Bullet Points: John Wick: Chapter 2
Waiting so long to see the original John Wick is a bad decision that haunts me to this day. The movie was released in October of 2014 and I didn’t see it until the following summer. When I finally saw the movie I loved it and couldn’t believe I waited so long to see it. What in the world was I waiting for?!?!
I love revenge movies and 2014’s John Wick is overflowing with enough vengeance that I believe Charles Bronson himself would be proud. So the premise of the film should have been enough to get me to watch. I am a fan of Keanu Reeves’ work in action classics like Speed and Point Break, so I had no reason to believe he couldn’t carry an action movie. On the contrary, the man is a proven commodity in the genre. So again I ask what in the world was I waiting for?!?!
Life is all about learning from your mistakes and I knew I was not going to make the same mistake twice when John Wick: Chapter 2 hit theaters.
- Unfinished Business: The movie begins with John Wick taking care of some unfinished business from the first film and getting his 1969 Ford Mustang back and doing so in violent fashion. This sequence jump starts the movie and gives the audience more action before the opening credits than possibly any other movie in history. After the opening credits roll, we once again see John Wick attempting to put his assassin life behind him. But we soon learn that John wasn’t the only one with some unfinished business. Enter Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio). Santino and John have history. Santino is calling in his marker with John Wick. A marker John took a blood oath on. When John refuses, Santino blows up John’s house, destroying the life John had hoped to lead. John, after visiting with Winston (Ian McShane reprising his role from the original) realizes he has to play by the rules and therefore has no choice but to honor the marker and find out who it is Santino wants him to kill. The who ends up being Santino’s own sister Gianna (Claudia Gerini).
- When in Rome: The hit on Gianna will go down in Rome. Fortunately for John, the Continental Hotel has a location in Rome, so he is able to fulfill all of his assassin needs, from custom made/bulletproof Italian suits to an assortment of weapons. He also gets valuable intel on how and where he can get to Gianna, allowing him to fulfill his debt to Santino and finally be free of his life of killing for hire. After a successful kill, John finds his life getting even more complicated. Not only does he have Gianna’s head of security Cassian (Common) after him now, he is also double crossed by Santino and his crew led by the mute Ares who is easily one of the baddest and most memorable chicks in action movie history. Cassian and Ares are the first two looking to send John Wick to an early grave instead of the early retirement he so desperately wants, but there would be more. A lot more…
- New York, New York: John manages to escape with his life in Rome and he returns home to New York… but ironically Santino is looking to avenge the death of the sister he ordered to be killed, so he puts out a seven million dollar contract on the head of John Wick. This information is sent to every assassin in the New York metropolitan area. This makes John a marked man and he has assassins in all shapes and sizes coming at him from all angles. Cassian wasn’t going to be left out of the action, so he makes his way to New York too which sets up some cat and mouse action between he and John and culminates with a knife fight on the subway. John manages to survive attempt after attempt on his life and he soon becomes the hunter once more as he is looking for Santino D’Antonio.
John Wick: Chapter 2 is one of the best action movies I have seen in years. John Wick: Chapter 2 took everything that was great about the original and multiplied it by 1000. Both John Wick films have an old school vibe, but with a modern look and the assassin’s world that they have created is a unique and fresh concept in the world of revenge flicks. And it is a world I believe action fans will be visiting at least one more time.
John Wick: Chapter 2 has everything an action fan could possibly want. Great fight scenes, great shootouts, some vehicular mayhem, some great one liners delivered with complete sincerity and dripping with dark humor and even an homage to the classic Enter the Dragon works its way in the film when John is hunting down Santino at the museum. But in my opinion what really makes it work is the cast… Keanu Reeves as John Wick is second only to Charles Bronson as Paul Kersey on my list of bad ass killing machines. Ian McShane as Winston is superb. He plays the role with class and elegance, a stark contrast to the blood and brutality that fills the screen for most of the film. And I will always give the devil his due in action films and Riccardo Scamarcio is a guy you want to see shot from the moment he first appears on the screen.
But in addition to the main characters of the film, there were a lot of interesting supporting players and I thought I would devote the Bonus Bullet Points to these characters…
- Matrix Reunion: Fans of another of Keanu Reeves’ great contributions to the action entertainment genre, The Matrix, will enjoy the appearance of Laurence Fishburne as the Bowery King.
- Hail Caesar: Julius, the manager of the Continental Hotel in Rome, is played by none other than Franco Nero. What a perfect piece of casting that was. Action fans will remember Nero from his many spaghetti westerns and his work in Enter the Ninja and Die Hard 2.
- Scene Stealer: Peter Stormare (Commander Hamilton) plays Abram. A relative of the unfortunate souls who crossed paths with John Wick in the original film and the guy who has John’s Mustang as the film begins. This small role was easily the greatest performance I’ve ever seen Stormare deliver.
- WrestleMania: The original John Wick had a small cameo for former WWE Superstar Kevin Nash. John Wick: Chapter 2 continued the wrestling cameo tradition with an appearance by Oleg Prudius or as WWE fans would remember him Vladimer Kozlov. Prudius plays one of the Russian henchmen working for Peter Stormare’s character.
