Thursday, February 16, 2017

Theater Whore: John Wick 2


John Wick 2 (9/10)

There will for sure be some spoilers. This morning I headed to Arclight on Sunset and watched John Wick 2 starring Keanu Reeves. Last night before bed I watched the first one and if you watch a movie like that before bed you will have some honked up ass dreams. This movie takes place shortly after the first ends and something I forgot about the first was how recently his wife had passed away before all hell broke loose. For those that have not seen the first film but for some odd ass reason decided to read a review about the second one here's the basic premise. A former professional killers wife suddenly dies. Shortly after she dies a puppy arrives that she had sent to him. These assholes show up, the main one being the son of one of Wick's former “boss”, beats the fuck out of Wick, kills the dog, and steals his car. The rest of the movie is pure revenge. Got it?


This movie starts with Wick chasing a guy on a motorcycle as he tries to get his stolen car back. He can't get the dog back. Its dead. He got a new one at the end of the first movie. Its still alive. He tracks this guy back to a chop shop where the guy running it is the brother (played by Peter Stormare) of the main guy killed in the first movie. As Wick makes his way through them in a cool ass car/gun/judo fight in some scenes you don't even see what he is doing. Not that it was shot badly like the previous Jason Bourne movie. You just hear guys screaming and gunshots through the door as Wick makes his way there. He gets his car back and all is right with the world.

Wrong!


We still got almost two hours to go. This is the opening scene. John Leguizamo returns as Aurelio who repairs cars. I would love to see more of hiis character in this series by the way. He picks up Wick's mangled ass car and leaves. Later that night this guy named Santino D'Antonio played by Riccardo Scamarcio shows up. Wick is not happy. Santino wants Wick to kill his sister so he can have a seat at the table of the big boys. Wick absolutely does not want to do it. He doesn't want to kill anymore. He just wants to hang out with his dog and drive fast. Santino pulls out a coin called a “marker” and reminds Wick that he owes him a massive favor. Santino also has a bad ass partner played by Ruby Rose who only uses sign language. Wick declines and next thing you know he damned house gets blown the fuck up. Now Wick is back. He meets up with Winston played by Ian McShane who pretty much tells him that he can't just dip his toe back into he killing game and not expect repercussions. 


Through Winston and various scenes we get to see how deep this assassin game goes and the rules to the game. There is a scene where Wick and Common get into a knife/fist/gun fight that ends in the Continental. That is the place where killers can chill and not be attacked. As soon as they land inside the lobby they calm their shit and are told to have a drink and talk like gentlemen. I like this. I like when even the worse people have rules. Kinda like how in The Highlander series you can't fight on holy ground. Why? I'm not sure. You just can't. Its the same here. 


This movie was an excellent follow up to this first. It flowed well from that to this. The action managed to somehow not get stale considering how many people are shot in it. I was amazed at how many creative ways the makers of this came up with to shoot or shoot at people. There is not a moment of this film that felt too long or repetitive. If you liked the first movie you will like this one as much if not more.

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