John Wick
Starring
Keanu Reeves
Bridget Moynahan
Williem Dafoe
Adrianne Palicki
Directed by Chad Stahelsky
Theatrical Release date October 14 2014
Common decency says you never kick a man while he is down, something that the villains of John Wick would have done well to heed. John Wick opens with a battered and beaten John Wick collapsing on the ground in a heap, apparently in the final gasps of his life. We then flash forward back to the events that led to this. John is a man with a secret past, that he has successfully moved on from and settled down with a loving wife intent on starting a family….. Or so he thought, unfortunately fate has other things in store as John’s wife Helen(Bridget Moynahan) dies of a un-named natural causes. shortly after Helen’s death John receives a package from his now deceased wife, inside he finds a puppy that his wife has selected, to be there for John and help him through the grieving process, of course John instantly bonds with the puppy. While on his way back home one afternoon John has a run in with some young russian gangster types, who show an interest in his car and the dog. John says neither is for sale, Later that night the Russians unaware of who John is break into his home beat him half to death, kill the dog and steal his car.
When John wakes up he understandably pissed, and starts down a road to make those pay for what they took from him. To add to the matter it turns out the one of the Russians father was Viggo Tarasov a former employer of John’s in his past. When Viggo hears of what his son has done, He knows that John will come for his son and kill him. So Viggo pre-emptively puts a 2 million dollar bounty on John’s head. Which is picked up by John’s former mentor Marcus(Willem Dafoe) who has no intention of killing John.
Other assassins are brought into take over the bounty, and the violence and mayhem escalate very quickly till we are back where we began with John Crumpled in a heap on the ground. John of course ends up triumphing and getting his revenge.
John Wick was definitely one of my favorite experiences at the movies last year.
Keanu had a lot of fun with the role and gives one of his best performances in years.
Willem Defoe turns in another fine performance as Marcus, and Michael Nyqvist is perfectly cast as Russian Mob boss Viggo Tarasov Chad Stahelsky does a dynamite job as a first time director, he has created a film that is lively energetic and keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole. The World and characters he has created for John Wick beg to be revisited in future movies.
Video and Audio
John wick is presented in the 2.40:1 scope aspect ratio with a beautiful 1080P HD transfer , perfectly crisp c lear and vibrant the colors really come to life on the screen and there are no compression issues of any sort.
The audio is just as impressive as the visuals if not even more with a very viberant and enveloping Dolby Atmos 7.1 audio track Dialouge is crisp and clear and the underscore and sound effects are rich and full and most importantly never drown out the dialogue on screen even in the heaviest of shoot outs.
Special Features
Audio Commentary by Filmmakers Chad Stahelski and David Leitch. An excellent and very informative Directors commentary track, never dull or boring with some great on set stories as well as breakdowns on how certain stunts were brought to life on screen
Don’t F*#% With John Wick ( 15:17) a Behind the sceens look at the choreograhy and design of he fights
in the film
Calling in the Cavalry ( 11:58) Another behind the scenes clip this one examines everything from the intial itch to story devlopment and production
The Assassin’s Code ( 5:18) Shot video featurette on the real life world of assasians
The Red Circle ( 6:26) Takes a look at one of the key sequences of the film
N.Y.C. Noir (6:00) focuses on the style and asthetic choices made in the production to bring the world of John Wick to life on the big screen.
Theatrical Trailer ( 2:32) Original Theatrical trailer present in scope and full 1080P HD