Reminiscent of the Charles Bronson era of action movie

Rating: 6/10 (14 January 2015)

I'm a wee bit conflicted about this movie because I grew up with my Dad being a huge fan of the Dirty Harry, Charles Bronson genre of action films - typically the story would be: Innocent looking man loses wife or children or both to baddies, innocent looking man turns out to be a bad ass and takes revenge on baddies, kills everyone - the end. Now, if you traded the wife for a car and the children for a car, you would be spot on.
It did seem a bit silly that all of this was over a, and I quote, "f**king dog*. So much so that every time someone said "f**king dog" I found it funny.
All of that aside, this movie is action packed almost from the start to the very end. Aspects of it were silly and unbelievable but that's in keeping with the nature of this genre of movie. I mean Mr Wick is shot, stabbed with a broken bottle, punched and beaten and survives pretty much unharmed, managing to get to a Dr at the Hit-man Hotel (aka the Continental) - but when he purposely stabs himself at the end, he almost kills himself in the process.
In spite of all of that, I actually really enjoyed it even if it was a bit silly. Today's action movies almost seem to be far too constructed and effects ridden, this is good old dirty beat em up action - simplistic it may be, but thoroughly enjoyable still.