美国国家公共电台 NPR 'John Wick, Chapter 2': A 'Violent Ballet' Of Action

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KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Keanu Reeves played a reluctant assassin in the movie "John Wick" a few years back. The elegance¹ of the film's action scenes directed by a former stuntman² took audiences by surprise. Now comes "John Wick: Chapter Two," and while the surprise might be gone, critic Bob Mondello says the stunts³ are still like ballet - really violent ballet.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE⁴: Practically the first thing on screen is a motorcycle crash projected on the side of a New York City skyscraper⁵. You hear the roar of engines, the squeal⁶ of tires neatly⁷ in sync with the action sequence being projected on the building, but then a real Harley skitters out of a real alley⁸ down below, followed at alarming speed by the guy who must have been riding it. What follows is the sort of preposterously⁹ over-the-top chase scene most directors would use to end a movie. Here it's just Director Chad Stahelski clearing his throat and clearing the decks, as it were.

The first "John Wick" film featured a dead puppy, a stolen car and a hero who really wanted to quit the assassin game. This one picks up with Wick getting his car back, but now he finds he can't quit.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2")

KEANU REEVES: (As John Wick) I'm not that guy anymore.

RICCARDO SCAMARCIO: (As Santino D'Antonio) You're always that guy, John.

MONDELLO: At least until his producers have made a stab - literally¹⁰ with all the knives on screen - at turning his saga¹¹ into a 007-style franchise¹². There's a power structure that governs his actions.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2")

SCAMARCIO: (As Santino D'Antonio) If you don't do this, you know the consequences.

MONDELLO: Also a chain of super-elegant, assassins-only hotels where when the sommelier talks German varietals, he means guns, not wines, and where the tailors who make Wick's all-black formalwear offer special features not offered by most haberdashers.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) How many buttons?

REEVES: (As John Wick) Two.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Trousers?

REEVES: (As John Wick) Tapered¹³.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) How about the lining¹⁴?

REEVES: (As John Wick) Tactical.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Cutting-edge body armor - we just sew it between the fabric¹⁵.

MONDELLO: Though Keanu Reeves establishes that the title character can converse¹⁶ casually¹⁷ in sign language as well as Italian, English and Russian, he tends to make his most persuasive¹⁸ arguments with his fists. And of course, he's fluent in gunfire, as his "Matrix" buddy¹⁹ Laurence Fishburne intuits, playing an underworld lord of the Bowery.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2")

LAURENCE FISHBURNE: (As Bowery King) Somebody please get this man a gun.

MONDELLO: Director Stahelski, as befits a former stuntman, choreographs²⁰ fights, sending whole platoons of thugs after his star and letting Wick jete them into submission²¹. Kicking guns across plazas²², turning clinches²³ into chokeholds, Reeves is the director's Nureyev, subduing²⁴ foes²⁵ in halls of mirrors, backlit Roman grottoes, backlit subway stations - backlit being key. The director loves glass, whether it's shattering or just lit from behind to show off bloody²⁶ handprints.

Does all this add up to anything - well, decorative²⁷ mayhem I guess, as stylish²⁸ as it is mindless. Call it pulpy²⁹ fiction for moviegoers craving³⁰ distraction³¹ from the pummeling they're getting in the real world. I'm Bob Mondello.