I love the world as envisioned by screenwriter Derek Kolstad and veteran stuntmen-turned-first-time-directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski. It's a place where corporate assassinations are so commonplace that the assassins have a designated hotel in New York City where they all stay and no actual killing is allowed to happen, or the management will have a few things to say. And that's just one element of JOHN WICK, a brutal and bloody revenge thriller that comes closer than anything I've seen Keanu Reeves do in quite some time to him reclaiming his spot as a force to be reckoned with on the action front.
Wick is a retired hitman, whose wife (Bridget Moynahan) dies of cancer, leaving him alone and without purpose in his quiet, isolated home. By pure coincidence, while gassing up his muscle car, a group of thugs come at him wondering how much he'd be willing to sell it for. When he tells them it's not for sale, they hunt him down, beat him within an inch of his life, destroy his home, kill his dog and take his car, sending Wick in a rage spiral, which only blood can end. It just so happens the leader of these thugs (Alfie Allen) is the son of top Russian mobster Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyquist), who understands Wick's motivation but wants to appear to protect his son as well. Tarasov sends men to kill Wick, but that's not such an easy task.
What follows is a full-on assault, with Wick knocking off the rust and aiming himself directly at Tarasov and his son. Directors Leitch and Stahelski are masters of the action realm (look up their credits; you'll see), so it's no surprise that the stunt work and gunplay is swift, visceral and savagely executed. What's surprising is the graceful, stylish look of the film, particularly in interior sequences at Wick's home or the assassins' hotel, run by Ian McShane's Winston, managed by Charon (Lance Reddick).
Each stage of the chase is a glorious new set piece, with high production value, that we get to see leveled by the time the fighting ends. And everyone seems to be having fun without making the film an exercise in camp. Supporting work from the likes of John Leguizamo, Willem Dafoe, Dean Winters and Adrianne Palicki serves to heighten to kill numbers and cool factor. Dafoe's Marcus is especially slick and crafty as a fellow assassin, whose allegiance to and friendship with Wick is tested.
I've long believed that the assassin sub-genre has been played out, which doesn't mean there isn't room for creativity and new blood. And JOHN WICK is a hefty kick to the balls of a genre that needed to get its ass out of the familiar and into something fresh. The film also introduces us to two exceptional workhorse directors, who seem tailor made to ramp up their action (and budgets) for something bigger (and hopefully better) for their next movie. And there isn't much more to say about it. If you crave pure, uncut action with little room for mercy and a whole lot of rage-filled death, you'll probably want to see JOHN WICK several times in a row.
