Strange but true: I’ve never seen the original John Wick movie. TTAG writer and resident war hero Jon Wayne Taylor reckons it’s the best gun movie ever made. Which begs the question: will the unimaginatively titled John Wick Chapter 2 best the best? We’ll know February 10, when JWC2 hits the screens. One thing’s for sure. Keanu Reeves has come a long way from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Like, totally.

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      • you forget the part where he leaves a trail of dead bodies to hold the guys accountable for their actions. And he gets a new dog.

        • Right. Which is about 80% of the movie. But at that point, the plot lines don’t really get very much more complex. They can send the screenwriters home.

        • Yep. Sunshine shooter, if someone kills my dog and steals my car, I would definitely be asking G-d if he wants me to be his hand of veangence.

    • It was lacking in the story department, but was very well executed (no pun intended). One of the better action flicks in the last 10 years.

    • The “retired (gunslinger, hired killer, prize fighter, samuri etc.) comes back for revenge” is one of the oldest plot devices in celluloid.

      Typically, the gunslinger retires because he recently (married, had a child, converted, lost his nerve, lost his speed, accidentally killed an innocent person, became a drunk etc.)

      He picks up his (six guns, samurai sword, fists of fury etc.) because a cruel and terrible gang of b@stards has killed or threatened to kill his (wife, child, friend, dog, friend’s dog, goldfish etc.) And because he’s a badass, he (shoots all the bad guys, beats all the bad guys, cuts up all the bad guys into sandwich slices, etc.)

      You’ve seen it a hundred times. At least. And if it’s well done, it gets the blood racing. Which is why Hollywood keeps remaking the same movie time after time.

      • Very true. But I like how John Wick was very aware of the trope. I enjoyed the running joke where everyone was just scared shitless of him.

      • Is he training for a movie or doing this as a hobby? Is it real or is it Memorex?

        Who gives a shit what the personal opinions of an actor are? He makes movies, not public policy. He’s not running for Wayne LaPierre’s job either.

        • Are you sure he’s anti-gun? Running 3 gun suggests otherwise but like I said maybe it was movie prep?

          Why are we so quick to assume these people’s views? Besides a few gunners not watching his films are something he won’t notice. At best it’s a couple hundred grand he doesn’t get when he’s still making million after million. He cares not.

    • He works with morons that believe firearms are evil in real life but, they know firearms make money in movies. So why not say what keeps you working making gun porn movies? What better way of exposing the upcoming generation to firearms? Well other than Call Doody?

    • The only part of that quote I might take issue with is, “It’s probably not the wisest thing.” But, if that’s his opinion, so be it. He says he doesn’t own a weapon, and that’s his choice. Freedom is the right to do, or not do, something without government interference. Anything else is personal choice. Owning a weapon does have its complications on all sorts of different levels, especially when it comes to having, and especially carrying, a weapon for personal defense. So give the guy a break.

      • He claims he doesn’t own a weapon. How many here have claimed that they lost all of their weapons in a boating accident? Maybe he is just saying that he doesn’t own a weapon to keep the grabbers off his back?

    • It’s on my calendar.

      I have one question: Are the screenwriters going to kill the dog again? ‘Cause I hate that.

    • It wasn’t a bad movie, but c’mon. 5’7″, 160 lb. Tom Cruise playing 6’5″, 250 lb. Jack Reacher?

      What’s next? Peter Dinklage starring in “The Larry Bird Story?”

        • No worries, ACP– the movie was much better than any of the books written by an anti-gun Limey who shows his firearms ignorace in every book. Not to mention the “perfect man” image of Jack Reacher bullshit.

          Just enjoy the movies and be thankful you don’t have to read the books to know you’re watching a good story.

  8. Well Keanu trains with Taran Butler and babes so I’m expecting a great movie time…my favorite scene from #1 was the Keltec KSG scene?

  9. “War hero”, I remember a time when it took a CMH to be considered a war hero. War hero my ass. The Iraq\afghanistan vets are by far the blow their own horniest pat myself on the backiest bunch of “war heroes” evah.

    • while is hard to beat some WW2 and Civil War battles for bravery, self-sacrifice, and heroism
      D-Day, Guadcanal/Saipan/Pretty much most marine Assaults on Pacific Islands for just some examples
      Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Cold Harbor, heck most of them..

