John Wick (2014) ***

 

I have talked before about the Keanu Reeves Test, a simple test I use to decide whether or not to watch a movie. I just ask, “Is Keanu Reeves in this?,” and if the answer is “Yes,” then I don't watch. The test is not perfect. Re-watching "Bram Stoker's Dracula," for example, I discovered that Reeves's wooden acting did not actually manage to destroy that film. For years, I have been hearing about this “John Wick” movie, which, according to Wikipedia, has “come to be regarded as one of the best action films of all time.” I figured this film would probably retire the Keanu Reeves Test for good.

The plot is extremely simple. Gangsters kill John Wick's dog. Wick happens to be a retired assassin, and he unleashes his special skills on the gangsters. Sorry for the spoiler, but after 8 years of sequels and parodies, you would have to have been living under a rock not to know the basic premise of this film. In any event, the plot is so basic that it does not really matter. The point of “John Wick” is the old ultra-violence, which the movie does get right. It is directed by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, who first met Keanu Reeves as stuntmen on “The Matrix,” and they bring that pedigree of fast-paced, hand-to-gun, ju-jitsu and gun-fu. The action is non-stop, and much of it is non-sensical, but Stahelski and Leitch mix things up enough that it does not become completely numbing. Not completely.

So, does “John Wick” retire the Keanu Reeves test? Not completely. “John Wick” is an engaging revenge movie despite Reeves's wooden acting, not because of it. The action is impressive, as is the supporting cast, including Michael Nyqvist, Willem Dafoe, Alfie Allen (Theon, from “Game of Thrones”), John Leguizamo, and Ian Mcshane. The plot is ridiculous, but honestly, this is an action movie, and the plot is really just a framework for all the gun-fu.

My biggest complaint here is the dialogue. “John Wick” is best when Keanu Reeves is not talking, but the script often gives him ten words where two would have sufficed. Stahelski and Leitch should have taken a page from the book of Sergio Leone. As Clint Eastwood said of his spaghetti western characters, directed by Leone, “I felt the less he said, the stronger he became and the more he grew in the imagination of the audience.”

I first saw part of “John Wick” in a sushi restaurant, with the sound turned off, and the movie seemed a lot better that way. So maybe that's the key. “John Wick” may be “one of the best action films of all time” to watch with the volume turned to zero. With the sound on, I'll just give it - 3 stars out of 5