Donnerstag, 29. Juni 2017

(Gast-)Review, Trailer "John Wick 2" von Dragonrage

OK! I like Keanu Reeves...I really do! But lets be honest here...he's not the best actor out there, and he surely wont win any Oscars in his career. Why, some may ask!? Well, because he's acting abilities are limited, and because, most of the times, he plays his roles in a very similar, emotionally constrained and cold way. But hey...who needs Oscar(s) anyway...plus, he's a cool dude, and apparently is a really nice guy in his private life, and he's been on the scene for 30+ years now, and he's still going strong...maybe even stronger then in the 90's.
Now, during his long career, Reeves has his ups and downs, and he tried all sorts of different things, often jumping from one genre to another genre. He tried his luck with dramas, thrillers, comedies, horror films, science fiction and action. Although we can hardly say that he's an action hero, at least not in the same league as Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Statham, and other ass kickers from action cinema, still, Reeves's action movies were his biggest hits, and those movies have done the most for his career!

First, there was POINT BREAK directed by Kathryn Bigelow. A movie that gained a cult following over the years, and is considered to be one of the best action movies of the 90's. Then, there was SPEED, another action classic of the 90's, ​​directed by Jan de Bont! And then, just before 90's kicked to the curb, Reeves made THE MATRIX, a timeless action sci-fi classic directed by Wachowski brothers (now sisters) and went down in history as Neo - bad ass savior of human kind! And now...here's JOHN WICK! Movie that basically resurrected his career and made him extremely popular again!
You know...I really, really liked JOHN WICK! I did! But I didn't loved it as I hoped I will, especially after all the praise it got. It was extremely fun and stylish as fuck, but I had a problem with the third act which IMO was lacking more bad guys for Wick to kill. Instead, he had to fight slightly overweight and out of shape villain who gave him way to much trouble, considering Wick's particular deadly set of skills.
And frankly, at the time, I was really surprised that JOHN WICK was such a huge and critically acclaimed hit! I mean, when you think of it, on paper WICK sounded as one really dumb and silly movie that will probably flop at the box office and be forgotten very soon. Some poor schmucks kill the dog and stole a car from the most dangerous hitman in the world, so he loses his shit and goes on a killing spree to take his revenge! Common, this sounds utterly stupid! After all, Steven Seagal has built his entire career by making such movies where he played some ex-cop/CIA agent/soldier who goes out for a revenge after somebody kills someone who he loved...and guess what!! Nobody really cared much about those movies!
But as we all know, JOHN WICK didn't flopped, and critics didn't crucified the movie. On the contrary, everybody loved JOHN WICK! And you know why!? Because it was like a cool comic book! Because it was stylish, brutal, and fun! Because the gun-fu action was well choreographed and directed, and cool as shit! Because of the intriguing and unique world created by screenwriter Derek Kolstad! And of curse, because of Keanu Reeves who invested 110% of himself to the role of John Wick! All that was more then enough to turn JOHN WICK into one of the best action movies of 21st Century!!

Now, after all this, a sequel was a 100% sure thing! The only question was...will this sequel be any good? Can this sequel repeat the success of the original, or we will have another MATRIX RELOADED and REVOLUTIONS on our hands!?
Well, based on my 5 star rating, its more the obvious that I fucking loved this sequel! So yeah, if you ask me...JOHN WICK; CHAPTER 2 deliver the goods...and not only that, it kicked some serous ass! You see, IMO JOHN WICK; CHAPTER 2 is one of those rare superior sequels that we can easily put in the same basket with TERMINATOR 2 and ALIENS, because it managed to beat the original! And not only its better then the original, its also bigger, meaner and and more furious, and way, way more fun!
Everything is more brutal here compared to the previous movie! Directing is more intensive...locations are more diverse and luxurious...action is more spectacular and more violent...bodycount is way more impressive and extremely huge, and you can almost compare it to Arnie's COMMANDO.
Although CHAPTER 2 continues directly to JOHN WICK, thankfully, this sequel doesn't follow the same pattern, and the story goes in a completely different direction, away from revenge, from (another) Wick's dog, or any other beloved animals, things or persons from Wick's life (however, they do blown up his house). This time, story was built around the mysterious world that deals with a secret society of assassins. So this sequel gives us better insight into this secret society that has existed for centuries, and we find out more about their rules, as well about the consequences that will follow if one of those rules is violated.
We also learn something more about Wick's past, which knocks on his door and "bites his ass"...and spoils his plans for retirement. And this past comes in the form of fancy mobster named Santino D'Antonio, played by Riccardo Scamarcio. Now, Santino doesn't look much dangerous, and ultimately he proved himself as someone who is not worth to face against Wick. Hell, even his right hand Ares played by Ruby Rose didn't really proved here self against Wick. But Santino had Common on his side and a whole bunch of armed men who gave Wick more than enough to do trough the entire movie...especially in the last 15 minutes!

And speaking about Wick killing whole bunch of people...all that training with weaponry sure did paid off for Reeves who mastered his dangerous killing skills to perfection. And you can see that in the movie, because he did like 90% of his own stunts by himself.
There's also whole bunch of references to other movies in CHAPTER 2. For example, there is more then couple of homage moments to THE MATRIX (besides reunion with Laurence Fishburne). Also, the ending that takes place in the room full of mirrors kinds of reminded me of ENTER THE DRAGON and THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. I not sure if this homage (to any of those two movies) was done in purpose or not, but it was cool nevertheless...

Anyway, its time to wrap this up, so Im just gona say this...I fucking loved the ending of CHAPTER 2! The set up for part 3 is just simply awesome and part 3 can't come fast enough! Based on that set up, I think we can expect something completely different when you compare it to the first two movies...and I cant wait for that!

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