Kill All The Things

Rating: 9/10 (14 January 2015)

Keanu Reeves always comes back with a little gem but this one is his best film in ages.
It's a pure Kill Film, nothing more and nothing less. Keanu, as John Wick, has the only two things he has left in this world taken from him at a time when he has nothing left to live for and so, entirely understandably, he decides to take revenge. Keanu then proceeds to kill a significant amount of people.
Here's what I liked about John Wick: clearly, whoever was in charge, really loves film and/or knows exactly how to improve upon every mediocre revenge film out there. The clichéd bits seemed almost deliberate like a teacher showing his or her film students how to make a tired and overdone scene interesting and unique.
I won't expand too much on this point other than to say that there is something engaging about every scene no matter how often it has been done before.
What I really want to talk about is the fight scenes. This is the first time since the Bourne films that I feel someone has done something different and unique with fight choreography. All the fights seemed to be filmed in one take and without stunt doubles. There was one extended fight scene in particular in the middle which was stunning. I genuinely can't think of another actor who would have pulled off Keanu's character and choreography as well as he did.
During the inevitable 'sit-down' with the bad guy and his men, they missed an opportunity to mirror a previous scene with a 'captured' female assassin, nevertheless; Keanu gets an opportunity to really let go and bring some much needed emotion to his character. I thought he could have gone further and this could have been more poignant but he delivered the scene really well.
I think it's time to officially acknowledge a new genre of film: the kill film. I wouldn't label it as action because I expect action films to include action as part of the main story not the other way around. If you want to watch a good revenge/kill film, this is definitely the one.
9/10