जॉन विक: चैप्टर 2

"John Wick: Chapter 2" (2017 release; 122 min.) continues the 'adventures' of former (?) hit man John Wick. As the movie opens, we are immediately thrown in the middle of a car vs. bike chase, and next thing we know, we find our man retrieving his beloved Mustang from a chop shop in NYC, but not without cars flying about, and dozens of dead or wounded bodies. And that's all in the pre-opening credits! As the story unfolds, Wick, who wants "out, is nevertheless forced back "in" when an Italian baddie calls in a favor and Wick has no choice but to accept. To tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: director (and former stunt man) Chad Stahelski returns at the helm following the surprise success of the first John Wick movie, and once again delivers a highly stylish and ultra- violent action movie. When you watch the opening car chases (yes, in plural), it's like watching a synchronized ballet performance. I would not go as far to say that the story line doesn't matter, it does to a degree, but let's be honest: the reason we are there is to watch the car chases and the shoot-outs and the almost cartoonish level of violence that is so over the top, you can't help but laugh at it. Stahelski's thinking must have been: "when in doubt, (i) throw more bodies at it, and (ii) keep the focus on Keanu Reeves". Reeves is cold as ice in the best possible way, and it suits him perfectly in the film. Laurence Fishburn plays a small role (as another baddie) and the scenes where Reeves and Fishburn appear together are their first joint scenes ever since the Matrix Trilogy, if you can believe it. I couldn't believe how quickly these 2 hours flew by and I'm not spoiling anything when I tell you that the movie's ending sets it up nicely for a Chapter 3 in a couple of years. Count me in!

The movie opened wide this past weekend, and the Sunday matinée screening where I saw this at was absolutely jam-packed, somewhat to my surprise. Did I mention this movie is ultra-violent? And that it's rated R for good reason? I was outright dismayed to see how many small kids were in the theater. In the very row in front of me, there was a couple with three small girls, I'm guessing ages 5 to 7. What are these people thinking?!? Meanwhile, for us grown-ups, if you liked the first John Wick, you are more than going to like this sequel, you are going to LOVE it, be it at the theater, on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu- ray. "John Wick: Chapter 2" is a WINNER.

In 2014, a Keanu Reeves revenge thriller John Wick became a surprise hit. I originally skipped out on the film as I felt that the trailers only showed an assassin story that I felt I've seen before. As far as I'm concerned, I made a big mistake. Before seeing the sequel, I felt it was important to watch the first one. I rented it on Amazon Prime and I was shock by what I saw; a dark, stylish, and fun action movie that is doing it's own thing. Though I've seen plenty stories about revenge (The Count of Monte Cristo and Moby Dick being the prime examples), I can't recall one over someone's pet being murdered.

I've always liked Keanu Reeves as an actor whether he's a metelhead from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, a SWAT officer in Speed, or "a chosen one" from The Matrix franchise. He has a more reserved, yet intriguing way of adapting that to his characters. Under a good direction, this can create a strong character. This has worked for John Wick, which reminds me of an older James Bond-type if the movie was more of a noir. I was happy to sit and watch John Wick: Chapter 2.

After a great opening where he finishes his mission from the first movie to collect his stolen car, John Wick (played by Keanu Reeves) returns home with his new dog to try and find peace with his retirement and death of his wife from before. Like a lot of typical spy movies, John gets visited by Italian crime lord Santino D'Antonio (played by Riccardo Scamarcio)who asks him to come out of retirement. Santino asks to have his sister assassinated so that her brother can have her seat at a table of mafia heads. When John refuses despite making a blood oath years ago, Santino has the assassins home destroyed.

John accepts the job knowing that saying no would only put his life in danger. In Rome, he finds the sister Gianna at a party, but she commits suicide rather then allowing an assassin to get her. On his way out, John finds himself double-crossed by Santino who has sent some of his weaponed goons lead by the mute Ares (played by Ruby Rose). Though John escapes and makes it back to New York, Santino has put out a seven million dollar contract on our hero to cover all the tracks.

John Wick: Chapter 2 manages to pull off a really good sequel. Not only does it expand the John Wick universe more, but the stakes feel bigger and the villains seem more threatening. Now that I have seen the first movie, I can see how tough it would be to follow up on a pretty good action movie. Unlike the Taken sequels which simply repeated the formula over and over again, John Wick: Chapter 2 still feels fresh thanks to it's plot which honestly kept me guessing on how things were going to move forward.

