Don't mess with his dog Theon!!!!!!

Rating: 7/10 (2 September 2017)

John Wick is a very decent action movie starring Keano Reeves as John Wick who is a highly skilled assassin. He receives a dog in the mail (which is a bit strange, I mean the dog just gets delivered to him by mail) from his dead wife straight after her funeral. Some Russian/American guy called Iosef Tarasov (played by Theon Greyjoy out of Game of Thrones) decided he likes wick's car and steals it then kills the dog..Then the sh*t hits the fan.
To start off this movie has a very simple plot with no interesting twists or turns in it at all. The main focus of this movie is to show John Wick killing lots of people with no real mercy shown. This is purely a revenge movie in the simplest form. While the plot is simple this does not make it a bad movie at all.
Reeves plays an action hero really well when the character does not have a huge amount of depth to him. The other characters as well are pretty basic and can be boiled down to simple motives for each of them. Wick wants vengeance for his dog which was special to him because it was given to him by his dead wife, Iosef Tarasov is wants to be a gangster because his farther is a gangster and so takes what he wants because he thinks that's what gangsters do to get respect. Iosef's farther (viggo) wants to stay alive and make lots of money like mob bosses always want to do and his son keeps fu**ing it up.
I loved the bit where Viggo just found out his son stole John Wick's car and killed his dog. Just that moment of "you don't understand who you messed with" was very entertaining. I also really enjoyed all of the scenes with the hotel receptionist in as he was so matter of fact when Wick would turn up to the hotel (which is sort of like a safe house for hit men and criminals in the film) all bloody and wounded from killing gangsters. He did not bat an eye and would just asked if he needed assistance.
Okay so the action scenes were very well done. Whoever choreographed the fight scene in the club and Wick's house knew what he was doing for sure. While there were lots of talking that did not really progress the plot the action scenes made up for this easily.
The camera work was good as I did not see any of that wobbly camera thing you see in all bad action movies. Nothing worse than an action scene where you can't see the action because of excessive camera movement. The drone shots of the New York skyline were interesting to see at night as well.
The film is well edited and the pacing is very fast as you would expect from an action film. Does not get bogged down with over-explaining plot point that don't need explaining. The soundtrack was okay in the same way elevator music is okay. It does not bother anyone and you do not notice it too much. Just generic action movie score. Nothing to get excited over.
This film is worth checking out for the action scenes which are competent and simple plot points make it an easy watch. The reason for the rating was that this film is just that.simple. Now there is nothing wrong with simple but I like my movies to have a little bit more substance and complexity. Look at Die Hard and you will see what I mean. This film had no Hans Grubber at all. But it was entertaining and that is really the least we can all ask from movies.