Burning the Candle At Both Ends.

Rating: 7/10 (31 August 2018)

Starting soon after the conclusion of the first film, Keanu Reeves returns to another stint of what he does best, highly choreographed fighting and emoting terribly.
Word of Wick's re-emergence has spread around the organised crime community and prove particularly interesting to Santino D'Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio) a passed over Gomorrah boss, to whom Wick owes a blood debt. Dante calls this in and refuses to take Wick's "please ... no ... don't do this" for an answer - blowing up his house. Out for revenge, but bound by the code of Assassins, Wick agrees to the job.
Your opinion on John Wick 2 is likely to be pretty similar to your opinion of the first one, as it is, generally, more of the same. It's fair to say it's not quite as good, just by virtue of being so similar to the first it doesn't have the same effect. Also expectation is much higher now, whereas the first film came out of nowhere. My opinion though is that they are very welcome additions to the action genre, disregarding CGI heavy combat, or blurry heavily cut nonsense, for proper choreographed action, performed by stuntman and to an impressive amount by Keanu himself. The body count is high and the action is brutal, although not without is comedic moments too. Direction (and art direction) is excellent and the creation of the hyper stylised world that Wick inhabits is really strong.
Acting in the film is . . . interesting. As if to counter act Keanu downplaying everyone else chews the scenery with abandon, none more than Lawrence Fishburne who clearly enjoys bellowing his lines at the top of his voice. Ian McShane isn't far behind and neither is Riccardo Scamarcio, twirling his metaphorical moustache as the films primary antagonist.
Chastising the films realism is, for me, missing the point. Finding it dull or repetitive I can appreciate, even if I don't necessarily agree - but it's clearly not supposed to be set in the real world. There isn't really an assassin's hotel in the Flat Iron Building, people sewing Kevlar into Italian suits or a worldwide cabal of organised crime. You want to drive yourself really crazy, trying working out the exchange rate for what the gold coins are worth.