John Wick: Chapter 2

This is the first film Chad Stahelski directed alone; he and David Leitch shared John Wick. That background explains the fight language: Stahelski was Keanu Reeves’s stunt double on the Matrix films and co-founded the action company 87Eleven in 1997, hence the wide framing, uncut bodies and long takes. The mirrored gallery in the finale is a declared remake. Stahelski named the target openly: they would redo "Enter the Dragon" and shoot the mirror room of Bruce Lee and Mr. Han. In the film the exhibit is named "Reflections of the Soul". Worth knowing in advance: the job is finished halfway through the 122 minutes, the second hour is entirely the price of it, and the film ends on a hook into the next instalment, not a closed story. Filming began in New York in October 2015 and moved to Rome and Montreal; the Continental exterior is Manhattan’s Beaver Building, the Rome scenes the Vittoriano and the Baths of Caracalla. Reeves trained Brazilian jiu jitsu with the Machado brothers. Made for 40 million dollars, it passed the first film’s whole gross in nine days. Who it is for: action viewers who want to see the choreography rather than the cutting. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the assassin economy explained; the rules multiply, the reasons never arrive.