Wickedly Fun!

Ever heard of the saying dogs are a man’s best friend? Well that couldn’t be truer for John Wick.

Because you DO NOT mess with John Wick’s dog! When a bratty Russian mobster’s son, breaks in John Wick’s home, steals his car and hurts his dog (bad), he unknowingly unleashes all hell upon himself. Because little did he know that he just hit the house of retired assassin – John Wick.

Pop Culture's newest action icon - John Wick.

And John Wick is pissed. And he’s out for (copious amounts of) blood.

Honestly, not a lot happens to the plot after the initial set up. No big twist, no character development, nothing. It’s a really just all about the action, all about John Wick serving can after can of whoop ass. Everybody else was just background and really only served to accentuate Wick’s infamy.

Viggo Tarasov: Why did you strike my son?

Aureilo: He stole John Wick's car and killed his dog.

Viggo Tarasov: Oh.

(Supporting cast really only help build up the John Wick character. That or they’re cannon fodder.)

But that’s not a bad thing altogether. This movie never pretends to be anything else other that a pulse-pounding, breath-stopping, “hell yeah” inducing action flick. And the action was relentless! Anywhere John Wick goes, he either leaves a trail of bodies or bullets!

Shoot first, talk later.

Wick’s “gun fu” is violence with finesse. It’s probably the best version of the hand-gun combat style in recent memory. It's almost like a hybrid between Metal Gear's CQC and Equilibrium's Gun-Katana. And you gotta hand it to him for being thorough. He kills everyone with a bullet to the head. No exceptions! In long range firefights on the other hand, Wick looks as though he was playing Call of Duty – he moves economically, takes out goons systematically, and switches between weapons seamlessly.

The body count in this movie is probably around 50 or so, all of which by John Wick’s hands. John Wick, Jack Bauer and Bryan Mills should seriously start a club. BMC. Bad Motherf*ckers Club.

With such a physically demanding project, who better to star in it than Neo himself, Keanu Reeves! Reeves has a firm command of his body that he uses pretty well. But aside from being the skilled martial artist we already know he is (Fun fact: He did 90% of the stunts himself for this movie according to IMDB), he also displayed some acting range at the movie’s onset. There’s gravitas he adds to his character with only a deep, piercing look, or a shrug, or a smirk. Wick may have been a man of few words, but Reeve’s intense physicality is expression enough on its own.

John WICK. Get it? His head is a bomb...WITH A WICK!

But there is an element in the movie that intrigued me – the Continental. The Continental is this hit man hotel-slash-fraternity. They have a strict code of conduct (that’s surprisingly followed by cold hearted criminals), their own currency even, and I’m willing to bet the double-tapping (shooting the head) is part of some killing 101 training they get there as well. There’s a whole universe within John Wick just begging to be explored! The history of the Continental could be a movie on its own and I’d pay good money to see that.

All in all, the movie was simply entertaining, elegant, high energy violence with a good amount of dry humor. Nothing more, nothing less. If you’re into that then this is something that’ll get your blood pumping! To tell you the truth, I actually feel like playing Call of Duty after watching the movie. And wearing a suit. Or playing Call of Duty while wearing a suit. I think that’s the closest I can get to having John Wick’s stylish badassery.

Time to buy a dog!

MICMIC RATING: 7.5/10

PS. John Wick’s dog was crazy adorable!!! I think that hurt me just as much as it hurt John Wick when they did what they did to Daisy.:(

(First seen on the Philippine Online Chronicles!)