Enjoyably silly with style to spare.

Rating: 8/10 (1 November 2014)

In his first bona fide hit for quite some time, Keanu Reeves is an assassin on a warpath after Russian crims kill his puppy and steal his car. If that sounds a touch silly, that's because it is, but this movie whole-heartedly embraces its bonkers premise and revels in presenting a genre film with tongue firmly in cheek. Screenwriter Derek Kolstad builds a semi-fantastical world where hit men (and hitwomen of course) have their own underworld currency, a special hotel sanctuary with doctors on site and a nightclub where hired killers can unwind, and, obviously, a guild who ensures the assassin moral code is upheld. This endearing self- awareness ensures John Wick is amusingly engaging between the numerous action sequences, which are, surprisingly, of an extremely high calibre. A blend of the economic gun-fu from Equilibrium and the close quarters krav maga made popular in the Bourne trilogy, the expertly choreographed fight scenes (tacked on finale excluded) are frenetic, exhilarating and joyously violent. Reeves is clearly having a blast playing the revenge driven yet cool-as-a-cucumber protagonist, whilst the rest of the cast – including Willem Dafoe, Adrianne Palicki, Michael Nyqvist and Alfie "Theon Greyjoy from GoT" Allen – do what they can with shared screen time; Palicki's arrogant hired gun shining brightest. A B-grade flick wrapped in A-grade style, John Wick is exceptionally enjoyable.