By now we’re familiar with Keanu Reeves. Depending on how geezin’ we be, it’s
anywhere from “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (and “Bogus Journey”),
“Point Break”, or “The Matrix”. Throw “Constantine”
and “The Devil’s Advocate” into the mix as well. Here are 4 more recent films of his, a
series. I’ll try to keep it brief and
avoid spoilers.
John Wick 1 (2014). John Wick (Reeves) is a retired hitman
who has a beloved wife dying of cancer.
Shortly after she dies, a delivery arrives: a puppy sent by her in her
last days, to keep him company after she’s gone. I suppose she didn’t think his Boss 429
Mustang would be a sufficient companion. (Something made by Pontiac might have
been enough).
Well, he goes out to fill the Mustang with gas, and a
local moblord’s son, Iosef Tarasov, played by our beloved Theon Greyjoy (Alfie
Allen), takes a shining to the car, and is not happy when Wick politely advises
him that it’s not for sale. The Boy
sends Minions (Banana!) to kill the car and steal the dog – or vice versa. Oops.
Not a wise move, as his father Viggo tells him that Wick is not someone
to mess with (“Ohh, is he the bogeymen?” “No, he’s the one you send to KILL the
bogeyman”). And Wick spends the
remainder of the film showing how true that is.
A huge body count amidst NYC clubs piles up, with NYPD,
FBI, and BATF curiously absent amidst all the shooting with various different
potent firearms. Although Wick is
injured, he somehow survives to continue extracting vengeance until it’s down
to Iosef and Viggo to be the last victims of Wick’s crusade.
Oh, did I mention there are some heavy hitters amongst the
cast members? Ian McShane plays Winston,
the owner of the Continental, a Flatiron type hotel in Manhattan which serves
as neutral territory for all these people to conduct their business. Lance Reddick (RIP) plays Charon, the
concierge thereof. Willem Dafoe is
Marcus, a fellow assassin who enters the picture. Even Adrienne Palicki, aka Kelly Grayson from
“The Orville”, is Perkins, another assassin.
Who knew the underworld could support so many assassins?
The gunfights and martial arts are all implausibly well
orchestrated, which can sometimes wear on your patience. Fortunately Wick remains likable throughout,
and you want him to achieve his goals.
Well, at least I did.
With the existence of three sequels, forgive me if I spoil
it for you by pointing out that he survives these films. Will he survive #4? Well, watch it and find out.
John Wick 2 (2017). An Italian mobster arrives in NYC and
presents Wick with a medallion, an item which obligates the recipient to do a
mission for the presenter. In this case,
the mobster, Santino D’Antonio, tasks Wick with assassinating his sister Gianna
so he can take her place on the High Table, the criminal underworld’s secret
council. After Wick initially resists,
having his house blown up and Winston’s advice (“you have to do the job, he has
a medallion”) induce him to travel to Rome, Italy to complete the mission. There’s a Continental Hotel in Rome, and its
manager is played by Franco Nero, a famous actor most recently having a cameo
role in Quentin Tarantino’s film “Django Unchained”) (yes, I know he was the
original Django). Common (yet another
rap guy with a pretentious name) plays Gianna’s bodyguard and moves against
Wick to avenge her, as do D’Antonio’s own army of assassins. It frequently reaches the point where Wick
runs out of bullets and has to replenish his supply of weapons and ammo from
the vast body count of fresh, heavily armed corpses. [Guess the local morgue may need to rent out
a warehouse or a crematorium. Again, the police are nonexistent herein.]
Here's where it gets annoying. NOW D’Antonio puts a bounty out on Wick to
avenge his sister’s death – the death D’Antonio arranged himself. It’s a fairly large bounty ($7 million), so
every assassin in NYC comes out of the woodwork to earn it, notwithstanding the
negligible likelihood of success or survival.
Again, who knew there were that many hitmen around? Oh, and Wick gets help from Morpheus…er.. the
Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) in the form of medical attention and firearms.
Wick ultimately “resolves” the matter in a fashion which
will incur him the wrath of the High Table, as we’ll see in JW3.
