In the title role of “John Wick,” Keanu Reeves plays the sort of cool silent assassin who only has a few dozen lines. He’s a slick, lethal hit man; why should he talk much? And yet you wish he’d shut up, already.
This movie only needs a simple set-up to function, but there’s John Wick, handcuffed to a chair and telling the bad guys why he’s doing what he’s doing. We get it, man. Now why can’t you be as terse as Ryan Gosling in “Drive”?
The simple set-up goes like this: Wick’s been out of the assassin game for five years, living a normal life for a while. His wife dies of illness and leaves behind a surprise puppy to console her husband.
After the hothead son (Alfie Allen, from “Game of Thrones”) of a Russian gangster (Michael Nyqvist) steals Wick’s car and kills the dog, merciless revenge is guaranteed. Wick’s rep is so badass that when the villains hear he has been wronged, they all but commit hara-kiri on the spot; he’s the Michael Jordan of hit men, and it’s really just a matter of time (and 50 or so bodies) before he removes the Russian mob from the picture.
As the movie presents it, Wick is actually pretty lucky his opponents are such bad shots — but at a certain point, you don’t apply real-world standards to a movie like this. This is a cartoon in which the brotherhood of assassins doesn’t just have its unspoken code (although everybody keeps speaking it — see above), it also has its own Manhattan hotel, a discreet place where Wick is welcomed as an old pal.
If you can put up with the constant gunfire and the aggressive score, “John Wick” offers ridiculous but satisfying action. Nyqvist, the star of the Swedish “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” trilogy, brings a little twinkle to the otherwise stock Russian villain, and Willem Dafoe, Adrianne Palicki, and Ian McShane are fun condiments on the underworld smorgasbord.
Keanu Reeves does his usual thing, striding through the mayhem in good-looking suits and patchy beard. Once the dog is dead, his motivation is locked in.
And if you wonder whether a dog killing is sufficient justification for Wick’s huge body count, you obviously haven’t been with a movie audience lately. The dog is adorable. Let the bullets fly.
“John Wick” (2 1/2 stars)
Keanu Reeves is a steely assassin, returning to the game to get the Russian gangsters who killed his dog. This is a ridiculous movie but the action is constant and weirdly satisfying. With Michael Nyqvist.
Rating: R, for violence, language
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