A parallel criminal world packed full of clichés

Rating: 5/10 (6 August 2017)

Not being a fan of action movies I watched this on TV, out of a mild liking for Keanu Reeves. I know he has a reputation as a bad actor, but at least he never tries anything he cannot handle.
Reeves is John Wick, a super-assassin living in what I gather (or hope) is a parallel world. Wick "retired" to live with his wife but she died and left him a puppy as a goodbye gift.
The premise of the "retired professional' is one of the stalest in the movie world, such as the killer with a heart and we get both in this movie. Wick gets out of retirement to avenge the killing of his dog and the theft of his car. Obviously, it is no regular villain who angered him, but the reckless son of a Russian mega-mobster.
Moving from his designer villa to the city of New York, Wick gets to stay in a luxury hotel called the Continental, where criminals must refrain from "conducting business" or else being "excommunicated" from the great criminal brotherhood.
Wick's criminal pals are sympathetic about Wick's loss and also scared of him, because of his fierce reputation. Knowing that "honor among thieves" and criminal luxury world are bulls**t, helps rooting for Wick's revenge. It also helps that the villains are Russian mobsters and everybody knows the world can do without them.
As in every action movie, one also knows that the hero is next to indestructible and that some preposterous fighting scenes will pave the way to a car chase sequence (or vice-versa). As long as you keep your expectations low, Wick will deliver. Reeves is predictably laconic and the world his character inhabits is suitably menacing and dark, a sort of lawless Gotham city.
PS I did not see this threadbare plot as an opening for sequels, there being very little original material to carve out more stories, but unfortunately it happened... and it just went downhill.