John Wick

John Wick (2014) begins with a simple setup, and the simplicity is deliberate: a retired hitman's dog is killed. Wick has lost his wife and left the business. Before she died she arranged for a puppy to be delivered so he would not grieve alone. Days later a group of young Russian gangsters break into his house, steal his car and kill the dog. The rest is revenge. The film's real contribution is how the action is shot. Director Chad Stahelski was a stuntman and had doubled for Keanu Reeves on The Matrix. Instead of hiding the action in fast cuts he holds it wide and long, so you can see who is doing what. At the time the convention was the opposite. Reeves trained for months in firearms and combat and performed most of it himself. The close quarters gun work became known as gun fu. The second contribution is the world building. The Continental hotel, the gold coins, the rules the assassins live by. None of it is explained, it simply exists, and that choice produced the franchise. Michael Nyqvist plays the villain. It was made on a comparatively small budget and succeeded unexpectedly. It runs 101 minutes. Good for: action, fight choreography, and genre filmmaking. Less good for: the violence is heavy and graphic, and an animal is killed at the opening.