies and leaves him with a puppy. Together he and his new pup set out to try to deal with this new quiet life without his love. Well, then a Mobsters punk kid decides to steal his car and kill his dog... and makes the HUGE mistake of leaving Mister John Wick (Keanu!) alive. SO John sets out to kill the punk in revenge... of course his Mobster Father hires everyone and the kitchen sink to stop his revenge... cold... in its tracks.

Hmmm... Revenge. Dish served cold... cold tracks... whatever... I wanted to make that cooler. Fail!

This movie rocks. No forced cheesy one liners. No CGI loaded action scenes. Just gritty guns to the face, and balls, and kneecaps, and more faces, and chests, and throats, and ... well, its really a lesson in anatomy.

So if i see the same cat twice... I'm all ready in the matrix...?

Listen this is Keanu's flick. Front to back. Sure there are some fun supporting actors here... The insanely sexy and True Detective episode stealing Adrianne Palicki is having a blast as the evil bitch killer. Did I mention sexy? Well she is also pretty dang good at the badassery (heads up to her villain role in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). And William Dafoe... Dafoe is Da-man.

Dafoe... Da-man... HA! Still got it! But as I said, this is Keanu's flick. I have no idea if John Wick was written for him but it feels like it. Keanu mutters monotone and then kills ten people, and you cheer. Oh you may be reading that and thinking... no it will defs take more than that to make me cheer... it won't.

There is a certain style here brought to the film that has to do with a couple of other things beside Keanu's swag (thems are some legit! suits though).

1. The direction is fun, and fresh. The film is directed by two former stunt men(David Leitch, Chad Stahelski), the first film by their hand. There is a a love of the action here, a respect for it. Much like an asian film where they allow your human speed eyes to absorb human speed action. Something often lacking in american films. Clean cuts.

2. The script is dripping with machismo cool. They don't have to explain everything to you, you understand. He was a bad bad man. Everyone knows him, and everyone either respects or fears him. It was kind of refreshing for a film to just move along assuming you get it without stopping to explain itself every two minutes.

May... I... dip... my wick. 

Plus. I mean a man deciding to take out half a city over a puppy? Trust me when I say, you will get it. Pure fun. I saw this flick with two chicks (whoa, before anyone thinks I am beeping my horn... just pointing a point and stuff) hardly the usual action lovers... and they had a blast. I mean like I said, the script keeps it bare bones... once you have a reason for him to kill everyone... game on.

The most action I have seen in a mainstream flick in a while. Another nice touch... I recently watched The Equalizer with the man himself Denzel Washington, and while that film was a good time... there was one glaring issue... Denzel was like superman. I mean he whooped everyone with hardly more that a couple bruises. JOHN WICK was a real human. Albeit a very skilled one... but flesh and blood. And he bleeds. And bends, and breaks... and keeps going. Something a lot of these here moving pictures forget... we care more about a guy that is mortal, and human. John McCain anyone. Or remember cheering for VanDamme in Bloodsport? Because you thought there was a chance he could lose... because he was not invincible.

Gets your boys, your girls, and an extra ten for nachos and get ya ass to the theatre. I give an edge to Raid 2 for action movie of 2014, but this is by far the best action film from hollywood in years.

Movie scale 3.5 out of 5 stars
Action scale 4 out of 5 stars

This flick is so WICK-ed. Hahahaha. I could do this all night.

But I have things to do... like .... ok I don't have things to do. I'm just really comfortable in this here giant couch.

Chuck B Boonsweet - out!