Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

John Wick: Chapter 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 3, 2017

As covered in even one of the supplements adorning the Blu-ray release of John Wick: Chapter 2, John Wick was a rather unexpected sensation when it was released in 2014, reinvigorating Keanu Reeves’ career and providing action adventure junkies with a pretty steady supply of adrenaline pumping sequences. Some curmudgeons (ahem) found some elements in the first film to quibble with (receiving lots of disparaging messages for their trouble, it might be added), but even those dunderheads (ahem) couldn’t help but appreciate the breathless quality to the virtually nonstop array of fight scenes, all choreographed to within an inch of various participants’ teeth by co-directors Chad Stahelski and an uncredited David Leitch, both of whom earned their stripes (and/or bruises, as the case may be) in the stunt industry, experience which was more than apparent in John Wick’s astounding array of set pieces. John Wick: Chapter 2 picks up from more or less literally where the first film left off, with an extremely angry John on the hunt for his epic Mustang Mach 1, which he finds in a chop shop being run by Abram Tarasov (Peter Stormare), part of the Russian gang which ran afoul of Wick in the first film. Suffice it to say, Wick marauds through a cartwheeling series of attackers as he attempts to reclaim his car, all while Tarasov listens with an increasingly frightened and/or resigned look on his face from his locked office. Neither the Mustang nor Wick himself make it through the carnage unscathed, but in an interesting moment that recalls the first film’s depiction of Wick attempting at least to lead an ordinary life, once Wick finally makes it to Tarasov’s lair, he shares a shot of vodka with the hoodlum, toasting potential “peace”. Yeah, right. Now it’s notable that this frenetic sequence all unfolds for fourteen minutes or so before the film’s credits are trotted out, perhaps one indication that even Stahelski, who’s back on board as director, knows where the fans want to see John Wick—namely in the center of an action adventure whirlwind, kind of like the eye of a hurricane.

One of the sidebars to that opening sequence is a moment of apparently intentional humor, something that the first film was in short supply of, when Tarasov laments to one of his henchmen that all of the mishegos the Tarasov clan has been experiencing is because they were stupid enough to mess with Wick’s car and (deceased) dog. As I mentioned in our John Wick Blu-ray review, the whole “dead wife and dog” angle, while understandable in terms of giving the character motivation and providing at least a modicum of a humanizing element, struck me as needlessly maudlin, especially when it was obvious the whole point of John Wick was to simply see the character kick some serious butt. The over serious depiction of these supposedly traumatizing events has been largely dropped in this follow up, as evidenced by Tarasov’s kind of cheeky commentary on his gang’s “issues”, and in my estimation that’s a very smart evolution in screenwriter Derek Kolstad’s approach toward this evident franchise.

Now that’s not to say that this film doesn’t have its own stumbling blocks, albeit probably fairly minor ones. The biggest one is a completely needless episode that introduces Italian gangster Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio), who shows up at Wick’s gorgeous ultra modern mansion to collect on a “marker” that D’Antonio had gotten from Wick back in the day when Wick was trying to get out of the hitman business so that he could forge a normal life with his wife Helen. In a series of events that is rote at best and pretty hackneyed at worst, Wick of course demurs to help D’Antonio’s request for “help”, leading D’Antonio to destroy Wick’s home on the spot. Then Wick turns to mentor Winston (Ian McShane), who tells Wick that a marker’s a marker and that Wick has no choice but to honor it. That then leads to another interchange with D’Antonio, where Wick tacitly agrees to perform the requested task, which it turns out is killing D’Antonio’s sister Gianna D’Antonio (Claudia Gerini). Now, some inquiring minds may want to know what exactly the whole initial scene between Wick and D’Antonio served to provide the story other than a chance to have a luxe mansion go up in flames.

Suffice it to say that plans don’t go, well, according to plan, leaving John in desperate straits once the true levels of D’Antonio’s villainy are revealed (wanting to have his sister killed is only the tip of this particular iceberg). As with the first film, once the pieces have been set into place, Stahelski simply flicks the first domino (so to speak), leading to a cascading series of awesomely staged fight scenes as John has to take on one adversary after another. There’s an obvious tip o’ the hat to the famous closing sequence of Orson Welles’ The Lady from Shanghai, with a fantastic scene that is very similar to the hall of mirrors sequence in the Welles film, but which offers a near hallucinatory level of color. (Kind of weirdly, another film I just reviewed, Jacques Rivette’s Duelle, had another visual reference to the Welles film—see screenshot 10 of that review for a little clue.)

