John Wick

I wanted to blog about another topic, but I’ll have to re-read the source material on that.  In the meantime, I suppose a blog about this trilogy of films, of which the most recent came out on 5/17, would be appropriate.

John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is a hitman for a mafia guy.   When the boss’ son (Theon Greyjoy) decides he wants Wick’s classic Mustang Mach 1, and Wick politely informs him that it’s not for sale, the boy gets his goons to steal the car and kill Wick’s dog, which had been a present to Wick by his wife amidst her terminal illness, a friend to keep him company after she was gone.  The remainder of the  film is Wick retrieving his stolen vehicle and extracting vengeance from the appropriate parties and their subordinates, both the boy and his father.   What’s intriguing is that Wick himself is not the only fascinating or sympathetic character:  even Viggo, the boy’s father, is not altogether evil, more like coerced by his son into adversity against Wick, who he would rather remain on good terms with.

 

John Wick 2.  Now Wick is coerced by underworld rules into assassinating the sister of one of his prior bosses, Cassini, who then puts out a contract on Wick when the job is done – talk about acting in bad faith.  The prior locale of NYC remains here but supplemented by much action in Rome, Italy.  Yet again, the other characters are made intriguing and fascinating in their own right, though the stylized violence is just as present and enjoyable this time around. 

John Wick 3.  As a result of the events of the prior film, Wick is persona non grata and the mysterious underworld forces which seem to control everything dictate that ANOTHER contract be put out on him, meaning whoever manages to kill him will earn a considerable sum of money, presumably tax-free.  Naturally Wick attempts not merely to avoid being killed – wouldn’t we all? – but also rectify the situation, though that involves an assignment to do something he’d rather not do.  This time the exotic location – in addition to NYC, of course – is Morocco, including its deserts.  Halle Berry (aka Storm) and Jerome Flynn (aka Ser Bronn) are the major additions to this chapter.   And…we’re back to the Continental Hotel in NYC.  Ian McShane, backed up by his #2 guy Lance Reddick (from The Wire) remains the articulate and charismatic proprietor of the hotel.

I’m reminded of the Matrix films, especially the overly choreographed violence.  Here they pull back on the mystical mumbo-jumbo and also place the events in the real world, no androids, robots, or virtual reality.  Wouldn’t you know it, though, Morpheus is back (Larry Fishburne), in a marginally less obtuse role – the Bowery King.  So what you have is the same implausible violence but in the so-called real world, which arguably makes it much easier to digest and enjoy.  Mind you, much of the dialogue is still somewhat stilted and pretentious – by all means, delve back into “The Big Lebowski” as a remedy – but I don’t find that enough to compromise my enjoyment. 

Of course, you’d think that the end result of putting all these contracts out on the #1 Mafia hitman, resulting – predictably enough – in the demise of those attempting to collect on them and his survival (minus a finger) – would be to make John Wick the sole surviving Mafia hitman and having a better lock on remaining jobs…. ["We need someone killed, who should we call?"  "Wick, of course.  He’s the only one left."]