The man who kills the Boogeyman

Rating: 8/10 (27 February 2016)

There are actually quite a handful reasons why "John Wick" could have become a failure. The two directors have never made a film before and almost exclusively worked in the stunt department so far. The writer is not exactly experienced either. Lead actor Keanu Reeves usually scores more through boyish charm than through realistic portrayal of gritty badass characters. And the genre of crime action thrillers rarely delivers in terms of real significance. Still it became a very good film. The main reason for that is probably that it does not attempt to be anything of great cinematic value, does not try to teach groundbreaking stories on moral, loyalty or betrayal. Instead, Derek Kolstad's script goes for a gutsy revenge thriller that is not even hurt by its occasional predictability.
I was very pleased with Reeves performance here. He is a man in his 50s now and I guess with age came a certain masculinity that works very well in this film here. Willem Dafoe is fun as always. Adrianne Palicki nicely plays a cold-blooded femme fatale. Lance Redick is a lot of fun with his professional take on Wick being a guest in his hotel. Alfie Allen is the real antagonist at times, but his character's age and and inexperience really cost him that perspective. Instead his character's father develops into the main enemy to John Wick, even if both apparently still have a lot of respect for the other and Nyqvist's character really only has to pay for his offspring's sins and Wick seems to understand that he wants to protect his son, even if he opposes this idea. People who complain that such a way of revenge may be way too much for a dead dog and stolen car have not understand a thing about the main character here. He is a testosterone-filled hit man, who has not acted rationally for years and will not do so either if somebody destroys the only link left between him and his beloved wife. That's why it is not an unrealistic film. I also liked that they did not choose to include a new love interest for the main character as it would have been really contradictory in terms of him mourning for his wife. They can do that in the sequel perhaps. Choosing the path of an assassin to avoid a 99% male cast was the right way to go.
There are a couple moments that did not seem in a way that I'd have expected from Wick, usually these when he shows mercy for his greatest enemies, also the scene in the end. Yes he does respect Tarasov Sr. but after killing Dafoe's character is it really appropriate that he threw his gun away? I am not sure about that. I guess I'd have preferred an ending like the final boss battle from "Taken". And the dog scene at the end? Oh well, this is maybe one of the few areas when the film attempts to be something more than it should with the emotional significance that felt really only included for the sake of it. But there really isn't anything wrong with these 100 minutes. I enjoyed the watch a lot and this is even more impressive as action films can rarely stay memorable to me. Highly recommended, an extremely positive surprise how well it worked against all odds. I very much hope the second one will be equally strong.