John Wick

 

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.