05-29-2019, 02:26 PM
(05-28-2019, 08:26 PM)Gaith Wrote: I've no doubt the Wick sequels' choreography is all it's cracked up to be, but, as one who was underwhelmed by the narrative of the first entry (it all builds to... a pier-side fistfight between a super-assassin and an old dude who never particularly disliked him the first place?), the notion of this caper extending indefinitely baffles, and frankly kinda depresses, me.
The story is definitely not the strongest element of this franchise. At least the first one was "Wick wants revenge on a specific person for clearly defined reasons, so has to kill everyone as a consequence of them trying to stop him", the new one is just "Everyone is trying to kill Wick, so Wick has to defend himself". For almost the entire runtime, Wick has no forward motivation at all... but that action is so damn good I found myself not caring.
A John Woo action double bill...
Manhunt (2017)
John Woo's most recent film has been hailed as a return to his Hong Kong action film roots and was picked up by Netflix. Sadly it never quiet relights that 80s fire but it does have glimpses of Woo's past genius in a couple of the action scenes. The problem is mainly an over complicated plot, mashing 'The Fugitive', the 'Sherlock' TV show, super-assassin movies and even Sci-Fi elements into one over stuffed dish. There are at least six different factions, meaning I occasionally got lost as to who was shooting at who. I most enjoyed the scenes between Masaharu Fukuyama's jaded cerebral detective and his rookie partner (Nanami Sakuraba). I could go for a whole TV series on those two.
Just Heroes (1989)
Director John Woo and lead actors Danny Lee and David Chiang put this Hong Kong action film together purely as a benefit for a retiring cash-strapped Producer, so I wasn't expecting it to be this good. The outrageous gun battles are delivered in spades but it also has plenty of Godfather-style crime-family drama. Some fun humour is in there too with one character remarking that the bullet strewn finale is "Just like 'A Better Tomorrow'!" (an earlier Woo film). Sadly this is only available on an out-of-print French language-only DVD and an old UK VHS tape with hardcoded subtitles (I found the latter on youtube below). Fingers crossed this gets an HD release someday (or any release for that matter).
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