John Wick

When one thinks of the term, hit man, usually they conjure up a film such as "The Godfather" or some other mafia related movie. However, ever since the film, Death Wish" back in '74, it sort of gave the term hit man or vigilante a more respected and even good connotation--good vs. evil, because the law won't protect the innocent. Since then we've seen "Diary of a Hitman" '91, "Hitman" '07 and even the recent "Equalizer" with Denzel Washington. So when "John Wick" came on the scene, the filmmakers undoubtedly wanted to market on a genre that people want to see more, especially when we are seemingly living in a society where people, quite literally, get away with murder.

An ex-hitman, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters, Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist), his son, Iosef (Alfie Allen) and others, that robbed him of his reason for living. With New York City as his bullet-riddled playground, this is an interesting stylized take on the 'assassin genre'.
The huge mistake that Viggo's son makes is when he steals Wick's classic muscle '60s Mustang and kills his puppy dog, all the while having no idea who he just attacked. His father clues him in, only to let his son know that he will be coming after him, because this was no ordinary man--this was John Wick. He has been nick-named 'The Boogyman', where he will stop at nothing and is totally lethal. Of all people Iosef had to tamper with, this guy was not the one to force out of retirement. Talk about opening up Pandora's box.

Others to round out the cast are Willem Dafoe as Marcus, Dean Winters as Avi, Vitto's assistant, Adrianne Palicki as Ms. Perkins, Omer Barnea as Gregori, one of Viggo's goons, Ian McShane as Winston, Toby Leonard Moore as Victor, another one of Viggo's goons, Daniel Bernhardt as Kirill, Vitto's top henchman, John Leguizamo as Aureilo, Bridget Moynahan as Helen, Bridget Regan as Addy, Lance Reddick as Hotel manager/Charon and Keith Jardine as Kuzma.

Remarkably, this was directed by two stunt coordinators--David Leitch (81 films doing the stunts) and Chad Stahelski (71 films doing the stunts). The even more remarkale aspect of this is that it was directed as well as some seasoned directors could muster up. This is their first film in that director's chair, and considering their lack of experience in that chair, I'm curious to see what they'll do next, and undoubtedly there will be a next time. It was effectively written by Derek Kolstad ("One in the Chamber" '12, "The Package" '12). With all honesty, there were some areas of lack of continuity, but not really enough to distract from the intensity this film surely produced. It certainly shows what happens when a person is as driven as Wick is and that they will stop at nothing to right that incredible wrong. This is certainly something we've seen Reeves do before, but when he pulls off this similar character as well as he does, we can be all that more forgiving.

If your passion is clearly one of seeing wrongs made right, this will surely hit that cord, but even if you just want to escape for a 100 minute running time, this will fit the bill and then some.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                              Rated: R                                101mins.