Do I think it's a higher rated movie then before? No, simply because if it does have any faults, it's that it feels a bit long. Not the segment in Rome, but when John returns to New York. It's quick pace suddenly halts when he visits a friend. Though the scene is okay, I feel like they could have cut it in favor have keeping up with John's mysterious background.

Keanu Reeves is still the perfect choice as John Wick. You can tell this man wants to be happy, but understand that with his connection to the crime world, is unlikely to happen. This is enough to keep me hyped for another John Wick movie.

I'll give this eight grey pitbulls out of ten. If you liked the first movie, you'll definitely like the sequel. John Wick has plenty of action waiting to burst, so I can only say love your dog and go see this sequel.

The first John Wick film took me by surprise; it was a cartoonish action film that was surprisingly brutal in its content, cruel in its delivery, and had a real punch to it. All of it existed inside a world that convinced in its own logic, even if it was clearly fantasy. John Wick 2 doesn't have the ability to sneak up on me unannounced, which does work against it, but this is not what hurts it the most.

The second chapter of what at least looks like being a trilogy, is slick and very well put together. The locations are brilliant (whether a roof garden or a larger location), the fight scenes have great choreography, and after a slow first 20 minutes it does have a great pace. But yet I found myself watching it much more passively than I had with the first film. This sense of being detached came from a couple of places. The first was that the plot did not seem as organic as the first – the violence that draws Wick deeper seems to occur just for the sake of making the film happen (which is of course true, but it doesn't try to hide it). This reduces the investment and stakes, so rather than being drawn in, I just sort of accepted it because I know where it was going.

The second thing that kept me out of it was related to this lack of investment – which is that the film's lack of realism is all the stark. I do not mean that the film needed to be a kitchen-sink drama, but rather that the film cannot sell this world to the viewer. In the first I could go with this shadowy world on the edges of ours, with the idea that it developed its own rules and norms; here though it seems everyone is a hired killer, and those in charge have total power and huge organizational skills. The use of this doesn't seem worth the cost of doing such things – for instance suggesting everyone in a massive crowd is in the employment of one person and can act with the slightest nod just seemed silly and not to add value. This excess infects the action – it is overblown but could have been strong enough to engage had it not been that the majority of the film is so silly in how it works. I read Theo Robertson's user comment on this one and I think he nailed it when he said that the film could easily be in the Matrix universe – at least this would make the nonsense here ring true.

This limits the film, but doesn't stop it being enjoyable. The action is slick and consistent, the style and gloss of all the moments are enjoyable, and the starry cast are mostly pretty good. Reeves is good value and does great physical work, and the supporting cast has plenty of famous faces – although some of them are distracted by their volume, or by virtue of not being well used (Fishburne is probably the one that we could have done without). So JW2 is a slick action flick, but not as good as the first film, nor as good as everyone tells you it is. The ending suggests the third film will be on an even bigger scale, with Wick literally taking on the whole world, which will probably only serve to remind me how good the first one was when it was one man seeking revenge on another for the death of his dog.

Iosef's uncle still has John Wick's car. Wick comes after it and the uncle accepts his offer of peace. He hopes to return to his peaceful retirement but crime lord Santino D'Antonio calls in his Marker. He faces deadly assassins, numerous killers, and countless thugs as Santino uses him to gain power even offering a $7 million contract.

Gun Fu is loads of fun and the addition of Pencil Fu is glorious. What makes the original great is the simple, powerful, and poetic motivation of John Wick. The sequel could not possibly repeat that. They can't kill off another dog. This one delivers what it could. Keanu Reeves remains the same and there is more fighting. The plot is almost meaningless. It is all action and all Wick.

In this 2nd installment of John Wick, the stylish visual and hard core action returns twice the level of the first film. So prepare for another suspenseful and cliffhanging sequences flow from this action movie when you watch this. The story goes deeper and the action scenes were incredibly entertaining! The revenge theme was still part of the movie's plot but this time the focus is the personal backstab of Wick. Keanu Reeves delivers again a notable performance as a titular character. This film is what a sequel movie should be - justifying the connection to the predecessor movie that made it successful by expanding its story and maintaining the elements that made it a superb film. The ending of this film opened the possibility of many more franchise of this movie.