Dogs are wonderful animals, often treated as part of the family (or better than certain family members depending on how much people like the dog/you) Smart people know you don’t go messing around with people’s dogs. Smart people also know not to go messing around with John Wick (Keanu Reeves), the “Baba Yaga,” the (now retired) hitman. And you sure as hell don’t want to mess with this ex-hitman’s dog. In John Wick (2014), Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen), the son of the head of NYC’s Russian Mafia, Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist), shows what a not-smart man he is when he chooses to take the boys for a wild night out and ends up in the house of John Wick, trashing the joint and murdering the dog who was a gift from Wick’s recently-deceased wife. Bad call, Iosef. Really, really bad call.
John got out of the business five years ago to live a peaceful and lovely life with his peaceful and lovely wife. When said wife dies from some kind of terminal illness, she arranged for a puppy to be delivered to John after her death to help him grieve. And this isn’t some trashbag designer dog, this is a damn cute beagle puppy and all around 11/10 dog. When idiot Iosef brings the boys to Wick’s house to trash the place, steal his car, and kill his dog, things get personal and Baba Yaga goes on a rampage.
“Ex-hitman destroys the Russian mob to avenge his dead dog” is such a simple, wonderful plot for a film like this. This action flick chick can tell you that way too many action movies use uncomfortable violence against women as a mechanism to motivate their male protagonist There are other motivations out there, filmmakers, and John Wick nails it by proving just that! His puppy provided all the necessary motivation the audience needs to root for John to kill that puppy-murdering-son-of-a-bitch.
Keanu is in top form here in John Wick, wielding his natural warmth and dedication to his craft akimbo. One of the special features on the Blu-ray (if anyone remembers what that is) is a behind the scenes feature with the producers and stunt choreographers. They all talked about the dedication Keanu Reeves put into this film. Basil Iwanyk (producer) explained how Keanu trained 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for about 4 solid months. He did ALL the training: “gun training, martial arts training, driving training.” No doubt that is why the action in the film excels. Keanu was able to do 90% of his own stunts. “I’ve never worked with an actor who’s willing to work that hard, train that hard. The guy’s an animal,” said Darin Prescott, one of the stunt choreographers.
In the finale, there’s a point where John is driving his car and turns it 90 degrees and does a slide into one of the baddies. Keanu did that driving stunt himself, and they said he landed it so perfectly on mark that it allowed them to zoom right into a close up of him in the driver’s seat. Director Chad Stahelski and producer David Leitch (who was gracious enough to be one of my first interviews for AFC!) come from action/stunt backgrounds, and it shows in the choreography, the inventiveness of the action, and their ability to work with Keanu to better incorporate his natural abilities into the film to give the action a more genuine feel and look.
Also special props to the fight between Ms. Perkins (Adrianne Palicki) and John. While John Wick does have about 99% male characters (would it hurt them to include a few more non-dudes in there?), Ms. Perkins gets a great fight scene with John in which they go all out beating the crap out of each other.
If you haven’t seen John Wick, you must make it your choice for your next movie night. This modern classic does it all just right- action, character, worldbuilding, pacing, tone, everything. Once you get past the dog-murdering, dead wife part of the film (which is, admittedly, a bit sad), it’s one of the most fun film experiences out there.
Those of you who know your myths might wonder why they call John Wick “Baba Yaga,” since that’s the name of an Eastern European witch/boogeywoman. Viggo sets the record straight, explaining that, “He’s the one you send to kill the fucking boogeyman.”
Action rating: 5/5 Men of Focus, of Commitment, of Sheer Fucking Will
Disclaimer: Just because I am the Action Flick Chick and love action movies does not mean I condone real life violence in any way. Everyone has their own shit to deal with, be nice to each other.
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