Name: John Wick (2014)
IMDb: link to IMDb page
Genres: Action, Thriller Country of Origin: USA
Cast: Keanu Reeves as John Wick, Michael Nyqvist as Viggo Tarasov, Alfie Allen as Iosef Tarasov, Willem Dafoe as Marcus, Dean Winters as Avi, Adrianne Palicki as Ms Perkins, Omer Barnea as Gregori, Toby Leonard Moore as Victor, Bridget Moynahan as Helen, John Leguiziamo as Aurelio, Ian McShane as Winston, Bridget Regan as Addy, Lance Reddick as Hotel Manager (Charon).
Directed by: Chad Stahelski and David Leitch. Written by: Derek Kolstad.
The Three Acts:
The initial tableau: In modern day greater New York/New Jersey, John Wick's wife Helen suddenly dies of a long lingering illness. His old acquaintance Marcus gives his condolences after the burial. He grieves for an interval. In the days after the wake, a puppy, Daisy, is delivered with a note from Helen. John and Daisy get to like each other. While out with Daisy getting gasoline, two Russian mobsters stop for gas at the same time. Iosef admires John's Mustang, and offers to buy either the car or the dog or both. John declines, and an older associate calls Iosef off. Iosef and two friends break into John's house, beat him up, ruin beautiful things, shoot Daisy, steal the Mustang, badly damage his newer car, and steal the bracelet of Helen's that John kept near him.
Delineation of conflicts: Daisy was John's last living link with Helen. The necklace had similar importance. John wants vengeance on Iosef and on Viggo. Aurelio informs Viggo of Iosef's actions. Viggo understands the problem that Iosef has created. "That fuckin' nobody is John Wick." he informs Iosef the idiot. He advises Iosef to get out of his sight. He asks his associate, Avi, to task all his available men to take on John. When that fails, he sets a bounty of 2 million USD on John's head, and also asks Marcus to do the job as soon as possible. Will Viggo live through this?
Resolution: The many conflicts were resolved in what I thought were reasonable ways. I recommend this film to anyone who likes the genre.
One line summary: Excellent action/revenge film.
Statistics:
a. Cinematography: 6/10 This would be one of the weaker parts of this film. I do not like filters, and there were too many minutes of that.
b. Sound: 9/10 There are some great music tracks in this film, and the incidental music was well-chosen. The actors were well miked, and I had no problems picking up dialog.
c. Acting: 8/10 I liked Dafoe as always. This was a great role for Keanu Reeves. I have only liked him in The Matrix before this film, and was glad to see another film that suited him so very well. Michael Nyqvist was superb as Viggo. Ian McShane, John Leguiziamo, and Lance Reddick were all very good.
d. Screenplay: 10/10 For a revenge movie, this was a fine script. The direction and the plotlines certainly raised my hopes that John would succeed in everything that he tried. Plus, the end of Iosef is something I looked forward to from very early on. I seldom get that engaged with revenge films. I loved the humour between old pairs of friends while there were lulls in the action.
Final rating: 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment