One sentence synopsis: John Wick confronts a figure from his past and a horde of secret assassins intent on killing him.
Things Havoc liked: You write reviews for long enough in regards to any kind of subjective
thing, and eventually you're going to make mistakes. Obviously I, being
an expert, am less prone to such things than others are, but the fact
remains that even I can make the occasional slip up, or simply have my
viewpoints on movies evolve over time. So it is with 2014's Neo-noir
action extravaganza,
John Wick, a Keanu Reeves showcase of excellent
action, excellent cinematography, and very, very little else. I was
complimentary towards John Wick in its original incarnation, but
somewhat grudgingly-so, as i felt that the movie's lack of any kind of
story beyond the most basic excuse for action sequences was a flaw, and
that the movie was consequently one-dimensional. I try to put enough
thought into these reviews to avoid having to eat crow later on, but
over the course of the years between that review and this one, I must
admit that I began to re-think my position on John Wick, as the film's
simplicity came to look more and more like leanness, and the other
issues I had with it came to feel less important on the periodic, repeat
viewings that I engaged in. Moreover, the film's strengths,
particularly its fantastic action, became more impressive in hindsight,
particularly as I went through movies like
The Expendables 3 or
Spectre.
Though I still didn't think it amazing, I have come to respect John
Wick more than I did before, and wish that I had given it a higher
score.
Fortunately, I now have an opportunity to make up for past amends. Because the sequel is
goddamned awesome.
John Wick: Chapter 2, is a
staggeringly good
action movie, a purified exercise in cinematic talent, a baroque ode to
the fine art of staging and filming violence as performed by masters of
the art. It is a polished, expertly-crafted jewel in the dross that is
typically February releases, a work of excess-laden, artistic bliss.
If you are at all a fan of action movies as a theoretical concept, you
will adore its every blood-spattered moment, and need read no further
for me to convince you. And even if action movies are lost upon you,
this one is so classically-made and lovingly-crafted that you may find
yourself enjoying it despite your best efforts. Which category I am in
should be obvious.
The original John Wick's action was its
strongest suit, so good that it influenced other action movies like The
Accountant, but this film's action makes the first look like an exercise
in Jason-Bournesque shaky-cam. The fighting, and there is
so goddamn much
of it, is a ballet of death, with crisp, beautifully-framed shots of
shooting, of knife-fighting, of close-quarters combat by men who clearly
intend to kill one another with ruthless, bloody efficiency. Some of
the best scenes in the film come when John Wick fights some other
super-assassin over who will get control of a single knife or gun and
kill the other with a shot to the head. Bone-shattering blows and falls
alternate with artistic gunplay of all types, as dozens of men are cut
down in hails of gunfire filmed to make their demises seem neither
comical, as in a bad action movie, nor foregone conclusions, as in a
middling one. So relentlessly superb is the action in this movie that
when special scenes finally arise, such as the on-screen revelation of
just how lethal John Wick can be with something as benign as a pencil,
it actually feels like a shocking confirmation of how deadly the
character is, not some director's contrivance to allow the hero to show
off. Director Chad Stahelski, whose only directed films are the John
Wick series, has a stuntman background going all the way back to 1994's
The Crow (where he served as Brandon Lee's replacement stand-in
following the terrible on-set accident that killed him), and it shows in
this film, as the entire movie is cored around its action, and exists
as a showcase of the art form.
Which is not to say that the cast
is letting the side down. Keanu Reeves is a known quantity at this
point, an actor whose range is perhaps not the widest, but who is
consistently entertaining and effective within that range. This is no
slur against (by all accounts) one of the kindest and most thoughtful
men in Hollywood, only an attempt to point out that, in the John Wick
series, Reeves has found what might be his perfect role. Whatever his
acting limitations may be, Reeves is
ruthlessly good
at playing a preternaturally-skilled killer of men, encompassing both
the physical demands of the role (for which he performed his own stunts,
of course), and the dead-eyed, monotone expressionless soul-void that
must reside at the core of a character that does the things he does.
The film is by no means a deconstruction of action heroes or anything,
it's simply a role written (literally, I imagine), for Keanu, which he
is unsurprisingly great at.
What
is
surprising, though, is how good the rest of his castmates are,
particularly rapper/actor Common, whom I've always sort of casually
liked without having any real affection for. No longer. Playing the
role of Cassian, another member of the Invisible, International
Fraternity of Invincible Super-Assassins, Common is on another goddamn
level here, as his attempts to take revenge on Wick lead to a series of
action setpieces that are staggering to behold, even by comparison to
the rest of the movie. A standout moment involves the two of them
walking as casually as they can through a train station attempting to
kill one another with silenced handguns without anyone else finding out
that they are shooting at each other, and ends with a knife-fight on a
train that is, by itself, more exciting and energetic than the entire
Taken series put together. The rest of the cast includes recurring
characters like Ian MacShane's Winston, and Lance Reddick's Charon,
respectively the director and the concierge of "The Continental", a
series of hotels and underground service providers who govern and manage
the aforementioned Invisible, International Fraternity of Invincible
Super-Assassins (hereafter referred to as the IIFISA). The film expands
on the fascinating, briefly-glimpsed world of the IIFISA, showing us
its locations elsewhere in the world, its services on-offer (including
Peter Serafinowicz as a Sommelier who deals in more than just wine), and
even hints about its top-level organization. The film stops short of
showing us enough to spoil the mystery, but tantalizes us with hints and
references and the charming anachronisms of the IIFISA's old-world
operational style that feel, at times, like something out of a
gothic-punk vampire story of the late 90s. Newcomers (besides Common),
include the increasingly ubiquitous Ruby Rose as a mute assassin (the
IIFISA has always been quite inclusive) working for yet another
impeccably-powerful mafia boss, and none other than Laurence Fishburne
playing "The Bowery King", a lord of beggars and thieves throughout New
York who takes the opportunity of his scenes with Reeves to make all the
Matrix in-jokes imaginable, while feasting gluttonously on the nearby
scenery. This is not an objection.
Yes,
I know this film actually won the Academy Award in question already, so
this is kind of a day late and a dollar short, but Piper is still, by
an admittedly small margin, the best of the lot. Pixar's showcase of
how well they can animate animal behavior while still retaining the
emotion and coherence of the story they are telling is an amazing piece
of animation, better by a significant margin than the feature-length
movie it was attached to (Finding Dory). The story of a baby sandpiper
and the hermit crabs she befriends in trying to figure out how to find
food in the tide marks of the beach she lives on is charming and
gorgeous and funny and heartwarming all at once, and even though it's
Pixar again, and even though it's another funny animal short, and
even though some of the other nominees were more serious explorations
of the human condition, Piper is the best-made of all the films on
offer, and the most fun to boot. And so for the second year in a row,
Pixar takes home the Havoc award for Best Animated Short. No doubt they
will send out a press release soon.