John Wick 3 (2019). This time around Wick travels to Casablanca,
Morocco, and the Desert, in an effort to redeem himself with the High Table by
meeting The Elder. He’s assisted by Sofia Al-Azwar (Halle Berry), a fellow
assassin and manager of the Continental in Casablanca, who takes him to see to
Berrada, (Jerome “Bronn” Flynn), another lowlife who can tell him how to find
the Elder. Before the Tracker and his
dog, Sofia has her own canine companions who assist her in her badassness.
More shooting. Of course.
More absent police. Or maybe they
were just smart enough to stay away and chow down on donuts - then simply come
by to pick up the bodies. Chief Wiggums,
you know.
Then it’s off to the desert
to find The Elder. The terms for
re-admission to the High Table prove to be onerous, leading Wick and Winston to
fight back, which induces the High Table to send an Adjudicator, played by
Non-Binary Ice Bitch herself, Asia Kate Dillon (from “Orange Is the New black”
and “Billions”). And guess what? In addition to all those assassins who take
the bounties offered by the High Table, it has its own spec ops team of heavily
armed and armored assassins, who – guess what - go after John Wick. And if you know there’s a John Wick 4, you
can guess what happens.
John Wick 4 (2023). Now Wick goes to Osaka, Japan; Berlin,
Germany; and finally Paris, France, to escape the High Table idiocy by
regaining membership in his original Romanian mob (led by Natalya Tena, best
known as “Osha”, the wilding girl in Game of Thrones) and forcing the High
Table to agree to a Trial By Combat at the Sacre Coeur (big church on the
highest hill) in Paris. However, YET
AGAIN, the High Table has put out yet another asininely high bounty, and a
shadow army of Paris’ muscle-car-driving assassins attempt to make sure he
doesn’t make it past the Etoile, or up the steps of Rue Foyatier, to the final
location. Did I mention that Johnnie Yen
plays Caine, a BLIND assassin, who seems remarkably effective despite his
obvious handicap? There’s also a black
guy with a dog, “The Tracker”, who alternates between protecting Wick and
trying to kill him. By this point the
High Table is now represented by the Marquis, played by Bill Skarsgard. Clancy Brown joins Asia Kate Dillon and Toby
Leonard Moore as yet more “Billions” alumni herein. The Kurgan guy from
“Highlander”, who played the Attorney General in “Billions” here plays the
Harbinger, a quasi-Adjudicator role of the High Table.
As a resident of Paris from 1979-1990, I was happy to see
the city get such attention – Osaka and Berlin were mostly represented by
buildings indoors which could be anywhere.
The parties hammer out the terms of the duel at Chaillot, opposite the
Eiffel Tower. The Bowery King meets Wick
in an abandoned Paris Metro station. The
High Table’s Paris office monitors Wick’s whereabouts on a huge map of Paris
with the arrondisements (the 20 different districts of Paris) marked out. A huge shootout occurs at the Etoile itself –
here’s where CGI enters the equation, as they obviously didn’t shut down Paris’
most active traffic circle just to film a movie (actually done on a green
screen parking lot near Berlin). But
those steps up to the Sacre Coeur, the aforementioned Rue Foyatier, actually
were shut off to film the action sequence wherein Wick and Caine have to fight
their way up to the church to attend the duel.
High Table Bureaucracy. Oddly, the High Table, Assassin’s Guild, or
whoever it is taking care of this whole network of assassins and bounties, has
an elaborate bureaucracy with sophisticated networks worldwide. They have forms, old school file cabinets,
and the beloved stamps – all in oldfashioned offices with clerks and secretaries
taking care of this – presumably sworn to secrecy somehow with NDAs enforced by
assassins and bounties. All for what is
an illegal enterprise, to which the FBI and Interpol seem to be oblivious. If I were a US Attorney (Federal prosecutor)
I’d be amazed they’re keeping a paper trail of all this. I suppose they expect to burn all of it
should the need arise. Maybe we’ll get a
High Table backstory in a later movie, although the next film in the franchise,
“The Ballerina” (featuring a character I didn’t see in #3), will take place in
between #3 & 4 and is Charon actor Lance Reddick’s last role before he died. In the meantime, enjoy these four.
