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I saw a movie. A movie called John Wick

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sophora

Member
I've never understood the critique of "he did it just for a dog". He was a broken man with nothing to live for. The dog was the one thing keeping him decent/normal, so while the dog is what started the whole thing he was a broken man hanging on by a thread before the dog was killed.

John Wick is better, but for those who like it I'd also recommend Equalizer, which while not as good, had some similarities and was also a solid action movie that came out at roughly the same time (and will also have a sequel coming out at roughly the same time as JW2.

I recommend "The Equalizer" too if you liked John Wick. Denzel Washington is the main protagonist and it's a pretty fun action movie to watch, surprised me how much I liked it.
 
The action was great but the concept or reason for him doing what he's doing is ridiculously stupid, even for a movie.

I could't muster a shred of sympathy for Wick at all. I watched the movie feeling bad for the mob boss trying to protect his idiot son. And what parent wouldn't do everything in his power to protect their child, no matter how much of a screw up they are.

A dog's life, a car and mental illness/depression does not equal dozens of human lives and that's the problem I have with John Wick. If Theon Grayjoy killed Wick's wife instead, then I'd get it.

So in the sequel does someone step on Wick's hampster, causing him to nuke the whole city?
 

Daffy Duck

Member
Film is amazing, cannot wait for the second. Keane is great he gets a lot of stick but I really like him as an actor, he's been in some of my favourite films.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
The action was great but the concept or reason for him doing what he's doing is ridiculously stupid, even for a movie.

I could't muster a shred of sympathy for Wick at all. I watched the movie feeling bad for the mob boss trying to protect his idiot son. And what parent wouldn't do everything in his power to protect their child, no matter how much of a screw up they are.

A dog's life, a car and mental illness/depression does not equal dozens of human lives and that's the problem I have with John Wick. If Theon Grayjoy killed Wick's wife instead, then I'd get it.

So in the sequel does someone step on Wick's hampster, causing him to nuke the whole city?

I actually don't think you're supposed to feel sympathy for John but fear for his enemies now that they poked the bee's nest.
 
John Wick is an amazing action movie. I held off watching it for a long time after multiple recommendations but was totally worth the hype. Only thing is I watched it just after watching The Killer for the first time. It's a similar style of movie and wasn't as good as The Killer so that kind of soured it slightly at the time but it's still awesome
 

gamz

Member
The thing that got me was his dog in a trail of blood crawling back to him, That would send any man out for revenge.
 

tornjaw

Member
I recommend "The Equalizer" too if you liked John Wick. Denzel Washington is the main protagonist and it's a pretty fun action movie to watch, surprised me how much I liked it.

I enjoyed "The Equalizer" as well, however, the
Home Alone style murder spree
at the end was a bit much.

On topic, haven't seen this film a few times, I have to skip over the dog murder scene. Can't.
 

gamz

Member
I actually don't think you're supposed to feel sympathy for John but fear for his enemies now that they poked the bee's nest.

Of course you do. His wife died and they killed his fucking dog.

enough said! The two things in his life that means everything to him. You want him to destroy.
 
Of course you do. His wife died and they killed his fucking dog.

enough said! The two things in his life that means everything to him. You want him to destroy.

So you would still sympathize with Wick if he hung up on you after begging to work out another solution than murdering your son because of a dog?
 
I think the only part I didn't like was the last fight.

It seemed almost comedic how the fight played out.

The action without guns was kinda lame tbh. Just judo throw judo throw judo throw

I hope he never goes without a gun in the sequel. And if hes out of ammo give us some neo shit or a knife or something.
 

Verdre

Unconfirmed Member
As much as I loved the film, the Baba Yaga thing really annoyed me. In Slavic folklore, Baba Yaga is an old witch who lives in a chicken-leg house in the woods and flies around in a mortar. What the hell does that have to do with John Wick the retired master assassin? They should have called him Chernobog or something instead.

