If John Wick is the best looking action film in recent memory, it's also bolstered by a phenomenal cast of actors who, be they in parts big or small, manage to craft three-dimensional characters out of stock archetypes.

| Nov 9, 2015

An almost zen-like exercise in wholesale slaughter as abstraction.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 12, 2015

Emotions matter little. Story matters less. Morals don't register at all. But the rhythm of the killing creates its own irresistible machine music.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 10, 2015

John Wick works because of its sleek, artisanal dovetailing of style and sincerity.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 10, 2015

Its saving grace is the sheer operatic excess of the bloodletting.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 9, 2015

Just when you have all but given up hope for Keanu Reeves... there comes the hyper-stylised revenge movie John Wick. And you remember what you loved about him in the first place.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 9, 2015

A pretty humourless and violent film, which grinds on and on with more and more gleaming black SUVs getting trashed.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 9, 2015

A giddy helping of artful violence delivered with a wink and a cheeky grin. Unsurprisingly, John Wick 2 is already in the works.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 6, 2015

It's a film where there's almost no plot and what plot there is is totally predictable. So it's just a series of gun battles and, after five minutes or so, you get heartily sick of it.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Jan 5, 2015

It's not perfect. But it is special, especially for a mid-budget Hollywood action drama, and it has stuck firmly in my mind since that late-night screening last Friday.

| Jan 5, 2015

Stahelski and Leitch, both former stunt men, unsurprisingly tackle action sequences with glee... but the quieter scenes are more sophisticated, incorporating a sense of fantasy and visual splendor that almost makes the wafer-thin plot feel fresh.

| Jan 5, 2015

Yet, for all the film's stylishness and a body count worthy of a small civil war, there's no getting around the fact that stiff, stoic Reeves -- who is capable of a few funny, deadpan lines -- isn't a particularly compelling lead action figure.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 5, 2015

Stylishly violent and not much else.

| Nov 10, 2014

Reeves is in his element: a natural in hard-edged action thrillers from Speed to The Matrix, he has the benefit of a screenplay that gives him little to say.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 31, 2014

Co-directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, who both come from a stunt background, keep the action relentless, although it builds to a kind of monotony in the latter stages.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 29, 2014

Action movies are about movement, and John Wick pursues that goal with remorseless verve.

| Oct 27, 2014

Surprisingly sharp and witty touches lift it above the usual bang bang. There aren't many movies where the funniest line is"Oh." Twice.

| Original Score: B | Oct 25, 2014

John Wick feels like action manna for its cleanly designed gun-fu sequences... but the revenge plotting is deeply dopey and we shouldn't have to choose one or the other.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 24, 2014

Stahelski stands a bit back from the fights and keeps them clear and coherent, rather than impressionistic.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 24, 2014

John Wick is the kind of fired-up, ferocious B-movie fun some of us can't get enough of.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 24, 2014