Since that fateful day when Keanu Reeves fired his gun in the air and yelled “aaaarrrrgggh” he’s become a regular in the action genre. He dipped his toes with Point Break. He experienced box office and pop culture success with Speed, before ending the century as Neo in The Matrix, arguably the most significant action movie of the last 20 years in terms of cult-following, pop culture reference and blue printing future action films (even if The Matrix pilfered from more sources, than films in turn have since aped The Matrix).
Whilst Reeves has often been dismissed as someone lacking in acting range, what he has done is take to the action world with great aplomb and enthusiasm. He does a lot of his own stunts. He throws himself into whatever he’s doing and takes his job very seriously. The crash course Martial arts training delivered to him in The Matrix trilogy has made him a very believable on screen fighter. He might not need to be making space on his mantle for an Oscar, but Reeves knows how to work hard. So now we have John Wick. A film that on paper sounds like a sillier version of Taken. At a modest 20 million budget, and with Reeve long since departed from box office radar, one might have assumed it was a glorified straight to Netflix special. It is not. It’s Reeve’s throwing his hat into the “mature action hero” ring. Now he may be 50 now, but he barely looks a day over 30. John Wick took critics by storm in the US at the tail end of last year. It’s garnered a cult following since and finally arrives on UK shores..
Read the rest of Tom Jolliffe’s ★ ★ ★ ★ review here.
Originally published July 13, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