I just take it as another part of the inherent silliness of the movie, which makes up half the fun.

i4mByOS.jpg
 
The action without guns was kinda lame tbh. Just judo throw judo throw judo throw

I hope he never goes without a gun in the sequel. And if hes out of ammo give us some neo shit or a knife or something.
Honestly I liked that. It was the action move equivalent of people in horror movies making realistic decisions.

Why wouldn't this master assassin use effective effecient maneuvers rather than doing fancy choreography for no reason? It made him seem as trained and focused as the villains made him seem.

"Neo shit" is the last thing John Wick should be doing.
 

Xero

Member
I actually don't think you're supposed to feel sympathy for John but fear for his enemies now that they poked the bee's nest.

The whole point of john wick is the man is not ok. His reaction isnt normal at all. Hes a ticking time bomb which is why his last name is wick and the promo material showed his head as a bomb with a wick. He is a very unstable man who has the 1 thing keeping him stable taken from him.

Its a horrible overreaction and we are generally only ok with his overreaction because he still keeps it together enough to only kill bad guys. This is a man with very bad violence outbursts who would be considered a serial killer if he couldnt somehow control his urges enough not to kill innocence.
 

Soapbox Killer

Grand Nagus
The thing that got me was his dog in a trail of blood crawling back to him, That would send any man out for revenge.

Yup. Would have sent me over the edge too after my wife dies . To paraphrase Bill, "there are consequences to breaking the heart of a murdering bastard"
 

kmfdmpig

Member
The action was great but the concept or reason for him doing what he's doing is ridiculously stupid, even for a movie.

I could't muster a shred of sympathy for Wick at all. I watched the movie feeling bad for the mob boss trying to protect his idiot son. And what parent wouldn't do everything in his power to protect their child, no matter how much of a screw up they are.

A dog's life, a car and mental illness/depression does not equal dozens of human lives and that's the problem I have with John Wick. If Theon Grayjoy killed Wick's wife instead, then I'd get it.

So in the sequel does someone step on Wick's hampster, causing him to nuke the whole city?

I think it would be more likely that the viewer might feel that way if the Theon's dad had not sent out a hit squad to kill John before he did anything. While that was preemptive on their part for their own safety it kind of gives John the moral high ground to take down everyone.
 

spekkeh

Banned
"Oh." *hangs up phone*

such a good moment.
Came in to post this. Thought the film was a solid 6/10. Silly action film for a rainy day, but the highlight that cracked me up multiple times was the way they reacted to the name John Wick. No grandstanding, no moustache twirling, no fit of rage, just "oh". Fantastically anticlimactic, but also saying everything that needed to be said about the way the character fits into the world.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Gotta say this is one movie GAF was totally correct on. Trailers made it look lame, but GAF wouldn't shut the fuck up about how great it is since release. Eventually caved and became a believer in Baba Yaga. Can't wait for the sequel.
 
I think it would be more likely that the viewer might feel that way if the Theon's dad had not sent out a hit squad to kill John before he did anything. While that was preemptive on their part for their own safety it kind of gives John the moral high ground to take down everyone.

Not to mention it becomes clear that John and Theon's Father have a history that included "you can retire, just don't fuck with me and I won't fuck with you". A deal basically broken when idiot son fucks with John, kicks the shit out of him, kills his dog (his last link to the woman he retired to be with), and steals his car. It's basically a "you didn't hold up your end of the bargain, now I am going to fuck your shit up".
 

On a technical level; Practical effects, stunts and particularly the fight choreography is on a very high level in this film. I love the grappling in the film. It's legit. It's not fake "I just snap his neck by moving his head sideway really fast". No there is a logistical sense to the momentum of the throws, and while it is unrealistic, it is not dumb unrealistic. The armbars are real, the takedowns are real, and the interplay between john wick shooting, fighting close, and almost in a jackie chan style- uses practical objects and furniture to help him kill.
So as a action movie whose reason is to deliver thrilling action the movie far exceeds what it sets out to do. The composition is wonderful too, and there is frailty to it. For example, John Wick reloads in a way that gives pause to the action for a few seconds, and then immediately increases the violence exponential. If you look at the film as a curve with intensity throughout, those action scenes are incredible high octane and give little room to breathe, beyond those moments like reloading, or waiting for the guys to come through a door.
This is done in many other films, but it seems very well done here, and I am not sure why. It might be the blocking and editing just coming together.

