‘John Wick’ could be start of new action franchise for Keanu Reeves

Keanu Reeves in 'John Wick'.

Although a versatile actor who has had his share of hit comedies (“Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures”) and memorable dramas (“A Walk in the Clouds”, “Sweet November”), it is for action films of varying sub-genres (“Speed”, “Constantine” and “The Matrix” franchise) that Keanu Reeves is best known.

Reeves’ last two films last year found the Canadian actor channeling his inner Asian with the acclaimed martial arts film “Man of Tai Chi”, which he also directed, and “47 Ronin”, which took place in Japan and found him wielding a samurai.

But while “Man of Tai Chi” was well-received by both audiences and critics, “47 Ronin” was generally deemed as a lackluster fantasy adventure and, as samurai films go, was certainly nowhere in the league of the universally successful “Rurouni Kenshin” movies.

Reeves obviously needed to bounce back in a big way. His latest, “John Wick”, finds him in familiar Hollywood territory. Playing the title role of an ex-hitman brought out of retirement by a succession of personal losses, the film is directed by former stunt doubles David Leith and Chad Stahelski, both of whom Reeves collaborated with in “Constantine” and “The Matrix” films.

And judging from the mostly favorable reviews and encouraging worldwide box office take, it looks like “John Wick” could revitalize Reeves’ career in the same fashion that the “Taken” series has reinvented an already aging Liam Neeson as an unlikely action star.

In his review of the film, Time magazine resident critic Richard Corliss puts the actor’s remarkable comeback in the proper context.

“At 50 — 20 years after ‘Speed’ made him a top-billed glowering hunk, and more than a decade since he played Neo in ‘The Matrix’ trilogy — he’s not the hot icon he used to be… Within the narrow range of emotions he displays — mad Keanu, bad Keanu and of course Sad Keanu — Reeves does not exactly act; he just is. And in ‘John Wick’, where he plays a retro Neo in a crime drama with lots of martial arts and gun fu, that ‘is’ plenty.”

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone calls the film “the kind of fired-up, ferocious B-movie fun some of us can’t get enough of.” James Berardinelli of ReelViews calls it “a rousing action thriller of the sort rarely encountered in theaters these days” and recommends it “for those who crave no-holds barred action.”

Here in the Philippines where it is distributed by Pioneer Films and opened nationwide this Wednesday, “John Wick” could prove to be a sleeper hit even as it competes with several horror flicks that reflect the mood of the Halloween season.

Jampacked with relentless action scenes that include plenty of car chases, gun fights and explosions, the thrill of seeing Reeves’ one-man army take on a formidable bunch of Russian mobsters is certainly a throwback to the classic, “isa laban sa lahat” action films of the late, great Fernando Poe, Jr.

This early, John Wick is included as a playable character in the first person shooter videogame, “Payday 2”. While a sequel is yet to be announced, the prospects of the film turning into a new action franchise for Reeves looks very good.

‘John Wick’ could be start of new action franchise for Keanu Reeves

Source: InterAksyon.com (October 30, 2014 at 06:14PM)

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