Review of John Wick 2 (2017)- by Angry Movie Review

Full text transcript of the review of John Wick 2:

I was up we just got back from a double feature, we watched Batman, The Lego Movie and John Wick too, and the best night of my life. Wow.

I mean, except for January showed what a refreshing, you know, breath of fresh air.

Ok, good films. Really good films. OK, Batman, you go check out the review for Batman on what we actually gave it. But John, it too deserves your watch, too. I’m just going to come right out and say it. Go see John Wick, too. I really didn’t think that they could recapture the original.

It is so hard to see Lego, Batman and John Wick back to back a double feature like we did. It is like you’ll be set for the month. It is set for the month.

It is like 130 in the morning. And we’re Bunworth. But I’m still energized because, like, oh, my God. Excellent. Here’s the thing. You can tell the talent, the effort, the hard work, the stunt work, the love and passion for the project. You can just it shows on screen there’s no shaky cam garbage like Resident Evil final chapter. There’s no jump cuts to 15 different angles of of John, you know, shooting a guy. You see everything in its full glory. And look at what it’s done for this film franchise. The first one is legendary. It’s successful as hell. And this one, the very same thing.

I yeah. Whatsoever. It just came out of the blue. This ramped up the action.

Yes. So the first one, I think it’s bodycount I’ve heard counts somewhere. Seventy-Seven I think is the number but it could be more than that. Double it I think. I think this one has even more than that there. OK, so here’s the thing. I don’t understand the first scene of the film. I don’t understand what happened there. So you almost have to explain that to me in a spoiler something. But because it mirrored something else or maybe it was throwing back to the first film or something.

Ok, it seems like there wasn’t that much of a gap between one and two.

Ok, so that’s what confused me. Maybe it was instead of doing this this exposition scene where they talk to you on the last events of joke or, you know, how resident evil does, you know, sorry to bring it up. OK, OK. But it just it continues it from right there in a in a way and it just goes right into the action. It knows what kind of film it is. So John Wick, basically, if you don’t know, the first film gets his puppy killed his car and his car stolen. And in this film, he resolves the stolen car. So he resolved the puppy thing and killed, you know, in the previous movie.

Well, Joe, that’s not the end of it. It’s dead. He said no.

He thought he’d gone. Got he got revenge.

And and so now he’s resolves the car plot at the beginning of this one. And, you know, because he got back involved in this world of assassination, that is so fascinating. That is not laid out. That is not explained in full, you know, which is part of the mystery and part of what makes it so interesting.

Yeah, John Wick wanted to make me want to be an assassin. Yeah. More than hitman games. Yes.

This was far more effective than the Hitman movies. No, Don’t Kill will do it. I get nice suits. Jake up. There is no actual coins. And tell me if I don’t go to New York, they’re not going to be assassins ever.

Sorry, I would like a room. Every hotel with the book is that’s going to be we don’t take does does the manager end.

Ok, so, so because he gets back in this world, it turns out that they reveal a little bit more of this assassination world where there’s now these markers where how did John Wick actually get out and be able to retire. That was never really fully explained. And this one is just claim where one guy, you know, helped him get out or allowed him to get out because he had enough power. Well, John, basically making some sort of blood pact with him in this coin, it’s one half is his thumbprint. And so the guy comes, he says, I need you to do something for me. You need to do this for me. And John’s like, no, I’m not doing this. I’m out of this. I mean, that was the first film. I’m done with this shit and it blows up his fucking house.

You’ve seen that in a trailer. And so it starts and starts again. This guy’s lives are just completely wrecked.

Fucking leave me alone. But it’s like everybody respects John Wick to this insane degree. He’s the boogie man. He’s the devil. So don’t fuck with John Wayne. But this guy fucks with John Wayne. They don’t. So this this film is essentially him getting revenge for fucking with them and, you know, and I really like the rules that they set up with this assassin world. John Wick respects the rules. The villains respect the rules. And and and that’s what gives this world structure and fascination.

