John Wick

John Wick had me hooked in the first 5 minutes.  The rest of the movie was a simple process of reeling me in – and it was probably the easiest job in the world for two debutante directors – David Leitch & Chad Stahelski.  Their repertoire was restricted to designing and directing the stunts for some really big movies such as Speed Racer and Tron Legacy.

So it was logical and of course a solid call from their side to start off their time behind the camera with a genre that they are most comfortable with – Action.  John Wick leaves you with no doubt after the trailer – you have to be really insensitive to not guess what John Wick is about.  Leitch and Stahelski ensure that there are many more high points in the movie other than those shown on the trailer.

John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is mourning the passing of his wife to a long-standing illness that’s not been explained in detailed and probably irrelevant but was expected.  He is of course more than distraught and wants to be left alone.  The only other love in his life is an enviable 1969 Mustang. His wife, thoughtfully, had arranged for a pet dog to be delivered to John soon after she has left him.

John, his Mustang and the cutest little beagle are minding their own business when they encounter Iosef (Alfie Allen) at a petrol bunk.  Iosef tries to buy out the Mustang – fat chance of that happening.  When that doesn’t work out as planned, he comes over uninvited to Wick’s house, kills the dog and steals the car. Iosef is the son of the East Coast Mafia head Viggo (Michael Nyqvist).

What Iosef doesn’t know is that Wick was at one time Viggo’s go-to man for all jobs (if you know what I mean).  Viggo is of course more than worried because he is fully aware of what Wick is capable of.  The cocky Iosef on the other hand is about to have a “Who’s your daddy” moment – or should I say a series of moments.

John Wick is an absolute no nonsense movie.  If there is no action then there is not point in having too much dialogue.  Keep the non-action time during the movie to a bare minimum is the mantra that Leitch and Stahelski follow – religiously.  Make sure that Wick and Iosef don’t encounter each other too soon thereby taking the movie to a respectable 100 minutes (Could have done with 10 minutes or so lesser).

The action sequences are delectably shot.  The fights are real and believable.  The dialogue is not corny – in fact most of the dialogue is reasonable and well thought of.  Keanu Reeves does his best to hide the fact that he can barely act.  The support cast is decent and put in a reasonable effort with the Russian and the accent. 7 on 10 for a good action movie after a while.  Watch it.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2273816345/?ref_=tt_ov_vi