John Wick is about as straight forward of an action flick as you can get. Someone crosses a line and bodies start stacking up for the next hour and twenty minutes. Retired assassin John Wick crosses paths with Iosef Tarasov shortly after his beloved wife has died. Iosef is the maniac and blithering idiot son of Viggo Tarasov, who was one of Wick’s employers. Iosef doesn’t know who John Wick is (or was) when he meets him at a gas station and after feeling slighted, follows him home. Iosef and his hired muscle go on to quite possibly do the worst things you could do to a man. Big mistake. Revenge drives Wick to come at Iosef like the grim reaper while Viggo does everything he can to try and save his son’s life.

While the movie is about as simple as they come and everything is laid out in 15 minutes, sometimes that’s all you need. John Wick just wants to be an action movie, it isn’t concerned with being anything else. The sides are drawn right away, those on Wick’s side are cool, everyone else is dead. Once he gets into gear, we go from location to location with another great action set piece.

The director, Chad Stahelski, has been in the movie stuntman game since 1991 and it shows (check out his resume, it’s stacked. He’s got a long history working with Keanu Reeves).  There is some downright phenomenal stunt work, fight choreography and action direction on display. Guns, blades, multiple martial art styles, car chases, it’s all here and it isn’t shot and edited together like the crew was trapped in a three month long fever dream. You can see everything, the framing and continuity all flows together with long, wide takes. It’s easy to see and understand what’s going on (and to who) when mayhem breaks out. Keanu did most of his own stunt work and teaming up with many of the Matrix team really shows in his comfort and execution. Really impressive stuff. One of the things that really stuck out to me is that when cars crash, they don’t explode. I’m so used to Michael Bay style fireworks and gas bombs for everything that it was rather refreshing to see a car just smash up.

John Wick is a grounded action movie (aside from a comic book style hotel that caters to assassins) like the old Die Hard movies. It seems plausible, the hero takes a beating and at the end we all feel better knowing that justice has been dished out to scum bags. Looking for a solid action movie? Take a ride with Mr. Wick.