Post by mikef6 on Sept 7, 2017 4:32:26 GMT
John Wick: Chapter 2 / Chad Stahelski (2017). Again we find the retired master assassin for Russian mobsters (he’s not the Boogeyman, he’s who you send to kill the Boogeyman) being pulled back into the Life. Again we are in a fantasy underworld criminal society of violent people but who must obey certain rules and formalities. These rules are presided over by Winston (Ian McShane) who is the final arbiter of all disputes. The film opens on one of those rules. If you owe someone your life, you give them a Marker, a medallion with a spot of your blood inside. The person holding the Marker may use it at any time to demand any service. Ambitious crime family leader Santino D'Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio) has just such a Marker from John Wick. He demands that Wick assassinate his (Santino’s) sister (Claudia Gerini, excellent in her scene with Wick) who has a seat at the Table, which Santino wants. Against his will, Wick must carry out the task. Of course, he is betrayed at the moment of the killing and then must shoot, fight, and stab his way through hundreds of disposable minions led by chief hench-person, Ares (Ruby Rose). As with the first John Wick, I tried to keep tabs on the number of bodies that fell but lost count early on. We even get to see a demonstration of a feat mentioned in the first movie that John Wick once killed three men in a bar with just a #2 pencil. Now, Keanu Reeves as John Wick: Whenever a thread on the old boards-which-we-do-not-name about who is the worst actor, Reeves was always an easy answer. But, especially as he has grown older, his acting, still low-key, has grown with him along with a commanding physical presence. As Wick fights his way thought tunnels and corridors, he leaps, rolls, turns, and kicks with an almost balletic grace – Reeves studied judo and jujitsu for his role. The film does not use a lot of fast cutting to create fight moments. For an action movie of this sort, some of the takes are positively long! Maybe five or six seconds (an eternity, just count them) instead of a fraction of a second. They show that Keanu has some real moves that have not been created by editing. Yes, I liked this very much even though it is not usually the kind of film I appreciate.