John Wick (2014) * *

Directed by:  Chad Stalhelski and David Leitch

Starring:  Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe, Adrienne Palicki, Dean Winters, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick

Thanks to Keanu Reeves and some interesting art direction, John Wick nearly transcends its story of a hitman seeking bloody revenge against those that wronged him.    Nearly.    However, as the body count rose and John Wick proved to be unstoppable and indestructible, I grew weary and numbed from the violence.    Shootings and stabbings in multitudes are boring, no matter how stylishly portrayed.   

Reeves stars as John Wick, a retired hitman who left the business in order to marry the love of his life.    I would have liked to have seen the conversation between them when he told her what he did for a living.    She apparently had no qualms about it, or he conveniently left that part of his life out.    Either way, they marry and she dies from an unspecified disease.    Reeves convincingly grieves the loss.     His real life sad story of losing his child in childbirth compounded by the death of his girlfriend a short time later in a car accident added depth to these early scenes.    Soon after, he receives a package from his late wife.    It's an adorable beagle.    Mrs. Wick thought the dog would help him through his grieving, which isn't a bad idea.   

Wick is confronted at a gas station by Russian thugs who want to buy his 1969 Mustang.    He refuses to sell, which pisses off the ringleader Josef Tarasov (Allen) enough to make him and his cronies invade Wick's home in the middle of the night, beat up Wick, and kill the poor dog.    It isn't long before Wick unburies his stash of weapons and begins the hunt for the assailants.    Josef is the son of Russian mob boss Viggo Tarasov (Nyqvist), who once employed Wick and has a deep fear and respect for him.    "You had better assemble your men," he tells his second-in-command, who asks how many he should assemble.    "How many do you have?" Viggo replies.

John checks into an exclusive hotel which caters to the underworld.    He is waited on by the unflappable desk clerk (Reddick) who caters to the specific needs of his guests.    The only currency accepted is gold coins one may gather up during a game of Super Mario Brothers.   One rule of the hotel is that "business" is never conducted there.    We see the grisly aftermath awaiting those who break this rule.    This must hurt repeat business.     When the hotel buys Wick a new car as an apology for his inconvenience, one wonders how the hotel makes a profit if it treats its other guests so charitably.    This also may not be the sort of question to ask either. 

Up to this point, I'm with John Wick.    Reeves makes a sympathetic antihero who only wanted to leave his old life behind, but was dragged back in.    I found the décor of the seedy nightclubs and hotel to be interesting.    Even the subtitles translating Russian into English are displayed in ways I haven't seen before.     I was reminded of a noir comic book. 

Then, Wick kills every poor, nameless henchman that dares confront him and the movie loses steam.    Watching schnook after schnook getting shot in the head disengaged me and put my brain on autopilot.    This was fresh when Bruce Lee was whooping people's asses by the dozens in Enter The Dragon, but by now it is played out.    John Wick is high on style and predictably low on substance.    By the time Mr. Wick avenges his dog, there are bodies and blood everywhere and John finds a way to keep on living.    I hear there is a sequel in the works, which means the number of bodies left in Wick's wake will be substantially higher.