Fifteen years after the Matrix Trilogy, fellow Dyslexic Keanu Reeves is back as assassin John Wick.
The Plot
Ex-hitman John comes out of retirement when sadistic mobster Losef Tarasov and his thugs steal John’s prized car and kill the puppy that was a last gift from his wife. John unleashes the remorseless killing machine within and seeks vengeance.
Puppy Love
In spite of the visual feast of action sequences, special effects and one liners, it’s Reeves’ co-star, an eight week old puppy, that seems to be getting all the press attention. It’s seems that Director Chad Stahelski has hit upon the perfect convention to get audiences invested in this film. Kill humans (there are more than 15 fatalities in the trailer alone) and no one bats and eyelid. Kill a cute puppy and people, ‘can’t believe the violence and cruelty in films today.’ In fact the ‘Puppy Scene’ was so traumatic for actor Omer Barnea, that every time the director yelled cut, Omer picked up the puppy and cuddled him to let him know everything was OK.
Fabulous at 50
Keanu Reeves is another one of those Hollywood stars that just doesn’t seem to age. It’s almost unfathomable that he’s now 50! Yes that’s right 50 years old!
Looking at the articulate way that Reeves conducts himself on late night TV, it’s hard to believe that as a child he was thrown out of four different high schools within five years and has never managed to attain a high school diploma. However as many Dyslexics find failure in the class can be totally offset by excelling in passions outside of the classroom. For Keanu, his confidence builder was playing ice hockey. His position was goalie and he was so good in this position that he earned the nickname, ‘The Wall.’ Maybe this was where he learned the skill of projectile dodging, a skill he put to good use as Neo in The Matrix.
The Lowdown
So back to the film itself. Across the board John Wick has gotten some pretty respectable reviews: 4/5 – Rotten Tomatoes, 7.2/10 – IMDB, 4/5 – The Guardian and has been described as, “ridiculously entertaining” and “a fresh and stylized take on the assassin genre”. As far as I am concerned the trailer looks epic and I am booking my ticket for a screening this weekend as I write.
John Wick is on general release throughout the UK from today.
Words by Vanessa Rocha and Sean Douglas
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