Last Thursday, Lionsgate hosted an advanced screening of John Wick at New York Comic Con and while I wasn’t able to attend, I was able to recruit a friend of mine, Dan Rotenberg, to go see the film and review it on behalf of Movie Buzzers. Below you’ll find his thoughts on what appears to be an awesome action movie starring Keanu Reeves.
“Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat” – Fortune Favors the Brave
If you are a fan of high-octane, fists and bullets flying, non-stop, in your face action, then John Wick is the absolute must-see movie for you this year. John Wick stars Keanu Reeves as an ex-hit man hell-bent on revenge.
In the opening scenes of the movie, we see flashbacks of a relationship between Keanu and his wife (Bridget Moynahan). Shortly into these flashbacks, we are shown that she passed away and he is grieving for her loss. Cut to present day, a crate is delivered to his doorstep. Inside this crate is a Beagle puppy with a letter from his deceased wife. The letter informed him that it’s time to move on, knowing her death was inevitable.
The same week that he seems to be getting on with his life, he gets robbed in the middle of the night by a few Russian thugs that he had a small run in with at a gas station. They liked his car (1969 Mustang) and decided to teach John a lesson. He wakes up in the middle of the night to be ambushed, beaten, has his car stolen and his puppy killed. You do not mess with this man’s car or puppy.
John finds out that the man who broke into his home was Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen) and his associates. Iosef is the son of Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist), the Russian mob boss, and the man John used to work for. From here on out, John is on a personal mission of revenge, and will kill anyone who stands in his way. Viggo describes Wick as a man “you would send to kill the boogeyman.” Knowing what is about to happen, he puts a contract on the table for anyone willing to take out John Wick. This is where the real action begins and you see the unravelling of what seemed like a sane man.
Although the movie keeps you entertained with endless amounts of action scenes, it does have its faults. The storyline is a bit bland and the characters don’t have too much depth to them. I do believe Reeves plays the role well though and adds a charm to a darkly humorous action film. There were several scenes that had the theater clapping and cheering when people would be executed.
During a short Q&A after the film, I learned a few things that made this movie great. The training that Reeves went through before the movie consisted of Judo, Jujitsu, Swat and Army training. The eclectic mix makes for very memorable scenes. The director wanted to have more fluid action sequences so the choreography of the fighting had to be spot on to do them with very few cuts. The stunt team (87Eleven) has recently done work on the Expendables, Hunger Games, and Parker. The stunt double for Keanu and also the co-director of the film, Chad Stahelski, previously doubled him as Neo in The Matrix among plenty of other roles. I also learned that Keanu had to learn the club fighting scene the day they shot it. After seeing the movie, you will understand why this is an incredible feat.
Overall, I would suggest anyone looking to see a great American action movie to drop what you’re doing and go see John Wick when it’s released, you will not be disappointed.
Rating: My favorite action movie since The Raid 2 (8.5/10)
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