‘I guess you have a choice. You want a war? Or do you wanna just give me a gun?’
I loved John Wick. I went into it expecting to be indifferent but in the end, Chad Stahelski’s seminal action classic won me over by harking back to the action films that I adored as a podgy child.
John Wick: Chapter 2 picks up where the first film left off but manages to be even more exciting. Even more violent. Even more Keanu. And if that’s not something you can get on board of then you can just get out.
So, the plot… I mean there is a plot. I, for one, don’t really care what it is though. I don’t come here for plot, I come here to see big Keanu shooting bad guys and on that count, John Wick: Chapter 2 cannot be beat. Reeves is a tour de force here and, all joking aside, he has found himself with a new lease of life after fully converting into an action movie hero, much in the same way as Liam Neeson did with Taken and Taken 2. And also Taken 3…
Flanking big K Reeves is the always reliable Ian McShane and the wonderful Laurence Fishburne who has the time of his life here as the eccentric Bowery King. While it is thrilling to see Morpheus and Neo reunited, the John Wick films are iconic all on their own now. They don’t need to bask in the glory of a twenty-year-old movie.
I often write about how I loved the action movies of the ’80s and the ’90s because they took themselves so seriously but ended up being so silly. And while that is certainly true of most, occasionally you would get a film like Rambo that manages to have its cake and eat it. A film that can be deathly serious but also effective as a fun action movie. John Wick: Chapter 2 continues that great tradition whilst dragging the entire genre into the 21st century. And that’s how you treat a chuffin’ dog John Snow!