John Wick

Actors:  Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Adrianne Palicki, Bridget Moynahan, Dean Winters, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, Willem Dafoe,

Rating: 9 out of 10, A cross breed of Shoot ‘Em Up and Payback with Keanu Reeves as a very dangerous hero.  He plays a retired mob hit man who, shortly after the death of his wife, is wronged by the son of a former associate. Reeves then spends the rest of the movie relentlessly chasing Theon Greyjoy all over New York City with legions of double tapped Russian mobsters in his wake. This is exactly what you expect going into an action/revenge flick; it doesn’t apologize for the cartoon level of violence but revels in it.  The pace is outstanding and Reeves is surprisingly good even though he only says six or seven words for the entire movie (probably a correlation there).  There’s a very cool vibe to this movie, a real win for Keanu, thoroughly enjoyable, as long as you can stomach multiple head shots and a dead puppy. One of my favorite films of 2014.

MVP:  Reeves in the title role as the completely bad ass John Wick