John Wick

Although this is not the arrival of the Savior, but is a small salvation of dying (sub) genre. And that means something, right? And especially if you nostalgically remember the nineties, when an action movie for cinemas was not synonymous with the overflowing CGI animation about rescuing of the world by (meta) guys in T-shirts, but it was a guy's movie with unexcited ugly guys in dirty undershirts, with a gun in their hands and a stinky armpits, which were more about local survival/revenge/threat. And that's exactly the character Max Payne is ... Um, John Wick, who has no superpowers (even though his 100 + 1 headshot can be considered powers), but the ultimate motivation "you Russian bastards, you killed my puppy that my dying wife gave to me and they prevented me from mourning, so now I have to blow your brains out of your heads", which you won't beat, even if you call Mr. Chekhov from the grave to write the characters. It is simply a straightforward B-rate playful action movie of the old-fashioned type that does not suffer from a shaky camera and knows nothing about crazy editing or CGI shit. And thank God it does not take itself seriously (except for the moving introduction). (23/10/2014)

It is rare to see such dirty, unkempt action in an A-budget film, where in the heat of battle, opponents are beaten into a freshly stitched wound and eliminated 95% of the time in the surest way, i.e. by headshot, where cars don't explode upon impact and women fight like women (i.e. not through strength, but by subterfuge), so you don't see them punch and kick hard, which they wouldn't be able to do given their physiognomy, as the vast majority of films in Hollywood today do in terms of gender pseudo-balance. What's more, there's a humorous twist on action movie clichés – the assassins have their own hotel with its own rules, and the unquestionable reason for the carnage is a dead dog. I can understand that, if someone touched my hamster, even John Wick with his arsenal would be in trouble. (15/01/2015)

No action movie is complete without a proper villain, and we haven’t seen a more thoroughbred action movie than John Wick in a decade. Unfortunately, its bad guy is a nice, puppy-dog-eyed thrift store uncle. This incomprehensible casting failure is not helped by the direction, which on the one hand wants the audience to be moved by Wick’s wife dying from cancer or his puppy being mercilessly killed, but also tries to entertain with a detached perspective and cynical jokes. This creates a strange emotional mishmash which, however, is rescued from being B-movie absurdity by its cool dark style, great super-brutal action scenes, Keanu Reeves’ spectacular avenger and a few screenwriting ideas that add some refreshing comic-book elements (a hotel for killers). All of this makes me raise my rating to three and half stars. (22/10/2014)

There's too much hype around John Wick. It's definitely a perfect, adrenaline-powered revenge with a great Keanu Reeves, a great dark atmosphere , but it has it's pros and cons. I personally never bothered with logical flaws, but when Reeves takes down every opponent on a shot without hesitation and suddenly the main scumbag shows up within range and he can't kill him with five shots just because it would spoil the plot seems very stupid and ill thought out to me. When a movie establishes some order and rules, it should follow them. But this is only a minor complaint for me, I was more bothered by the fact that the action didn't add any innovation and was mostly the same every time just spiced up with a different headshot, from a different angle or a quick disarm. I was a bit disappointed, if I compare it with The Raid 2, where you look forward to every new action scene, because you didn't know what was coming and when it appeared on the scene you were pleasantly shocked, it doesn't work here. Maybe I'm too influenced by Asia and sound strict but that's how I feel. But there are plenty of good things here. The light humour is nice and the surprising brutality is more than juicy, but I don't feel up to a fifth star. That said, a solid 75% goes to John Wick, and it's probably the best actioner from the US this year. (29/10/2014)

Sorry, but I've already been age 15 a few times for me. John chose the wrong target from the beginning. He should have taken care of the screenwriter, but slowly because for God's sake, just don't kill him when you can torture him! And the torture needs a lot of creativity for that idiot to suffer and live for as long as possible. I'll give it one star for the actors who don't deserve a Boo! rating, but otherwise, I suffered from the very beginning of this film. Do action movies really have to be so stupid?? Overall impression: 20%. (27/02/2017)