Movie Review - John Wick

John Wick (2014)

Starring Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe, Adrianne Palicki, John Leguizamo, Ian McShane, and Bridget Moynahan

Directed by Chad Stahelski

"Keanu Reeves is back!" raved some of the overwhelmingly positive reviews for John Wick upon its release in the fall of 2014.  The story of the title character who seeks revenge on a group of Russian mobsters who kill his newly received beagle -- a gift from his recently deceased wife (Bridget Moynahan) -- John Wick is a series of (admittedly cool) violent fights with the tiniest strand of flimsy story to tie them together.

Reeves seemingly speaks less than one hundred words as a retired hit man called back into duty when the members of a stereotypical Russian mob family pick on him for some reason and to say that the actor "is back" in top form based off this performance is outrageous hyperbole.  Yes, he works well enough in the choreographed fight scenes and he tries his best to engage the audience in his vengeful acts, but there's very little for the actor to latch onto.

The odd thing is that there's some weird sense of potential in screenwriter Derek Kolstad's script with hints of interesting elements.  For example, when Wick heads back into the realm of being a hit man, he sleeps at a hotel that caters to people of his type, keeping their residents' secrets and providing them with the necessary instruments to carry out their assignments.  This is just one of the unique elements present, but very little is done to expand upon them, making me wonder if there was an awful lot left on the cutting room floor...or perhaps it was all oddly surface on the scripted page.

Nevertheless, the incessant fight scenes grow tiresome a little less than halfway through and makes the film's final fifty minutes a slog to watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Battle: Los Angeles

Battle: Los Angeles (2011)

Starring Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, and Bridget Moynahan

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman

A Marine platoon treks across Los Angeles attempting to rid the city of alien invaders who have landed in dozens of major cities on the planet.  Over the course of Battle: Los Angeles' two hours, attempts are made to no avail to try and create emotional, meaningful moments amongst characters who have no discerning characteristics.  Instead, the film pushes its nonstop barrage of battle sequences onto the viewer and ultimately disappoints despite a somewhat promising start.

In the opening moments of Battle: Los Angeles, director Jonathan Liebesman is already well aware that viewers will never comprehend that the members of the platoon of Marines are different people.  Even though attempts are made to try and give each one an overarching storyline -- this one's getting married, that one's the virgin, that one wears glasses, this one's a doctor -- none of them are anything other than "Hoo-Rah Marine."  This is so clear a problem that Liebesman decides that it's necessary to flash up each Marine's name on the screen when they first appear so we're well aware that we're seeing different people.  That was clue #1 that character development was not a priority here.

Okay, so we're not going to have fully fleshed out people and I can be on board with that to a certain extent in a special effects-heavy film.  At the very least, I was impressed that the film essentially jumps right in to the alien invasion sequences.  If you're not going to give us discernible people, at least jump right into the action and this flick does just that.  And, for the first hour or so, I was moderately impressed with the sequences.  Despite the full scale invasion going on the city, the action was on a surprisingly intimate level as we travel with Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz (played by Aaron Eckhart who seems to be performing every line reading through gritted teeth in order to convey gruffness and toughness) and his platoon on the city streets, going in and out of buildings attempting to save civilians all before an impending bomb attack planned by the government to decimate L.A. in t-minus two hours.

It's in the film's final hour, however, once Nantz and his crew have left the inner city, stop fighting the aliens in a one-on-one, hand-to-hand combat-type level, and begin to look at the "bigger" picture and the need to take down the alien mothership, Battle: Los Angeles really falls apart.  More attempts are made at creating those "emotional moments" as more and more of Nantz' group begins to perish and the whole thing just becomes rather messy, unappealing, and plain boring to watch.  No excitement can even be gained from glimpses of the aliens or their spacecraft because there's absolutely nothing unique or special about them in the slightest.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-