And it makes you want to be in it because you’re like, OK, well, you were fighting and then, OK, if we’re in the hotel, there is no fighting. You know what that reminds me of? That bit reminds me of Hylander.

Tell us a little bit about some of the new characters that they introduce in the film.

The new characters is what’s your name, bro?

Yeah, much better than this one. Yeah. Yes, yeah, I agree. I guess you just the guy’s bodyguard, huh? That’s that’s basically she she works for bodyguards and she works for the particular guy that asked John Wick to do the new assassin for over a year and no job. No, Joe, you’re getting it wrong. It’s not her crush. It’s your crush. My crush. Oh, I thought you said it was her crush. No. So so the main guy in the film that asked John to do this for. I think that that’s her award. Yeah. And Carmen’s award is another lady. And I don’t really know who John Wilkes Award is. I guess maybe it was that guy that asked him to do it and that’s why he got out. So that was his award and he got out. Now he’s asking him, I need you to do this or I’m going to fucking kill you. But it’s just it’s a fascinating world. So Ruby Rose, great character. She just looks dangerous. She looks like a guy. I mean, she got her hair. Looks like this Justin Bieber. I’m sure people give a shit or like Justin Bieber character is going to be terrible. But she’s she’s got this dangerous look to her and fierce, you know, eyes and she kicks ass in the film, does a great job, like Jacob said, much better than triple X. And she has like less lines interplay actually about the same thing, that she’s a mute in this movie. She’s a in this movie using sign language. But yeah, I mean, the plot and the story to the film doesn’t really matter, because this is one of those films that you can enjoy as a spectacle, as an action film. You remember the heyday of the John Woo films, the heyday of the martial arts films. This is a return to that. This is a homage to that and a rebirth of that. And this movie is almost single handedly doing this. I just respect Keanu Reeves so much.

I would love to meet to see I so fucking cool one of those people that loves Kilner. Yeah. So people talk. I’ve always loved this movie. Oh yeah. Yeah. I’m like fucking 80s and 90s.

Yeah. And then ever since I heard that story, we’re like gives away a bunch of his money to a stuntman and all this other stuff. I was like that, just that, just money too.

He goes his checks have a majority of his matrix money to stuff. Yeah. He gives us checks to Cancer Society and the preparation for this movie.

I was doing a little bit of reading, you know, months and months and months of his life just training for this stuff. There’s a there’s a video on YouTube of him actually doing the real gunplay. I mean, he’s no joke. He’s like a fucking trained professional now and he can go super fast with super accuracy. Yeah, I would love to try by. Makes me want to go out to the shooting range and get some some time in, but, you know, whereas other actors would be like, I can’t put that much time, they want to do three films in between. They can’t dedicate their life to it. They want a 13 million dollar paycheck at that movie in between this and that.

But he puts so much of himself in that kind of actor, like he lives in an apartment and takes the bus and said, well, this is a 52 year old who who is basically turning into the premier martial arts star. I mean, he reminds me of fucking Donnie Yen and fucking Jackie Chan or was it magnetites or something like that?

Calories of the movie.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, actually, I might have, yeah. So it just great, incredible action with interesting characters. Carmen is back.

He’s basically once again a main rival for Fajon, like the Smoking Aces movie, kind of the assassin do that in that too. But it has its turn cold.

Yeah. Yeah. Which is good for him. I don’t know. I mean he has as his acting abilities in that sense, totally believable, totally believable badass that can go up against John Wick. And there’s a moment where, you know, John Wick obviously goes through shit because he is essentially going against one of the chairmen of this world. And it’s like, how does he put up with that? Because this chairman can unleash hell on him with tons and tons of assassins on putting this contract on his life that you’ve seen in the trailer. And Carmen and John Wick have a great fight in this film. There was a film called A Live where there’s this long extended fight scene between the main character, Roddy Piper. You know, he’s a wrestler glass. Yeah. And and his buddy. And it last for so long. And I think it was one of the longest fight scenes. This one’s even longer, but it has gunplay. It has knife fighting. It has, you know, martial arts. And I just love the the martial arts in this film. It’s it’s yeah. It’s as the martial arts have evolved over time and what we’re seeing is fresh and new. You know, it’s not these, you know, high kicks. Why your work? It’s this on the ground, snapping arms and disabling people, effective execution style hits, pop, pop, pop, pop. You know, it’s just great.

