Skip to main content

John Wick: Chapter 2


Starring: Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ian McShane, Ruby Rose, Common, and Laurence Fishburne
Directed by: Chad Stahelski
Screenplay by: Derek Kolstad

    Do you ever feel like watching a movie where all the characters seem to do is shoot each other in high-octane, high intensity action sequences all loosely blended together by a simplistic storyline?  Well, John Wick: Chapter 2, does that even better than the first one.  And the first one does it pretty well.
    This movie picks up right where the last one left off.  John Wick (Keanu Reeves) has a new dog, after his first dog is killed by the son of a Russian mob boss in New York.  A man who was once retired from the hit man life has been dragged back into it by that unforeseen incident in the wake of his wife's death.  Now, in Chapter 2, there are no signs he wants out of the life again.  But wait, there's more!
    An associate of John's named Santino D'Antonio is calling in a debt that John owes him.  Now that he has returned to this life outside the law, there's no refusing to pay up, even though he tries to turn it down.  Santino's sister, Gianna (Claudia Gerini), is set to become a member of the High Table, a group of very powerful assassins.  Santino wants John to kill her so that he can take her seat at the High Table.  After John's house is nearly destroyed by Santino after John tries to refuse to pay his debt, John has to take the dog somewhere.  So, he takes the dog to Winston's (Ian McShane) Continental Hotel in New York, where all the underground assassins and hit men can stay while on "business".  The hotel's concierge, Charon (Lance Reddick), takes care of the dog while John travels to Rome to complete the mission given to him by Santino.
    John stays at the Continental hotel in Rome, where just like the one in New York, one of the most important rules is, no business allowed.  As John heads back to New York after the mission, Santino places a bounty on his head of $7 million.  Word gets out to every assassin in New York, so John no longer has many friends he can count on.  Some of this madness is on him, so he must do his best to survive.
    The difference between the first movie in this series, and this film, is that Chapter 2 has a more complex and a more interesting story.  This is a more standard type of assassin movie than the first one.  The first one is somewhat original in the fact that it is so overly melodramatic about the situation.  One small event sets off this huge chain reaction, and that chain reaction is John Wick going on a rampage in order to gain vengeance for his dog.  Chapter 2 is about his past coming back to haunt him, a past that is not shown in the first film.
     There have only been about a billion movies made about a character whose past has come back to haunt them.  And so many of them are movies that involve a lot of action.  This is just another one of those movies.  There's nothing original in the slightest about John Wick: Chapter 2.  Perhaps the best part of this movie is that it is a "clean" action movie.  The editing is quite good, with emphasis on long takes and scenes that do not often show many close-ups.  You can tell that the filmmakers were much choosier on the shots they wanted than filmmakers of other action movies.  This is a film in which the viewer is simply meant to enjoy the action and the violence from afar.  The fight scenes are choreographed quite well and make for an intense viewing experience.  So, bring your popcorn because you'll be eating quite a bit of it.

I give John Wick: Chapter 2 a B-.

Image Source: www.davestrailerpage.co.uk

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Hunger Games

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth Directed by: Gary Ross Screenplay by: Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins Based on the novel by Suzanne Collins      If reality television hasn't gone too far yet, then this show should definitely make it go too far.      In a futuristic nation called Panem, one boy and one girl are selected from each of the nation's twelve districts to represent them in an annual television event called the Hunger Games.  Of the 24 contestants, only one will survive in this televised fight to the death.      I like the concept of the story.  While this futuristic society seems somewhat simple, it does not seem all that well developed.  It is unknown how this society came into being, even though it is known how the Hunger Games began.      If this film were released last year, I would have hoped it would be nominated for best make-up.  Many of the characters look absolutely ridiculous and are way too flashy, but the make-up is v
2 comments
Read more

First Man

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, and Corey Stoll Directed by: Damien Chazelle Screenplay by: Josh Singer Based on the book by James R. Hansen      Yes, this is the same director who did La La Land from a few years ago.  But this is a true story this time, and not necessarily a feel good one.      Many of us know about Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.  First Man is not simply the story of the moon landing, but the story about Armstrong and what led him to be the first man in history to walk on the moon.  It's a story about making huge sacrifices for himself, and his family, in order to accomplish such a goal, as well as overcoming a great deal of grief.       The film focuses almost entirely on Neil (Ryan Gosling).  The film opens up on him as one of the premiere pilots in the military, piloting the X-15; a plane that was capable of flying over 100,000 feet altitude.  He is portrayed as
Post a Comment
Read more

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Starring Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter, and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson Resident Evil: Afterlife is a somewhat scary action thriller about a zombie dominated planet during present times. It's the fourth movie in the franchise. Alice (Jovovich) is the former head of security at the Umbrella Corporation, the company that created the T-Virus that accidentally escaped and turned everybody into zombies. She travels to Alaska to what she thinks is a small town called Arcadia, where there is supposedly a colony of survivors that are infection free. She is drawn by transmissions saying that they offer safety and security, food and shelter. When she arrives, nothing is there, but she picks up Claire Redfield (Larter) and travels to what once was Los Angeles where there is another colony of four survivors living atop a prison rooftop and surrounded by zombies. They find that the Arcadia is actually a ship just offshore. Can they make it to the ship? Milla Jovovich plays a very act
2 comments
Read more