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John Wick: The Most Kick@$$ Movie of 2014 You Probably Didn’t See

has come to VOD and home video, and if you haven't seen it, you really fucking should, seriously. Not since films like Equilibrium or A Better Tomorrow have I seen innovative “gun fu” executed onscreen with such passionate detail, and I'll bet, neither have you. If I am preaching to the choir, you may feel free to get off here, if not then bear with me for a moment.

Before I go any further I should note that what prompted me to go on this tangent is that I'm truly tired of seeing entertaining movies going unnoticed due to weak marketing; that and I had asked almost all of my die hard action fan friends if they had seen John Wick and they either had not seen it or was otherwise unsure of which movie I was referring to.

John Wick is the result of the directorial pairing of David Leitch and Chad Stahleski. Maybe you think you've never heard of David Leitch or Chad Stahleski, but if you've seen The Matrix, 300, Tron Legacy, Xmen Origins: Wolverine, Fight Club, The Bourne Legacy, and so on, then you know their work. So basically most of the best fight/stunt coordinating of the past 15 years. Stahleski is also best known for being ' stunt double in The Matrix films

So why is this film exceptional? Not because it breaks any particularly new ground, or because it packs the witty dialogue of a Quentin Tarrantino movie, (it doesn't do much of either) but because, as action movies go, it is extremely well executed, and, in spite of its being a relatively straight forward revenge yarn, it still manages to breathe fresh air into the action genre. The stunts, as you would correctly assume, are amazingly gritty and disturbingly realistic despite the surrealist feel of the world in which it all takes place. More surprisingly, as harsh a critic as I know myself to be, I found myself authentically surprised at how original a take Leitch and Stahleski had on developing the martial style of the titular character. Keanu's Wick played as much like a 21st century Samurai/Ronin as it did mob assassin turned mobster killer. The key word here is style. Style is all over this film, from production design, to lighting, costume, and even inspired choices in supporting cast, John Wick effortlessly oozes style from every celluloid pore. Fun and interesting cameos from well known character actors like John Leguizamo, Lance Reddick, and Ian McShane add necessary gravity to a scenario that might easily drift off into utter foolishness, yet manages to stay masterfully on track.

That said, am I trying to sell you John Wick as an overlooked Oscar contender? Certainly not, after all as Peter Travers of Rolling Stone put it: “you could describe the whole plot in less than the space of an average tweet..”. In a nutshell: Killer quits mob to get married, wife dies, leaves him a puppy to love in her absence, mobsters kill his puppy and steal his car, killer goes on a whirling rampage of revenge. Simple. But rampage he does, and that's the fun of it. The fun is in action so flawlessly conceived, planned, and executed that it almost seems plausible, applicable even. As both a filmmaker and martial artist, there are moments in the film where Reeves shoots and disarms opponents with a frenetic blend of Aikido, Jujitsu, and Jeet Kune Do maneuvers that honestly seem plausible from a technical point of view. This is a notion that I find particularly surprising in an American action film when most western filmmakers give little if any detail to the fighting style of the character they are creating on the screen, even when fighting style can serve to inform the character (I'm looking at you Chris Nolan). Asian cinema has nearly always done this well, I don't even have to go back very far. Gareth Evans' The Raid 1 & 2 prove that with such ultra-violent panache that I think I can say with all confidence that if you doubt the veracity of that statement, then you probably haven't seen them, or maybe you just don't like action.

This brings me to another key word: action. It's an action movie. Not a costume drama, biopic, or historical document. It's purpose is to entertain, to provide catharsis for our otherwise humdrum lives, and to escape to a world where even the bad guy can be the hero, and he can waltz through a haze of gunfire and eliminate anything that stands in his way. Honestly, if you don't get that, then it simply isn't for you. The first thing I remember being told in film school was that filmmaking was created for the purpose of entertainment, and once you forget that you begin to drift away from the spirit of the thing itself.

Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves

When it comes right down to it, it isn't your fault that you missed one of the more kick-ass flicks of 2014, it's Hollywood's. I don't know whether they are trying to keep the action genre suppressed, or if they just suck at marketing action, but time and again I take little chances and watch movies with minimal buzz, or check something out that I read about on someone's blog and find awesome and fun films whose best attributes never made it to the trailer, even in tiny glimpses. Most times a little peek is all real fans need to get the idea. Perhaps I should say that Hollywood simply seems late to the game these days, because I have heard from reliable sources that Leitch and Stahlecki have been signed to do 3 more films not including the sequel to John Wick (can't wait).

All in all, am I gushing? Perhaps a bit; but I support well crafted action everywhere I can, and I am particularly intrigued when we Westerners get it right in the martial category; especially when it becomes its own animal, as opposed to a thinly veiled homage to that which came before. John Wick raised the bar for gun flicks, stop hating and deal with it.

If you haven't seen it, go see it, if you have seen it go grab another action fan by the hand, sit him or her down, and watch it again.

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