When sequels begin to explore their own worlds further instead of telling a different story or continuing to excel at a particular element, they can quickly begin to feel like products within a brand. However, even as John Wick: Chapter 2 is still very much an action film first and foremost ascending the genre to heights previously unseen in American cinema, the world building surprisingly proves the series’ biggest asset as every character feels memorable even if they’re only on screen for a couple minutes.
Favorite films
Recent activity
AllRecent reviews
More-
-
John Wick 2014
Film fans debate a lot over whether Keanu is a good actor or not but his performance here makes the most compelling case that he is since My Own Private Idaho. The physicality Reeves puts into Wick is incredible but the open-faced melancholia of John Wick’s first act and the character’s emotional eruption during the warehouse scene is visceral and solidly this series just as much as those elegiac fight scenes do.
Popular reviews
More-
Mank 2020
Mank, despite initial expectations, is not a film about the HOW of Citizen Kane. It is about the WHY of Citizen Kane. Orson Welles’ seminal masterpiece, often hailed as the greatest film of all time, is obviously a story about the price of power and the emptiness of wealth. But in an emotionally reactionary sense, the film means a variety of things to a variety of people. David Fincher’s long gestating passion project thus seeks to explore what it meant…
-
Gremlins 1984
My parents forbid me from watching Gremlins for most of my young life. They feared I’d have nightmares from it and wouldn’t sleep well. Which is hilarious, seeing as how I was permitted to view films like Batman Returns and Temple of Doom. When I entered middle school and was finally granted a DVD copy for my for birthday, watching the film felt like a birthright. Like this was the moment where life changed, all because I could watch fucking Gremlins.…
