Okay, let me first say that I am not a huge Keanu Reeves fan. He's a one trick pony in terms of acting as far as I'm concerned: The clueless, naive guy thrust into circumstances beyond his control. Not that he doesn't do it well, it just gets old time after time after time. Very rarely does he branch out from that safezone of acting, but John Wick is one of those exceptions. Amazingly enough, he does a great job.
The prerequisite to this movie is that you have to like gun play. John is a retired assassin-slash-hitman-something who is none to happily brought back into the business. Reeves plays the part perfectly and while you can see that clueless naive guy just beneath the surface, he plays the part as if worn away through many years in the business of killing. While I have my doubts as to whether it was intentional decision since it's merely a diluted mixture of the two roles, it comes off perfectly here, regardless.
The writing, directing and technical expertise of this movie shine. And when I mean shine, I mean taken to a level rarely seen in a gun flick. When the bullets aren't flying, I couldn't help but to smirk. The everyday life of an assassin is pulled off with finesse; so much so I really don't want to give much away in order not to spoil it. John Wick takes itself seriously, but doesn't hesitate to take the lightest brush of humor to an otherwise dark movie. It's well placed in every respect and manages not to slit its own wrists in its overapplication.
Mechanically, Wick is equally praise worthy, especially if you notice the finer details concerning firearms. The loadouts are realistic and ammo is very finite when not being pulled off a dead body. One shot kills are rare in this movie and while I could nitpick a couple of scenes, when was the last time you saw a gun actually jam on the protagonist outside some critical plot juncture? How about actually clearing the gun? The movie does so much right that I could ignore things like the occasional enemy waiting to chamber a round until danger was upon him or the unnatural accuracy. But hey, we're assassins here, so I'll cut them some slack.
Much as it pains me to say it, John Wick easily places in my top 5 Gun Porn movies... even with the Keanu Reeves handicap in play. It's the latter that makes me feel I need to shore up my case for you to watch this movie, but I'm going to reign myself in. No spoilers, but you'll just have to trust me. I might even buy this movie, and that's saying a lot.
