Movie: John Wick

(Or, 'Don’t Kill a Hit Man's Dog')Another in the new genre of films, ‘over-50s actor action heroes’, this time it’s the turn of Keanu Reeves.A retired hitman, (aren’t they always?) is grieving the loss of his sick wife, the motivation for his retirement. As a parting gesture before she dies, she had arranged to send him a puppy to help fill the unescapable void.We only get to enjoy seeing this beautiful, and I must say, amazingly trained dog for a few minutes.The puppy is killed by a Russian mafia member who take's a shine to his owner’s vintage Mustang and tracks his house down to steal it. The first question is, for the best hit man in the world, why isn’t your house secure enough to keep four, extremely quiet, thugs out of it? The second query, a dog doesn’t bark for no reason, you have intruders, so take a weapon? The car is recognised by the garage owner it’s taken to who refuses to give them dodgy new registration plates. The Hitman of course, used to be a contract killer of this very same gang but the idiot son of boss didn’t recognise this fact.

  • And then the fun/clichés begin:
  • Only one bad guy comes to the good guy at a time at every fight scene.
  • Kill hundreds of bad guys. Every single one of them.
  • Don’t hit girls, even at the moment they are trying to kill you.
  • The best shooter in the world manages to wipe out hundreds of hardened thugs but cannot shoot the weedy, dog-killing-son of the mafia boss.

What saves this film though is the code. It’s like being in an alternative universe where the crime underworld doesn’t interfere with the real world. Policeman turn a blind eye if bad guys are killing other bad guys. Hotels operate just for the bad guys like it’s a VIP club. The scenes are a cross between Carlsberg (best criminal hotel in the world) and Ferrero Rocher adverts (everyone is super polite, well-dressed and professional).I found the sexism annoying (you should have just killed her John!) but the criminal code is refreshing.Welcome to the over 50s action hero genre, Keanu. When’s the sequel?7/10Smile factor 5/10

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