The subtext of John Wick: Chapter 2 might well be something along the lines of “those who live by the rules die by the rules,” with John circumventing some of the assassin’s creed (so to speak) leading to pretty calamitous consequences. I’m not quite sure what I think about Laurence Fishburne’s character of The Bowery Lord, who kind of comes off like Morpheus appearing as Franz Liebkind in The Producers, but otherwise the film offers some nicely done supporting roles for everyone from Common as one of D’Antonio’s bodyguards to Franco Nero, manager of Rome’s Continental Hotel, where all the best hitmen stay. As with the first film, the story may not ultimately offer incredible depth, but it certainly supports one of the most fearsome assortments of set pieces in recent film history.

John Wick: Chapter 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

John Wick: Chapter 2 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. As with the first film, this outing was "captured by Alexa", as the closing credits helpfully inform. This is one stunning looking transfer, one that has little to none of the severe green color grading that did admittedly make the first film's appearance so striking but which also tended to rob at least some scenes of fine detail. There is still grading going on here, often quite aggressively, but detail levels are uniformly high and absolutely exceptional when lighting regimens allow and especially when close-ups are employed. When not overtly graded, the palette looks natural and quite vivid. Some of the scenes have a near psychedelic quality, including the great showdown in the "hall of mirrors", and the palette offers really impressive saturation in these moments. Despite long stretches of relatively dark material, there are no real problems with inherent video noise or any compression anomalies.

John Wick: Chapter 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

John Wick: Chapter 2 continues the first film's overwhelming sonic tendencies with another blisteringly effective Dolby Atmos track. From the first seconds of the movie, when an incredible chase between Wick and a motorcyclist offers a near riot of panning sounds and LFE, it's clear this film is going for the gusto in a major way with respect to sound design. There are moments of relative calm here, as in John's brief moment of peace at his house with his new (nameless) dog, but even here there's nice pinpoint placement of ambient environmental effects. Both in the hand to hand combat scenes as well as tangential elements like the explosion that takes out John's house, the mix offers constant immersion, top notch fidelity and impressive dynamic range.

John Wick: Chapter 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Keanu Reeves and Director Chad Stahelski


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 8:05) have timecode and other data at the bottom in the black bar section.


• Retro Wick: Exploring the Unexpected Success of John Wick (1080p; 4:34) looks at the phenomenal excitement the first film generated.


• Training John Wick (1080p; 12:00) has some fun looks at fight choreography being developed.


• Wick-vizzed (1080p; 5:13) has more candid rehearsal footage in support of a focus on pre-viz.


• Friends, Confidantes: The Keanu/Chad Partnership (1080p; 9:54) is an appealing look at the longstanding friendship between the two (Stahelski was Reeves' stunt double before going into directing).


• As Above, So Below: The Underworld of John Wick (1080p; 5:06) takes a look at the assassin's lifestyle.


• Car Fu Ride-Along (1080p; 4:44) looks at the several Mustangs they used, which perhaps gives vintage car lovers hopes that some of them at least escaped without a scratch.


• Chamber Check: Evolution of a Fight Scene (1080p; 10:08) has yet more fight choreography footage and in fact seems to be documenting more than one fight scene, unless one simply takes the entire film as one long extended fight scene, which isn't that far fetched of a perception.


• Wick's Toolbox (1080p; 8:14) explores some of Wick's many weapons.


• A Museum Tour with Sir Jonathan Wick (1080p; 2:11) takes place at the modern art gallery in Rome where Sir Jonathan has evidently morphed into an Italian woman.


• Kill Count (1080p; 3:09) recaps all of the kills in the film. Spoiler alert: there are a lot of them.


• Dog Wick Short (1080p; 1:37) is a faux trailer.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:40)

Note: This is the first disc in a long time I simply could not get to load on my PC drive, where I use the frequently glitchy PowerDVD.

John Wick: Chapter 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This second chapter in the John Wick saga still has a series of events which defy logic, but this film has at least the hint of a sense of humor at times and it also has an easier time overcoming any narrative deficits simply because the set pieces are so staggeringly effective. I got quite a bit of heat from various readers here when I didn't give John Wick an out and out rave, but maybe John's manic moves have finally kicked some sense into me. Highly recommended.