You Can Steal A Man's Car - You Can Beat A Man Up - But Don't Kill The Man's Dog!

Rating: 3/10 (9 September 2017)

As the title clearly tells us, this movie is really about one man - John Wick. John is a sort of super (perhaps even super-human) hit man for the Russian Mob. But he's retired. He found love; he got married; everything was great; he left the life. But his wife got sick and then died, and as her parting gift to the devastated John, she arranges for him to be sent a puppy after she died. The puppy comforts him in his grief. Until ... One day he has an encounter with the son of the Russian mob boss he used to work for. They don't know each other. The guy falls in love with John's car, and later breaks into John's house, beats John up, kills John's puppy and steals John's car. It was the killing of the puppy - the last link with his beloved wife - that pushed John over the top. He's back, and he's out for revenge: bloody, merciless and remorseless revenge against anybody and everybody even remotely involved with this heinous act.
That's it, more or less. The movie then goes through a whole series of bloody gunfights and fistfights and martial arts sequences as John (Keanu Reeves) single-handedly wreaks havoc on the Russian Mob in New York City. The fight scenes go on and on and on. They seem never-ending. It was a very one-dimensional part for Reeves (but, then again, most of the characters in this were one dimensional.) The point of the movie wasn't to tell a story or to give us meaningful moments and characters. They were all pretty one dimensional, working with a plot that was straightforward and largely predictable. This is obviously all leading up to the climactic confrontation. Admittedly, I wasn't entirely sure who John's final confrontation was going to be with until the son was killed with almost a half hour left to go. Clearly it wasn't him. So it goes on and on and on for a while longer.
Personally, I found the last half hour quite tedious viewing. If you really like this kind of genre - violent and bloody action with little or no story - then this is a movie you've got to watch. I have to admit that this just really wasn't my style, even though I can appreciate a man wanting to take revenge for the killing of his puppy! (3/10)