John Wick is the kind of film that’s easy to miss on the big screen, but now it’s available on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download, it has moved up the pecking order a little. Action packed and gritty, in a funny sort of way, it’s a bizarre film that manages to combine a comic book neo-noir visual style with brutal fight scenes and a preposterously tongue-in-cheek story to craft a very watchable movie with enough punch to keep you interested.
It arrived on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download on the 21st September 2015, which should give you a pretty good idea about how long it’s taken to build up to watching it. It’s not that it didn’t come across as being interesting as such from the look of the trailer, it’s just that it didn’t seem interesting enough to make it a must see at the cinema, but for action movie lovers out there’s it’s one to put on the home entertainment list.
The premise is somewhere between preposterous and outlandish, but with the dark and glossy finish and the exceptional fight scenes, it really doesn’t really matter. It’s obviously far fetched in the extreme that former underworld assassin, John Wick (Keanu Reeves), comes out of retirement to exact his revenge on Iosef Tarasov, the son of the head of the Russian crime syndicate in New York, because he killed his puppy, Daisey, but then that’s not really what the film is about.
The fact that the dog was a posthumous gift from his recently deceased wife adds the emotional drive to it all and that they also took his classic Mustang fuels the flames, but the underlying subtext is a fantasy fight back against oppressors. It doesn’t matter that it’s a dog that gets killed or that his attackers are among the top dogs in the city and he’d need to be either crazy or indestructible to go up against them, it’s time for them to pay and nothing is going to stop him.
It doesn’t take long to rev itself up to unrelenting levels of retribution and with sparse and tightly controlled dialogue, there’s little in the way of fluff to detract from it all. There’s no big budget effects or CGI, but the stunts and shootout scenes are shot together with a lot of skill thanks to the choreography experience of directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, with a back catalogue that includes The Matrix, V For Vendetta and The Expendables 2.
Though the story itself is far fetched, it’s an intentional device to kick things straight into action and setup John for a full tilt attack on his target and anyone else that gets in his way. It’s a role that’s made for Keanu Reeves who dials up his intensity levels somewhat to become the vengeful assassins with enough cold intention, crazed attack and epic fight skills to notch up another great role for the actor. Check out the trailer below to see it in action.
The supporting cast is on equally good form, with Michael Nyqvist as the pragmatic and dangerous Viggo Tarasov, Iosef’s father, Adrianne Palicki as venomous female assassin Ms. Perkins, Willem Dafoe (Aquaman) as double dealing assassin Marcus, Ian McShane as the owner of the underworld hotel that features a lot of the biggest fight scenes and John Leguizamo as bodyshop owner, Aurelio. The only exception is Toby Leonard Moore of Daredevil Netflix fame, who’s pretty underutilised as Iosef’s friend and bodyguard, Victor.
Sadly, the DVD doesn’t come with any additional extras or special features, but if you plump for the Blu-ray release there’s a raft of bonus material with everything from audio commentary with the directors to details on the assassin’s code and John Wick’s very unique skill-set.
John Wick DVD review: 4/5