Keanu Reeves; Keanu is an inspiring person who is known as a good person. He is known as a hard working actor who wants to do a lot of his own stunts and he has a genuine appreciation for martial arts. In the Matrix sequels he gave half his pay to the stunt team, special effects (CGI) and practical effects team because he felt they did as much of the work as he did. That was serious money he gave away for Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. At the time it was the heighest amount an actor had ever been signed on for, for an R rated action film, and it was possible due to the vast success of the first Matrix.
But Keanu is also quite a pilhantrophist who has given away a lot of his wealth. He also has one of the most heartbreaking backstories of any celebrity I can think of, with losing people all around hm all throughout his life, which has prompted the "sad keanu" meme. He has always been known as one of the most mediocre actors in Hollywood, always being that token handsome white guy who just carries himself on looks and not on much else.
And then when you look at his risky projects like 47 Ronin and Man of Tai Chi, which were both risky box office failures that also didn't do well critically, people like myself were afraid that Keanu would sleep into Nicholas Cage territory. Stereocast for movies that was just sent to die.
John Wick is not the new Matrix, but its the best performance Keanu has ever given, and in my eyes he has redeemed himself and shown himself as not just a capable action actor- Let's be honest. Sylvester Stallone and Arnold where great action actors, but particularly Arnold just didn't have the chops. Being an action star is not a well respected endevour, even though it actually takes a lot of skill to be convincing in that you're a killer with a gun. And being an actual martial artist is on a whole other level.
I just like the fact that he is a Hollywood "hero" white guy star who is not in anybodys face, seems to be carring, donoates a lot, is not part of all these scandals and doesn't make everything about himself.
I really like Keanu, and I want him to do good, so to see John Wick be so good makes me happy.

John Wick goes down for me as one of the action films of the 21th century that truly has brains and brawn. Like Man on Fire (Denzel, 2004), The Raid (2009), 13 Assassin(2010), Dredd (2012), The Raid 2 (2014), Mad Max (2015) what we're dealing with here is films that has the fat cut way and trimmed into doing what they are supposed to be doing.
I cannot tell you how sick I am of wasting my time with film that is shoehorned in with unneeded subplots and peripheral characters that just ruins the pacing. Give me a good 1,5 hour film that works, instead of a 2,5 hour film that is just brimmed with all this added extra filler.

I don't buy this idea that a story is bad because it is simple. 300 doesn't have a bad story. The whole story is that 300 pissed of greeks said fuck you to some other guys and then they fought and that was it.
But some people get this idea that simple story or straightforward story is bad. That doesn't mean that 300 isn't an almost infantilely told story; But that's a different argument. Then it's not bad story, but uninspired or predictable narrative.

Same thing with John Wick. John Wick kills everyone because they kill his dog. That's not a bedtime story you should tell your kids, but the film does an excellent job creating a context for the emotions we as the audience feel. I'm pretty sure that most of us who watched the dog being killed, felt a sense of justification in him going on a killing spree. His world was quickly established, the composition of the images reveals that he has nothing left but this dog, and now there are these bad men. It's a given. It's a logical well told lateral move that goes well beyond what we were used to when Arnold would sit in his hut and eat his breakfast made by his daughter, Jenny- as he hears the chopper rolling in over the hills.
Not that I do not love the 80s action greatness, but we're looking at a different beast here (speaking of mainly action games). We could bring in a lot more like the works of Mann and Cronenberg, but we'd move more into thriller + action territory than just sterile raw induced action like John Wick and its contemporaries.
I fucking love John Wick because it's a good movie, but I love it even more in a biased way as the circumstances around it reveals itself to come at the right time!!
 

double jump

you haven't lived until a random little kid ask you "how do you make love".
I've never understood the critique of "he did it just for a dog". He was a broken man with nothing to live for. The dog was the one thing keeping him decent/normal, so while the dog is what started the whole thing he was a broken man hanging on by a thread before the dog was killed.

