'John Wick' creates a fun action-movie world - where black-clad assassins are paid in literal gold coins, where they frequent a secret society with its own bars and hotel - it's a shame that the script doesn't match this, or the kinetic gunplay, with some hard-boiled one-liners. The film sees Keanu Reeves' titular retired hitman (known as 'The Boogeyman') grieving over the loss of his wife - but a glimpse of hope appears when she leaves him a puppy to care for, in order to help him grieve and move on. This is taken from him when the cowardly, scrawny, rat-faced son of a Russian mobster (played by 'Game of Thrones' Alfie Allen) steals his car and kills this puppy. Yes, it's a ridiculous set up, the film sort of knows this - but doesn't spend too long dwelling on this fact before getting down to Wick's quest for revenge.
The film has some cool touches, creating this alternate world where assassins have their own hotel and bar - with rules stating they can't engage in business there. The concierge (played by Lance Reddick) and owner (Ian McShane) are interesting characters, played with the right mixture of knowingness and commanding presence by the respective actors; sadly they aren't in the film as much as they should have been. The action scenes, helmed as they are by stunt co-ordinator-turned-director Chad Stahelski, are slick and impressively staged. The only draw-back to these are that they do such a good job of making Wick the legendary bad-ass that makes mobsters fearful of even his name, that there isn't much in the way of genuine threat. Having said that, Michael Nyqvist is clearly having fun as mobster Viggo, and it's good to see him in a physical role after playing disgraced journalists ('The Girls With the Dragon Tattoo'), and slippery, apocalypse-starting academics ('MI:IV').
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| The film sees Keanu Reeves back in Action mode - though this is about gunplay, rather than Martial Arts prowess... |
Although the film is stylish to the point of ludicrousness - and knowingly so, you can detect - it perhaps doesn't go far enough to reinforce that this isn't taking itself seriously. Whilst it wouldn't have needed endless jokes and one-liners (which would have pushed it too far in to being an out-and-out parody), it could have done with a few more moments like the films biggest laugh, when a cop visits Wick after he's taken out a team of would-be assassins. Spotting a corpse on the floor behind you, the cop nervously suggests he'll leave Wick to it - a moment that plays out its humour simply and effectively, but highlights that the script could have done with some more moments like these.
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| Allen and Nyqvist are effective in their roles as the main antagonists, but aren't we getting bored of the Russian Mobsters cliché? |
Outside of the action, most of the performances are pretty wooden (which you'd expect from Reeves, but not from Willem Dafoe) - again, perhaps this is part of the film's 'knowingness', but again it could have done more to highlight this. Add to this a story beat in the final act that doesn't mesh entirely well with Wick's stated revenge mission, and you have a film where you can see tantalising glimpses of a memorable genre classic. It could have at once celebrated and sent up the stylings and conventions of the genre, from the '80's to the present day (surely 'Taken' could have taken a metaphorical kicking from this?), if it had a script with more effective humour in it. What we're left with is a reasonably fun action-film that won't set the world on fire, but evokes some of the low-budget efforts that have normally been sent straight to video in the last 20 years or so. It could have been so much more, though.
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