I have a handful of things I love about John work, but I guess we’ll talk about that more in the spoilers. Yeah, there’s this ball of both movies that makes me love this fucking movie. Mm hmm.

I’ll talk with it. OK, and so the the so the stakes are high. The villain has so much power, John has to go up against him. There are car chases. There are long extended action sequences that. Do you think, Joe, this tops the first one in terms of the set pieces?

I think so. So basically, the bus is all this money. So he disposes, makes a big contract and everybody’s out to get him. And every turn he takes everyone in. New York’s an assassin.

Yeah. Yeah, I did. I did see a little bit of that where it’s like pretty much everybody it is, is, you know, everybody freezes and it looks at him and it’s like, oh, shit, Johnny has to take out everybody. Don’t tell me I can’t be an assassin because I was trying to find somebody.

If you live in New York, are you a fucking asshole? Oh, yes. Oh, there’s underground. And so Laurence Fishburne makes an appearance in this film. It kind of shows up kind of late into the film. And you get this. You forgot about the reuniting of of the Matrix characters.

I was just waiting for a little bit more of a drop hint, like maybe when he sends them off, he goes, you know, make sure to choose the right or, you know, the door on the right rather than the door on the left or something like that. That would have been so funny to me. But they didn’t they didn’t do that. It wasn’t on that on the nose. But it was good seeing those two together again. And here’s the thing about this film that you must prepare for so it doesn’t piss you off. This has how do I say this without spoiling? This has an empire strikes back feel right where it sets up potentially a third one. But you don’t feel cheap and you don’t feel like, oh, what the fuck that. You know, I hate that ending. No, you feel like the stakes have been raised once again and you are excited for a third chapter now. I didn’t think they could do the second chapter just as they did the second chapter justice.

I have to believe that the director has and the writers have in mind a story on where this is going and have a satisfactory resolution. We don’t want the assassin world explained ad nauseum. We don’t want that.

But we do want a satisfying resolution where where, you know, at the end of this film, you’re gonna be like, oh, shit, I’m really excited for this world. I heard some bad things. I heard. Essentially, they’re going to do a prequel television series, I would hate us, I would make a TV show, hated every movie. I don’t like this idea.

Yeah, transborder rush-hour at least I know, right? With the front lawn with Hollywood ran out of ideas. And now television is running ideas, carving Hollywood with this shit.

It’s just annoying. Please, we don’t need a John Wick television series. And here’s what I think it is good for three movies. Another thing I was really impressed with. So we talked about how the plot is good enough to make a chapter to the story is good enough. Then don’t fuck up their own world. They stay within the rules and gets more interesting through the story stuff. That’s Dale, your great supporting cast of dangerous characters. You believe all these people have power, you believe they’re all at martial arts experts. And John Wick kicks so much ass to the second power in this movie with great choreography, great action scenes. I can’t imagine just great locations to you know, we’re talking underground catacombs, you’re talking club scenes, you’re talking just, you know, every everywhere. And one thing I’d like to say is the set piece at the end of the film. It fascinated me because it’s in this mirrors. There’s mirrors everywhere. And, you know, and I was like, how the movie how the fuck did they film this where you never see cameras? And so it’s just masterfully done. You can tell the talent involved in this film. You need to go see this. It’s worth seeing in the theater. It’s worth buying on DVD or Blu ray as well. So let’s go to our final verdicts. And this time we’ll start with Joe. What would you give this film?

I’m going to give this a ten day, so I fucking love this action.

The threat level was there and I just made me get all ponder’s.

Oh, my God. This is the fucking John Wick to the extreme. I don’t remember if we reviewed John Wayne one. I think it was before we started doing regular movie reviews.

