Keanu Reeves

John Wick: Chapter 2

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: John Wick: Chapter 2
  • IMDb: link

John Wick 2 movie review2014’s John Wick was a thoroughly-enjoyable throwaway action flick. A simplistic revenge story with style and some unforgettable stunts, director Chad Stahelski‘s film knew exactly what it was and just how to deliver. A callback to 80s-style of gun-toting heroes who shot first and asked questions later, the movie ignored modern trends of cutting action scenes into an unrecognizable mess and kept the camera still to allow us to see the awesome unfold on screen. Stunts we could actually watch and enjoy, imagine that.

The sequel is a little more muddled than the original. After the pre-credit sequence wraps up the lone outstanding piece of John Wick’s revenge murder spree, the film slogs through a good 15-20 minutes of exposition, world building, and over-convoluted plot before remembering what it is and why it exists. Once the action ramps back up the film runs full blast to the closing credits, and perhaps beyond. John Wick: Chapter 2 ramps up the headshots and body count to an absurd degree with a handful of memorable kills that even put those from the first film to shame. At its best, it’s running 180 MPH with its burning rubber on fire, but when it idles the vehicle nearly stalls. Okay, no more car metaphors.

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The Neon Demon

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Neon Demon
  • IMDb: link

“Beauty isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”

The Neon Demon

In what is likely going to be one of the more divisive films of 2016, the latest from writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) casts Elle Fanning as a naive 16 year-old girl just breaking into the model business in Los Angeles. Blessed with an ineffable quality no one can quite explain, Jesse (Fanning) soon becomes the hot new girl, much to the dismay of a pair of models (Bella Heathcote and Abbey Lee) seeing their careers flash before their eyes.

Jesse’s journey will lead her into contact with a wide variety of people including her creepy apartment manager (Keanu Reeves), jealous models, designers, photographers (Desmond Harrington and Karl Glusman), and a makeup artist (Jena Malone) all of whom want something from the young woman.

Refn’s film is a metaphor for how the modeling industry celebrates physical beauty in the absence of any other quality while slowly devouring the very objects of their devotion. The film takes the metaphor one step too far in the final act leaving the film with an ending that satisfies the movie’s message but not necessarily the audience.

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Point Break

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Point Break
  • IMDb: link

“You’re about to jump out a perfectly good airplane Johnny, how do you feel about that?”

Point BreakNot unlike Keanu Reeves himself in the film, Point Break is as dumb as a bag of rocks… but gloriously so. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker), the 1991 film casting Reeves as an undercover FBI agent looking for bank-robbing surfers led by the charming Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) has no illusions about what kind of movie it is. A pure B-movie action flick about surfing and sky diving, Point Break proves to be better than the sum of its parts.

Throw in Gary Busey and Lori Petty and you’ve got the makings of a complete disaster and unwatchable trainwreck. Yet, somehow, Bigelow and company pull it off by embracing the sheer ridiculousness of what we see unfold (something the best-forgotten recent remake failed to understand) set around some well-shot action sequences. The result isn’t Shakespeare, but Point Break works as an enjoyable action bromance between cop and robber who, in another life, could have been the best of friends. And its very existence inspires Hot Fuzz two of its best moments.

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John Wick

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  • Title: John Wick
  • IMDb: link

John WickJohn Wick is the type of old school throwback that makes me think of the early action flicks of Steven Seagal and Arnold Schwarzenegger. With a threadbare plot and the loose message of be careful who you fuck with, Keanu Reeves stars in the title role as a legendary killer brought out of retirement by the son (Alfie Allen) of a local gangster who, only days after the passing of Wick’s wife, kills the man’s dog and steals his vintage sports car. Needless to say the punk didn’t realize who he was messing with.

A typical revenge story, John Wick gives Reeves the opportunity to kill many, many people (including an impressive number of victims shot in the head). The film is populated with amusing small roles such as Willem Dafoe and Adrianne Palicki as other hitmen and Ian McShane as the proprietor of a hotel who caters specifically to those in Wick’s line of business, but what you’re really paying for is the nonstop action and high body count. And that the film delivers.

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The Replacements

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Replacements
  • IMDb: link

The ReplacementsDespite being nearly old enough to drive (the film was released in theaters in 2000), The Replacements hadn’t been available on Blu-ray until now. Based very loosely on the 1987 NFL strike, the script by Vince McKewin centered around a ragtag group of replacement players for the Washington Sentinels (a fictional stand-in for the Redskins). Keanu Reeves stars as college star and NFL bust Shane Falco who is given a second chance by Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) who assembles his team from a hodgepodge of unknowns.

Playing on various underdog themes The Replacements isn’t that far removed from a number of sports movies (most notable Necessary Roughness which follows a very similar plot at the college level). Joining Reeves on the football field are Jon Favreau (as the character most likely to kill someone on the field), Orlando Jones (as the bigmouth wide receiver), Faizon Love, Michael Jace, Michael Taliferro, David Denman, and Rhys Ifans.

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