Review

John Wick: Chapter 2

John Wick (Keanu Reeves) and his beloved dog are back for another round of first-person shooter-inspired hyperviolence in John Wick: Chapter 2.
John Wick (Keanu Reeves) and his beloved dog are back for another round of first-person shooter-inspired hyperviolence in John Wick: Chapter 2.

It's fitting that John Wick: Chapter 2 begins with a few clips of the cinema's first Great Stone Face -- Buster Keaton -- projected on a wall outside a building. Like his silent movie predecessor, star Keanu Reeves has a granite visage that hints at a torrent of emotions behind it.

While Keaton may have blanched at the ultraviolence that runs throughout the film, he might have approved of the stuntman showcase that director Chad Stahelski has assembled.

John Wick: Chapter 2

84 Cast: Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ian McShane, Ruby Rose, Common, Claudia Gerini, Lance Reddick, Laurence Fishburne, Tobias Segal, John Leguizamo

Director: Chad Stahelski

Rating: R, for strong violence throughout, some language and brief nudity.

Running time: 2 hours, 2 minutes

A former stuntman himself, Stahelski has a gift for coming up with photogenic ways to destroy life and property. He and screenwriter Derek Kolstad, who were behind the first film, crib from sources as diverse as Orson Welles' The Lady From Shanghai and video games, but they consistently find entertainingly unlikely ways for their title character to survive or vanquish his foes.

Having crushed New York's Russian mob in the first chapter, New Jersey's most feared hit man, John Wick (Reeves), discovers retirement isn't coming anytime soon. Having been given a coin with his own blood on the flip side, Wick finds himself obligated to grant the wishes of mafioso Santino D'Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio).

Wick initially refuses, but in the elaborate shadow legal system administered by the sagelike Winston (Ian McShane), he's still required to do Santino's foul deed. Santino is miffed that his late father willed his seat at the high table for all the gangsters in the international underworld to his sister Gianna (Claudia Gerini).

Because his sister is as cruel and ruthless as he is, Santino can't simply wait for her to try a new career path. Nonetheless, he also doesn't want to get his own hands stained with her blood.

That's where Wick comes in.

Part of the reason Santino has outsourced the dirty business is because Wick is more than simply a hired gun. He takes out bigger, stronger, faster antagonists because he has a sort of devilish ingenuity. If one gun jams up or another can only hold seven rounds (against an approaching army) or if no firearms at all are handy, Wick still finds ways to keep his attackers occupied.

As with the first movie, he can do with a pencil what most killers do with Uzis. By using everything from his fists to a car door, Wick dispatches a small city's worth of thugs and henchmen.

If Kolstad and Stahelski repeat themselves on a couple of occasions, they make up for it by setting the mayhem in stylized environments -- no one bats an eye when two killers target each other in a museum. These folks trust the assassins' aim.

Kolstad doesn't give the characters much to say (that would get in the way of the chaos), but his banter is delightfully tongue-in-cheek (the term "professional courtesy" takes on a whole new meaning).

He also loads the new chapter with lots of characters who normally don't make their way into movies, like a deaf hit woman (Ruby Rose) who taunts her victims in American Sign Language, a king (Laurence Fishburne, gorging on the scenery) of Big Apple panhandlers and Winston's equivalent (Franco Nero) in Rome.

While criminals in the Eternal City and the City That Never Sleeps use cellphones, Kolstad and Stahelski present most of the transactions using analog technology. Pneumatic tubes and old-fashioned switchboards carry urgent messages.

The action itself is also old school. While the gunplay and fistfights are stylized, there's still a sense, real or not, that Reeves and his on-screen opponents actually risked life and limb in each tussle. Kicks in sensitive areas look painful, and Stahelski makes great use of scenic Old World locations. Even if you're really only interested in killing people and blowing things up, the sights might as well be consistently gorgeous.

If Stahelski and company can't replicate Keaton's innocent wonder as well as his ability to force physicists to rethink their laws, they have the decency to thank the writer-director-star-stuntman behind Sherlock Jr. and The General for showing the world how mass destruction can become oddly delightful.

MovieStyle on 02/10/2017

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