John Wick and Mad Max

I rarely watch movies when they come out but I did recently catch up with two that have gotten a lot of positive reviews; John Wick and Mad Max: Fury Road.

John Wick, played by Keanu Reeves, is a retired assassin with legendary abilities that comes out of retirement in a quest for revenge.

The story is really nothing to brag about, but it's adequate. Visually the film is beautiful but a bit too dark, making some scenes hard to make out. The soundtrack, well basically I don't remember it. I assume it was fine.

What makes this movie are the action scenes and the actors. The action is great. I read somewhere, probably on Reddit or Imgur, that it's like a bullet ballet, but I wouldn't go quite that far although it's very enjoyable.

It is however the actors that make this film. Keanu is Keanu. He does what he usually does and it fits well in the narrative, but he's not the interesting part. In supporting roles we have both Willem Dafoe who is great as always and Ian McShane who is magnificent. I only wish he'd been around more. Fans of The Wire will also find both Lance Reddick (Lt. Daniels) and Clarke Peters (Lester Freamon) in minor roles.

Finally I really liked some of the odd details that the film has, like special gold coins that the criminals use to pay each other and the hotel that exclusively caters to assassins and their kind. It serves not only as a hotel but also as a sanctuary. Clever idea.

Over all, John Wick is a good solid action piece well worth your time if you're in the mood for something of that nature. Or you fancy seeing Keanu with a beard.

Mad Max: Fury Road is a weird one. I've been a Mad Max fan since I was a kid and although the movie has received extremely positive reviews I had my reservations. I finally sat down and watched it since Fallout 4 goes live tonight. In the middle of the night in fact. I therefore decided to re-watch Mad Max, Mad Max the Road Warrior and finally Fury Road for the first time. I skipped Thunderdome, since I can't stand it.

OK, first off, Fury Road is made by George Miller, the man behind all Mad Max films so I have to respect the mans vision. Mel Gibson is not playing the titular role, instead Max is played by Tom Hardy. In a fun “twist” the main villain Immortan Joe is played by none other than Hugh Keays-Byrne who also played the main villain in the first Mad Max, Toecutter. Charlize Theron is our female lead. There was no bad acting in this film, but Charlize stands out. She's really good.

What threw me off quite badly was how different this movie is compared to the earlier films. Immortan Joe has a huge fortress that could never have been built since society collapsed at least if you look at Max's age, but I was wrong. Fury Road is not Mad Max 4. It is in fact a reboot of the franchise. But rather than remake the first film, George Miller has elected to retell the story and make it new. This I can respect. After all, it is his vision and creation. Besides I'm sick of retooled origin stories. (Batman and Spiderman, I'm looking at you).

With this firmly in mind, I really like Fury Road. It is essentially a two hour car chase, but it never got boring or repetitive, which is no small feat. It is a visual masterpiece, a violent 120 minutes long metal video. And that's perhaps my biggest critique. The cinematography is very modern with quick cuts to zooms and popular sound effects. But after ten minutes you no longer care, seduced by the fantastic chaotic cornucopia of action.

Finally there are two interesting pieces of information that I would like to share. Mel Gibson gave his blessing to both Tom Hardy and George Miller. Not that is should matter, but for some reason that made me happy. Also, there is apparently a comic book that fills in some blanks in the story. This did not make me happy. I think it's silly to expect audiences to have to read a comic to understand parts of your movie. Just put it in there if it's important.

Like John Wick, this is is a great piece of entertainment if you're in the mood for such, but even more so. The time just flew by. Fans of the Road Warrior will not be disappointed.

That's what I have for you this time. I'm off to stare at the clock counting down the hours until I can play Fallout 4. So until we see each other again, have a great week!