If someone held a gun to you head and forced you to come up with an idea for an action movie you'd probably come up with the plot for 'John Wick': A legendary underworld hit man is called out of "retirement" when some Russian mobsters steal his car and kill his dog just days after his wife dies from a terminal illness. The unluckiest man in the world will have his roaring rampage of revenge.
I mean this is real back of a fag packet stuff. There's Zen-like simplicity and then there's a one note idea stretched to breaking point. If 'John Wick' was a piece of music it would just be bass and drums for as long as you could bear it. Which is to say, it works, but you want something else happening over the top of it.
Now, I don't mind straightforward plots in a genre movie context....but....if you're only going to offer bare bones then you'd better dress it up with some interesting characters, existential gloss ('Le Samourai', 'Point Blank', 'Thief', 'Drive'), some stunning visuals or some jaw dropping action. Does 'John Wick' deliver? Well, a bit. But I can't deny that I was big time disappointed with it.
'John Wick' was preceded by a torrent of good word of mouth from The States where it was released last year and the impression given was that this was a bit of a game changer. But it isn't. It has its moments for sure but is also disappointingly mediocre, monotone and repetitive.
Here's what happens: John Wick walks into a nightclub packed to the rafters with heavily armed henchmen. He works his way around the building taking the bad guys out with ever more realistic headshots. Move, headshot, repeat. Crouch, headshot, repeat. Jump, headshot, repeat. Run, headshot, repeat. Etc, etc. Then move to a new location and start all over again. It's not a movie so much as a Playstation game. But that's not even my main problem with it. I've got lots of other gripes.
First up: Keanu Reeves. Despite being in some of the greatest action films of all time ('Speed', 'The Matrix', 'Point Break', I still find his presence in this as the ultimate badass laughable. It's such a blank canvas role that you can imagine any number of interchangeable action hero heads in the role and all of them making a better job of it. He's miscast. He could just about pull off the naive, gung-ho, cocky FBI type or even the everyman hero type in previous films....but the strong, silent type just leaves him looking unintentionally funny.
And then there's the action scenes. Impressively choreographed as they are (and they are) there is still something unimpressive about them. It looks like Reeves is just jumping through a series of pre-determined hoops. It may look balletic at times but it never really convinces. It never looks like he is reacting to anything, it never feels spontaneous. It may be fast, it may be furious but it always feels overly rehearsed....and because of that there is no tension, because you never really believe that he is in any danger...it all becomes about watching the mechanics of it all, rather than a cinematic spectacle that makes you feel the moment. It should be exhilarating, and it is at first, but it quickly becomes tedious. The film is only an hour and a half long, but still has you wishing it would wrap up twenty minutes before the end.
Plus there's the inherent problem of...how come, if he's such a badass, does he allow himself to be so compromised in the first place? And he's such a lightweight that he needs to be rescued by a sniper's bullet. That would never have happened to Statham. And this is what this is: a Jason Statham film without Jason Statham in it.
God only knows what attracted Willem Dafoe to this project. He gets beaten up, assembles a rifle and....er, that's it...apart from a funeral scene with Keanu. He can't be that hard up for cash can he?
And what's with the title? 'John Wick'. Sounds like a second rate standup comedian. Surely any generic action title would have been better than this. Call it 'Big Bad John', call it 'Johnny Mad Bastard', hell, even call it 'Marvel's The Punisher' because that's essentially what this is. 'John Wick'. I'm sorry, I'm bored already.
The film has one good idea: a safe-house hotel where gangsters can check in, unwind, get stitched up, stash weapons and hit the pause button on their gangster shit....no questions asked....as long as they agree to the house rules and don't conduct any "business" on the premises. That's a great idea. Think Hotel Babylon directed by Tarantino. I want to see that movie. Not this one.
It's fine Friday night entertainment. But nothing more. Nothing exceptional. It's generic, straight-to-DVD action fodder that somehow got itself an A-list star, good choreography and a decent budget. But nothing more. Nothing you've not seen a million times before.
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