John Wick. A cool, elegantly-simple, hyper-kinetic shoot-em-up elevated to greater heights by super stylish visuals, unique, surprising, and well-choreographed action, and a return-to-form, star-powered turn by the now 50-year-old (yeah, we know) Keanu Reeves. The man might be wooden in his delivery at times, but watching him deliver one-liners, dispel bullet after bullet, and fight fast in complex, hand-to-hand combat served as a constant reminder of just how perfectly ice-cold sleek Reeves can be. If there was ever any doubt of his cool-factor, or any notion that you could just plug-and-play any random actor into The Matrix and make it work: John Wicks here to prove its Reeves who makes it happen. Its a silly movie, for sure. A b-movie revenge saga, honestly. But it plays through the motions with such unique and relentless style, and commits so genuinely to its own silliness (the self-aware acknowledgement between the police officer, passers-by, and competing assassins in the film all cement that they realize how ridiculous it all is in comedic form) that it become completely irresistible. Not only is John Wick one of the best action movies of the year, it does what it does so well- it might even be one of the best MOVIE movies of the year. And whats funnier- most critics would seem to agree. (It currently sits pretty with an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, and went weeks and weeks leading into release with a perfect 100% from 50 or so reviews prior to that) Who saw THAT coming? Not us. The almost serendipitous, meta soundbite from the trailer alone People keep asking if Im back. Yeah, Im thinkin Im back uttered by a grizzled, breathy Keanu Reeves serves as a telling reminder of just how cool the action star can be. And that, in face of all the flops or forgotten franchises hes been a part of- hes still the peoples champ at what he does best. And hes finally back to show it. Like Tom Cruise, hes an actor thats just impossible for us to dislike. Because love him or hate him, he clearly puts in the work. Hell work for your dollar in every way he can in an action movie. And thats such a rarity, these days. A vestige of an older time, sandwiched between the Schwarzeneggers and the Stathams in that mid-90s fold. Reeves, like Cruise, is part of it. And here hes eager to show hes still worth a damn. https://youtube/watch?v=bvaftiAu7mw John Wick opened second at the box office this weekend behind the (what we can only assume is abysmal) horror flick Ouija. Dont be surprised if a strong current of positive word-of-mouth about this movie changes that fairly quickly. John Wick is an excellent, total surprise of a movie. It deserves your viewership. Even over stuff like Fury. Go see it.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 06:41:45 +0000
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