John Wick is better, but for those who like it I'd also recommend Equalizer, which while not as good, had some similarities and was also a solid action movie that came out at roughly the same time (and will also have a sequel coming out at roughly the same time as JW2.
I think the equalizer had better action but a worse plot. Denzal was a fucking psycho in that movie. lol.
 
This movie really grew on me. I thought it was just worth watching once on my first viewing. Watched it again a while back with my brother in law and liked it more. Been really wanting to watch it a third time lately.
 

Risible

Member
One of the best movies of the last decade. So, so good.

And complaining that the dog's death is the impetus for it all is overthinking it. He was a stone cold killer. He got out because of his wife. Some knucklehead killed the last connection he had with the only thing that turned him human so he reverted back to doing what he always did, killing everything.
 

Shpeshal Nick

aka Collingwood
The action was great but the concept or reason for him doing what he's doing is ridiculously stupid, even for a movie.

I could't muster a shred of sympathy for Wick at all. I watched the movie feeling bad for the mob boss trying to protect his idiot son. And what parent wouldn't do everything in his power to protect their child, no matter how much of a screw up they are.

A dog's life, a car and mental illness/depression does not equal dozens of human lives and that's the problem I have with John Wick. If Theon Grayjoy killed Wick's wife instead, then I'd get it.

So in the sequel does someone step on Wick's hampster, causing him to nuke the whole city?

Boy did you miss the point.

His wife died. The dude was miserable. In complete despair. His wife left him that dog almost as her replacement. A reminder of her. For Wick, that dog WAS her in the form of a canine companion.

It IS like someone came and killed his wife as far as Wick was concerned.
 

Xero

Member
Boy did you miss the point.

His wife died. The dude was miserable. In complete despair. His wife left him that dog almost as her replacement. A reminder of her. For Wick, that dog WAS her in the form of a canine companion.

It IS like someone came and killed his wife as far as Wick was concerned.

i know we get comments like this where people need these nuances spelled out for them, which leads to movies with too much exposition. We've been seeing a resurgence of show not tell, coming up in movies, and I hope this type of thinking doesn't discourage that. The other side is people arguing for next to no exposition when the common movie going audience needs a little when the main character goes into a fucking tesseract.


It's time to post the best song of the soundtrack.

Story of Wick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQquH1Y4U7Q

still prefer think from the club scene.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTPxWUs8nXs
 

FStop7

Banned
I watched the club shootout, it didn't do much for me without a real story. I just thought it was shallow and trying too hard. If I want to watch a movie like this then I'd rather watch Man on Fire, Collateral, Open Range, Pale Rider, etc.
 

Xero

Member
I watched the club shootout, it didn't do much for me without a real story. I just thought it was shallow and trying too hard. If I want to watch a movie like this then I'd rather watch Man on Fire, Collateral, Open Range, Pale Rider, etc.

you are judging the entire movie from watching 1 scene out of context from you tube, and its shallow and try hard? Great in depth analysis.
 

FStop7

Banned
you are judging the entire movie from watching 1 scene out of context from you tube, and its shallow and try hard? Great in depth analysis.

Well that's the thing, isn't it? That's what people literally say is the genius of it. Wife dies, dog is all he has, dog dies. Learn through exposition that he is Baba Booey the boogeyman killer. I asked the person I was watching it with if there was more to it and they said no.
 

Xero

Member
Well that's the thing, isn't it? That's what people literally say is the genius of it. Wife dies, dog is all he has, dog dies. Learn through exposition that he is Baba Booey the boogeyman killer. I asked the person I was watching it with if there was more to it and they said no.

thats a extremely reductive way to look at things.
 
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