Review: Keanu Reeves Fires up the Action in ‘John Wick: Chapter 2’

What makes the character John Wick so appealing is his reluctance to kill even though it’s his job.

In John Wick: Chapter 2, we are reminded of the bogeyman legend that precedes him — taking out several men in a bar with just a pencil. The stakes are high for our hesitant hitman Wick, played once again by Keanu Reeves, as he’s being pulled back into the business despite his desire to retire.

Still grieving from the death of his wife Helen (Bridget Moynahan) in the first film, Wick is seemingly able to relax — sipping wine in his beautiful palatial home with a new dog by his side — an adorable blue pit bull with no name. That is until he is paid an unexpected visit from an Italian mob boss named Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scarmacio). Wick is given an undeniable marker confirmed by Winston (Ian McShane) to finish off D’Antonio’s sister so he can have her seat at the proverbial table. When he refuses, a firebomb that is large enough to take down a country is unleashed upon his home. In the process, it destroys all memories of Mrs. Wick.

With revenge once again as his motivating factor, it’s game on.

Wick travels to Rome in hot pursuit, but first he must go on a clandestine shopping spree to prepare for the onslaught ahead. In an amusing series of vignettes he attains his arsenal from a sommeliere in a wine cellar speaking in code, “I need something robust, precise,” — he is out-fitted with an array of weapons. Behind a sweatshop, he is fitted for the finest Italian bullet-proof suit.

Keanu Reeves wears the character well in this action-packed sequel firing off pithy one-liners. Never one to waste words, it’s those actions that speak much louder. Watching Wicks taking out the bad guys is more like playing your favorite shoot-em-up video game where he picks them up and floors them over his head with jujitsu-style moves — combined with firing off quick successive shots, reloading on the fly as they come at him one by one. Keanu Reeves has these moves down like a dance twirling and pivoting with guns blazing.

Director Chad Stahelski, a former martial arts instructor and stuntman, put Reeves through his paces. At a press conference, Keanu Reeves revealed the training behind his impressive fighting style.

He said, “I don’t know any real judo or jujitsu or anything. I do movie Kung Fu! But with that you can fake a punch but you can’t really fake a judo throw. You can get help from the person who you’re throwing because they can kind of launch themselves — thank you Common. At the same time Common got really good at throwing people like me! In the real world, I don’t do any of that.”

Common is effective as Cassian — the bodyguard of Wick’s mark — holding his own in their fight scenes. They are old foes who have no choice but to duke it out mano a mano. The exciting scene takes place in the PATH train expertly flipping each other over in the subway car’s tight space. Common succeeds in his desire to match his acting with his action skills.

He said at the press conference, “Knowing I was going to have an opportunity to join that world when I first spoke to Chad I said I want to be like a great action artist and really deliver. I want to be one of the greats on screen as an actor and as a fighter. Chad took me back to the basics with the stunt company and I just learned so much. It was a lot of work but I wanted to give my heart and soul to it.”

John Wick: Chapter 2 delivers like a page-turner of your favorite comic book where the illustrations are more important than the bubbles of dialogue floating about them. And like the anticipation of it’s next issue, we are left to wonder what could possibly be in store for John Wick and his faithful pooch.

With Chapter 3 already in development as Stahelski revealed at New York’s Comic Con in 2016, we may have to wait a few years to find out.

Here’s a look at John Wick: Chapter 2 currently in theaters.