Movie Review: John Wick (2014)

John Wick has been out for a while.  I knew I'd like it and everyone who'd seen it was like "Dude."  "Dude,"-seriously.  So I wasn't in a great rush.  You know going into it that he's a hitman...every image on the web has him holding a gun.  When I go into movies with anticipation because of hype (you know, when everyone talks something up and then it lets you down...?) I'm usually somewhat disappointed.  This turned out not to be the case here and I will tell you why.

What starts as a romantic tragedy that pulls at all your heartstrings quickly evolves into a one-man war.  Believe it or not, that gives nada away.  I hate spoilers.  The tone of the film after the beginning act was very much Boondock Saints.  Maybe a tad less comedic, but that action-y 'I can't believe that just fucking happened!' feeling is there throughout.  No gore, just lots of crazy-ass fight scenes with a pretty damn good backstory to give them weight.  I was absolutely engaged throughout.

Basically you care about him because you're watching him care about others (in his very own way) and if you're not a complete sociopath, that's going to hit home.  You want this dude to get what he set out to get.  It's kind of like the Batman story in that way.  He's suffered, but he's capable of wiping the floor with everyone, but he's still kind of the underdog, only he strikes terror into the heart of all opponents.  So, yeah.  We want him to win.

Did I tell you about the cast?  Do you watch Game of Thrones?  Daredevil?  Agents of SHEILD?  You'll see some familiar faces.  Everyone is in this movie.  If you still aren't convinced you should see it, let me tell you about the crazy-awesome assassin-for-hire mythology they've created.  You run across all kinds of other hitmen (and women) in the movie and they've all got a code and rules and certain places where certain things aren't allowed.  They've even got phrases that only make sense to them.  "Will you be needing a dinner reservation?"  Ha!  It's what makes this movie unlike any other hired-gun movie you've ever seen.

MEMORABLE SCENE:
The bouncer/Kevin Nash scene because if you know who he is, you get super pumped when you see him because you know you're in for a show.  What actually happens is better.

QUOTE:
Viggo Tarasov: "In a bar, I once saw him kill three men...with a pencil.  With a fuckin'.......pencil."

RATING:
This has skyrocketed up to my top few.  Can I give it a 100/10?  Is that allowed?  Screw it, right?

EXTRAS:
Remember how I compared this to The Boondock Saints?  Well, it's got one very important similarity and that is Willem Dafoe being all excellent and stuff.  Maybe I'll just go hunt his movies down since he ends up in all my favorites, anyway.