As you were, John Wick. The second film in the John Wick sequence – and there will be a sequence as this is less a standalone feature than a Back to the Future II-type bridging film – kicks off with a stereotypical vodka-swilling Russian mobster neatly summarising the first film.
To recap. John Wick. Man of few words. Former deadly assassin. Widowed. Played by sadface Keanu. Bad guys kill his puppy. He comes out of retirement. Bloody, bone-crunching vengeance ensues. End of first wildly profitable film.
Now we’re all up to speed, this sequel gets down to business. Argy bargy. Car-crash. Stuff flying around a super-assassin who calls to mind the possibly apocryphal tale of Mr T requesting less dialogue in later A-Team seasons. John Wick. Man of few. Um.
Enter stereotypical, oily well-dressed Italian mobster Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio), a hood possessing an elaborately decorated coin. This marker requires John Wick to bump off Santino’s sister. Wick refuses. Santino takes a CA-415 to his house. Thus, Wick un-refuses and travels to Italy for mucho shoot-’em-up, beat-’em-up, knife-’em-up action. But he’s not happy about it. Sadder-face Keanu.
Returning director Chad Stahelski is a former movie stuntman and stunt coordinator, who worked on 300, The Expendables, and with Reeves on The Matrix. He has a wondrous flair for action. His Krav Maga-inspired fight choreography – mostly composed of medium shots so no cheating – is a thing of beauty which will leave the viewer annoyed that stunt work is not part of the awards-season conversation. A final sequence provides a nifty update on The Lady from Shanghai's mirrored stand-off (or more likely, a nifty update of Enter the Dragon's homage to same).
Keanu has plainly put in the hours; a terrific fight sequence with Common, in which the two men keep falling down the stairs, will make you properly fearful for his vertebrae.
Sadly, after the 117th such sequence, the effect is a little bit like a diet of cake and ice cream. You thought you wanted it. Yet you yearn for the broccoli of conversation and characterisation. Keanu emoticon.
