The blades in your aorta.......

Rating: 8/10 (17 February 2017)

Many say that John Wick revived the Career of one Keanu Reeves, but I beg to differ. Reeves star has never waned since he went on an excellent adventure with Alex Winter (remember him?).
Reeves is a bonafide movie star, and like To, Cruise and Tom Hanks, he could star in as many bombs he liked, his name will always attract attention and interest.
John Wick revived the action genre, and ironically assassinated the plethora of those awful watered down 12a/pg-13 movies that were slew around the cinemas, and then released as a harder extended cut to accumulate more money from people who want that extra two minutes of a knife going into a leg.
JW 2 starts as it means to go on, it's an unbelievable film, with action choreography that an eighties John Woo would be envious. There were times during some of the amazing set pieces were I was thinking to myself 'I bet Reeves is cream crackered!' But no he's like the energiser bunny in this.
The plot is your perfunctory of the best wanting to get out of the game, nut he has one last job. Something happens and Wick ends up with a contract of his own.
And this is a genius move from the film makers.
There are times when the film feels like Invasion Of The Body Snatchers for Wick, because there is an instant where he begins to suspect literally everybody in the scene, and it's quite the intense moment.
Reeves is fantastic, he's a great physical actor, and though many feel that he isn't the best actor in the world, he holds the screen, and you realise just how much work and effort he's put into this film.
The support is great, there are references The Matrix, Enter The Dragon (if you've seen that, you'll know exactly the scene I'm referring to), and it's just so beautifully lit, like the scene in Skyfall where Bond follows the assassin into the skyscraper, almost making the film psychedelia mixed with a little Kubrickian nod whenever Wick is in the hotel, especially when he's buying his guns.
There is also one amazing scene where Common is following Wick, and they are taking silenced pot shots at each other in a busy tube station. The camera work is wonderful, it's almost as if De Palma was called in for a couple of shots
My gripe is that the film is slightly too long, but there are just so many positives in this sequel, you really can't complain that much.
Roll on Chapter 3