I can’t remember also went to DVD theatres, the opera just.

Yeah. So so you’re giving this attendance. This is better than the original in your mind. Yes. Or just as good, if not better.

I think it’s actually better. You like it more. OK, so ten out of ten from Joe’s fucking don’t be giving these things out like hell. No, no. You got to take this seriously. OK, so it just so happens that we got through January and there was just garbage, you know, four, three, two, one, you know, just garbage. Yeah. And now and ten this weekend. You better be at the fucking movies. OK, Jacob, what are you even though I’m also telling this bitch, I will tell you my reasons.

I’ll tell you. Oh, it’s pressure. OK, anyway, God damn it Jacob. No, I bleeped it out. Didn’t hear anything like that. We’re going to go into the same way they kill a single person. We’re going to go take what I’m saying. I don’t mean it like that, guys. Listen to what I’m saying.

Han Solo, Han Solo shot first, and that’s OK. John Wick murders people and that’s OK. He’s a fucking assassin. The best assassin is supposed to be a killer. He’s supposed to be the fucking devil, the fucking man, or else you don’t have that fear of him. He’s going to slowly push that knife into you if you start that and you watch and want to die. So, yeah, no, I think it’s a great character. I love the mystique of John Wick. I love Keanu Reeves. And for me, I think part of the reason why I love these films so much is I can’t even separate that Keanu from John Blake. When I see John Wick, I see Keanu completely.

Like for a while it was it was Matrix.

It revitalized his career. That’s another thing.

So I love that he disappeared for a while and then came back to nowhere. That man with a vengeance was coming back and some kung fu movies and some other little things.

So happy for him and the director who the previous stunt actor who knows Keanu in previous films. And they got together and they made this ad successful. I hope to see a third one. I hope to see it end there. So ten out of ten from Joe, ten out of ten from Jacob. That’s a lot of pressure on me to give it a ten out of ten. I it’s good. I know it’s nine out of ten easily and with a bad ass seal of approval. Golly fuck. No I’m not. I know there’s critics out there that are tired of, you know, seem to just murder people and it’s just the action. But this this is such a good throwback to the previous film, to previous cinema of the John Woo. Everything has done so well.

And maybe it’s because I’ve seen such shitty movies in January and to see it done so well here.

Do I, do I right the board. All right. All right, baby. All right.

Let’s go to fucking theater this week. See both these movies. Ten out of ten for John two. Because maybe if I didn’t give John Wick one at ten out of ten, then John Wick to buy one, upping John Wick one and keeping it just as strong, if not stronger.

That’s such a hard thing to do in Hollywood, and it deserves that extra push.

And maybe it was because of my January experience, but this is a ten out of ten. Buy it immediately. Legendary. Remember, my rating supposed to be like, am I going to compare other action movies to this movie? Yes, I am. I’m going to be here.

I’m going to be comparing gun play.

I’m going to be comparing martial arts action movies where it’s just like ridiculous action consistently. This is perfect. Yeah.

So there’s no emotional impact in this film. I don’t think I was ever on the verge of crying or anything like that. But it’s not it’s not that kind of film. It’s just pure and simple. Just anger. Yeah. Like revenge. Yeah. I really hate it. Literally was the embodiment of the angel of death and and it got it right. So ten out of ten across the board, Lego, Batman and John Wick to just go see this amazing start to 2017. Well shitty start and then a great redemption in the in February. Go and see both of these films. We’re going to talk spoilers Valentine movie to go see. Yeah, yeah. To no. Yeah, yeah. No. I guarantee you even girls will have fun with it too because it’s just so good if they like action you know, so great, great action. It’s so hard to do films like this because they always do one or two things that fuck it up, not fucked up here. We’ll talk a little bit about in the spoilers how maybe it’s ridiculous that go for head shots a little more often, but whatever. So. All right, let’s go to the spoilers. Thank you guys for watching. We’ll see you on the next angry Joe show. Bye, guys.