John. Wick. Four.

[Lidgar]

I watched the first John Wick movie on a plane. That was the only time I ever wished my flight was longer so I could watch 2 and 3. I may have had tears at the end. I blame the A/C.

 

[RealAlHazred]

The John Wick movies are moving commentaries on the Zeitgeist of our times, complex philosophical examinations of the metaphysics of man at war with himself, and expositions of the drama and bathos inherent in the simple act of shooting a gun.
-- Roger Gene, the Tribune Sun-Times

Great film! Fun for the whole family!
-- David Manning, The Ridgefield Press

I loved it. It was much better than Cats. I'm going to see it again and again.
-- a man-on-the-street

 

[Ryujin]

I believe that the John Wick franchise is most similar to the movie, Drive My Car, in that they are both acknowledge that the ability to know what another person thinks is impossible. You can think that you understand them, you can think that you love them, but to believe that you truly know them will only cause you pain. All you can do in life is to know what is in yourself. If you find peace within yourself, you might begin the process of seeing other people. And only once that process has begun, can you punch them. Or shoot them. Or kill them with a pencil.

"It was all really about the friends we killed along the way."

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

"It was all really about the friends we killed along the way."

The John Wick franchise is damnably intelligent — almost frighteningly so, like some passages in Russian novels which strip the characters bare. And it’s deeply, disharmoniously funny — in a fashion that Dostoyevsky achieves effortlessly and Tolstoy only unintentionally. These films are concrete, simple, literal, yet every John Wick movie works on a metaphorical level. It’s an intense, daring vision of the passions that we have all kept kept hidden under otherwise placid exteriors.

The iconic nature of John Wick is romantic and ironic: Keanu Reeves understands that maybe the only way we can take appreciate great action now is as craziness, and that the craziness doesn’t cancel out the romanticism of the action — it completes it. John Wick isn’t corrupted by sanity; John Wick is a great crazy in a world that hides its outré behavior behind the cold calculations of tradition and form.

Victor Hugo is said to have had no equal as a poseur and a mythmaker, but, on the evidence of the masterpieces that are these films, Keanu Reeves in his role as John Wick may have surpassed him. There are those that may still call out the tired names of Brando or Daniel Day-Lewis, but you can see that style of overacting by going to any high school drama production. Only the greatest can so underact that they no longer act, and simply become.

....I demand a Happy Meal tie-in.

 

[Ryujin]

The John Wick franchise is damnably intelligent — almost frighteningly so, like some passages in Russian novels which strip the characters bare. And it’s deeply, disharmoniously funny — in a fashion that Dostoyevsky achieves effortlessly and Tolstoy only unintentionally. These films are concrete, simple, literal, yet every John Wick movie works on a metaphorical level. It’s an intense, daring vision of the passions that we have all kept kept hidden under otherwise placid exteriors.

The iconic nature of John Wick is romantic and ironic: Keanu Reeves understands that maybe the only way we can take appreciate great action now is as craziness, and that the craziness doesn’t cancel out the romanticism of the action — it completes it. John Wick isn’t corrupted by sanity; John Wick is a great crazy in a world that hides its outré behavior behind the cold calculations of tradition and form.

Victor Hugo is said to have had no equal as a poseur and a mythmaker, but, on the evidence of the masterpieces that are these films, Keanu Reeves in his role as John Wick may have surpassed him. There are those that may still call out the tired names of Brando or Daniel Day-Lewis, but you can see that style of overacting by going to any high school drama production. Only the greatest can can so underact that they no longer act, and simply become.

....I demand a Happy Meal tie-in.

They... may have gone a lttle overboard with "Checkhov's Gun."

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

They... may have gone a lttle overboard with "Checkhov's Gun."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm avoiding the trailer, as I do not want ANY spoilers.
I just love the simple mindedness of this franchise with its strange World of Darkness feel and coolness of its characters - particularly Keanu, Ian McShane and Lance Reddick.

This might be an unspoilable franchise. You know, after the first movie, that John Wick is going to look cool as hell and kill 10 million bad guys.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The John Wick movies are beautifully shot B action movies, with A grade stunt crews, directed by a stuntman. As a fan of the older John Woo/Chow Yun-Fat movies, I was onboard from day-1.

I only ended up seeing the first movie on a plane, after having rolled my eyes at the near-universal hype. When I landed, I immediately bought copies of all the movies that were out and had my wife and high school kid watch them with me.

It's rare that something lives up to the hype, but John Wick does. (The assassin, not the game designer, who appears to be only human and not capable of killing a room full of people with a pencil.)

 

[Ryujin]

I only ended up seeing the first movie on a plane, after having rolled my eyes at the near-universal hype. When I landed, I immediately bought copies of all the movies that were out and had my wife and high school kid watch them with me.

It's rare that something lives up to the hype, but John Wick does. (The assassin, not the game designer, who appears to be only human and not capable of killing a room full of people with a pencil.)

I could see the Hong Kong DNA in it from the moment that the teasers started to drop, so made sure to see #1 in a theatre. #2 also. #3 was online, but really wanted to see it in theatre also.

 

[Mad_Jack]

The John Wick movies are perfect, in the sense that they do exactly what they are meant to do, and do it well.
They may not necessarily be great cinema, but they are awesome action movies, and they portray the essence of the characters and the feel of the setting nicely. I mean, seriously, how many shoot-em-up-kick-em-in-the-face action movies have ever made you care about the background elements of the film beyond just what was hung on the basic premise of the film to make it work, nevermind fascinated by the world-building of the setting they take place in?
Sometimes cities are characters in a film that takes place in that city, but an entire world?