Mastery on one hand, utter confusion on the other.

Rating: 5/10 (15 August 2015)

Has all the makings of a decent mediocre action flick, but is utterly and completely ruined by the crippled/fake Russian and some bad dialogue choices. The style of subtitles however, suggests it can still be enjoyed as a gritty-goofy comedy, since the dramatic element is hard to maintain in this state. With such level of detail offered to stunts and choreography (which is to be expected in a film made by two stunt coordinators) it's even more frustrating to see (or rather hear) that all the dialect department's work has been futile (or non existent at times). I guess 15 years into XXI century, it is still too much to ask Hollywood to consider showing their foreign lines to an expert and/or dubbing them at least if native speaking actors are not an option. (It doesn't even have to be an expert, really). Of course, all of this in John Wick poses no threat to those unaffected by understanding of Russian.