“John Wick: Chapter 2” Review

In 2014, we got a brief glimpse of old school action films again in the form of: “JOHN WICK (2014)“. The fact it was super successful was promising for future installments as well as for the action genre as a whole. And even though all the lessons the first Wick taught weren’t taken, you could clearly see it had made an impact.

Then finally this year we were blessed with: “JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 (2016)“, a sequel that was not only entertaining, but as good, if not better than the original!

Now, I’m going to go on record here and say I’m not a believer in a common held belief of sequels not {usually} being as good as the original. I will concede sequels are usually made for the primary purpose of making money, but in my mind there exist too many “EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980)” ‘s, and “WRATH OF KHAN (1982)” ‘s for that fact to be true.

John Wick: Chapter 2 concludes the story began in 2014 in spectacular fashion, all in the first fifteen minutes! Fifteen, action packed, beautifully shot, painfully felt minutes. From here we are drawn deeper into the world of assassins and John {embodied to perfection by Keanu Reeves} is once again not allowed to “retire”.

The plot is fairly straight forward, featuring a lot of double crosses that are treated with almost samurai level honor. Say what you want about the Star Wars universe being a fleshed out universe, the John Wick series has managed more in less run time!

Interesting side characters from the previous entry return to walk us through the complexities of this shadowy underworld. One new character was a special treat for me: Franco Nero as Julius the manager of the Italian Continental. Seeing this Giallo/exploitation actor not only still working, but being exceptionally memorable was more than I could’ve asked for!

Then there is the action itself. In a continued extension from the first film we are given straight forward, non-shaky cam, non-quick cut fights, shoot outs and chases. It goes to show, when you allow people who know how to fight make the creative decisions you are rewarded with awesome spectacle!

We need more of this everybody.

Short-Story-Long:

For a fun, action filled two hour at the movies John Wick: Chapter 2 is just right! Only time will tell if we get the see the epic Chapter 3 that is set up in the final minutes. I have faith it will.

~_M.H._~

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