Keanu has completely divested himself of Ted

Rating: 9/10 (24 July 2018)

Keanu has tried to shed his dumb guy persona for quite some time. Even in excellent films like "Point Break" or "The Matrix" he was still playing a doofus. With the John Wick films, Keanu is a next level badass and completely divests himself from Ted (although he's reprising his role in an upcoming third film). This sequel picks up right after the first John Wick film, with Keanu being pressured to pay back a debt that originally got him out of his hitman life in the first place. He's been asked to kill a powerful mob boss by her brother. After doing so, the brother puts a huge bounty on Wick's head and he has to fight off hitmen and hitwomen at every turn. That is everywhere except for The Continental Hotel, an underworld sanctuary run by Ian McShane where no killing is allowed. When characters who've fought each other to a bloody pulp meet up at the Continental, they must peacefully coexist. However, as cool as The Continental is of an addition to the John Wick universe, it's the unbelievably great action sequences from director Chad Stahelski and writer Derek Kolstad that make this film so memorable, even for even the most jaded of action film fan. Kolstad's script sets up some great action sequences (there's an excellent hall of mirrors finale, although most filmmakers should know that they're never going to top Orson Welles' "The Lady from Shanghai" climax), but it's director Chad Stahelski who makes the action sequences something wholly original and something not seen on screen before. Hong Kong action films of the 80s and 90s brought something original and new to action films (which were then endlessly imitated in American action films like "The Matrix" or "Desperado", but there really hasn't been anything since then that seemed all that different from what's come before (maybe Kurt Wimmer's "Gun-Fu" in "Equilibrium" and "Ultraviolet," but that too borrowed heavily from Hong Kong action cinema). The action in John Wick is fast, aggressive, and mixes hand-to-hand and gun-play in a way that has not been done before on film. The film is expertly shot by ace cinematographer Dan Laustsen ("The Shape of Water" "Crimson Peak" "Silent Hill" "Brotherhood of the Wolf"). The action is fast, bloody, and brutal, which is to say it's not going to be for all tastes, but if you're a fan of action films, you'll likely find this sequel equal if not better than the first John Wick film. Besides the top tier action, you have an even better cast than the first film, which includes Riccardo Scamarcio, Ruby Rose (as a very cool mute hitwoman), Laurence Fishburne, John Leguizamo, Bridget Moynahan, David Patrick Kelly, Peter Stormare, and even Franco Nero! Top that off by a surprise appearance by a Commodore VIC-20 used by The Continental Hotel staff and at the end of the film and that adds up to one of the best action films to come out in years!