      As a Vietnam Vet and knowing a few friends and relatives who toured in Afghanistan and Korea , those campaigns all asked more of many young men (and women) at times than any generations since WW2 and certainly the athletes the media call “heroes”.

    • I share your hero sentiment, especially as a veteran.

      But, it’s society and the media doing the hero claiming more than anything. Everyone from waiters to stay-at-home moms are freaking called heroes now.

      OMG, he worked a double on Labor Day and she got both kids fed, bathed, and in bed by 8pm – they’re goddamn heroes!

  10. Looks like he is putting his three gun skills to good use. When will it be on Netflix? (‘Cause that is about when I will see it. I don’t remember the last time I was in a theater.) Time to put him and Cruz up against each other, maybe that might be fun.

  11. In my opinion, the movies “Blue Ruin” and “the Way of the Gun” are the best “gun movies”. The shoot-outs are not highly choreographed, but fast, frantic and violent.

    • They love gold most of all and like true statists, they’ll provide the masses whatever “opiate” they need to keep them docile and compliant.
      “It makes the world go round”
      “Some say love”
      “Well they’re right too. It is love…love of gold”

    • I liked Heat up to the end: De Niro’s obsession with a mano y mano that made him turn around didn’t fit his character IMHO. DeNiro valued winning and getting away completely more than getting even and martyring himself.
      I could see him comeback later to finish the job, though, but rash suicide by cop didn’t make sense to me given the character they developed was coldly rational and methodical the rest of the time.
      I think Mann did it because he didn’t want to let the bad guys win one (a Hollywood obsession so strong, they through in bizarre out-of-character acts or fluke scenarios to justify it).

      Ronin was a better movie IMHO

      • Totally agree! I think Macaulay is supposed to be remembering what happened to Danny Trejo’s character and that overcomes his usual common sense.

        The only problem is that we see so little of Trejo and we don’t know anything about their friendship. It would make way more sense if he was getting revenge for Cherrito.

        Which come to think of it, it’s weird that nobody seems to care that Cherrito gets killed… Huh.

        Oh well, great movie. Also The Thief, and Manhunter.

      • I disagree: MacCauley was trapped with nowhere to go; I believe it was MacCauley’s intent to kill Hanna, hoping the landing lights would blind him to give him the tactical edge. Hanna instead was tipped off by the MacCauley’s shadow, allowing him to get the first shot.

  15. I know you are all talking about modern gun movies. But I think you can’t forget about classic westerns as well. Open Range comes to mind.

    • IMHO one of the best Westerns since the John Ford era.
      Costner and Duvall worked magic together and Annette Benning was surprisingly good as well.

    • A great “gun” western is The Quick and the Dead. Lots of focus on the guns, and the guns have meaning for the characters. That’s what makes a good gun movie; the guns say something about who uses them.

      Versus a bad gun movie where the guns are just there to be cool, like End of Days. That film is a two hour commercial for the Gen 3 GLOCK lineup.

      • “Quick and the Dead”… Not to mention that SHaron Stone proves “Women can shoot.”

        Her line, “Today I can,” sure shocked Hackman enough to slow him down… then… BOOM!

  17. I prefer war movie gun fight scenes over the flashy action movies ones.

    Like Saving Private Ryan, Act of Valor Black Hawk Down, for example. It’s not as flashy, but certainly more realistic.

    The backflips, cartwheels, and flash in the pan gun handling in the middle of the gun fight are too much for me actually shut my brain off and enjoy, at times.

    • I get ya. I have a more measure suspension of disbelief than a lot of others it seems too so I want realism not the Gun Katas of Equilibrium.
      Take a look at the Seige of Jadotville new on Neflix: true story with accurate (mostly) firefights because it was based o n a real event and outcome.

  18. Maybe it’s a great “gun” movie, but it wasn’t a great movie.

    Heat…

    Heck, the first Death Wish is pretty realistic about street crime. No cartwheels for Charlie.

    • I remember seeing that at the theater as a youngster, the home invasion set the tone for me on that one, ‘kill the mf’s’ was all I wanted CB took do.

  19. Wick was great because one, it has great weapons manipulation and gun play, and two, because it has the best plot ever. They killed his dog. He kills everyone. Simple and believable.

  20. Black Hawk Down was the best gun movie ever
    The machine gunner goes deaf
    Sarge just bravely stands there offering a ride as bullets strike all around
    I want a pickup with a recoilless rifle mounted in the bed!

  24. The first time I saw Ian McShane (in Sexy Beast-see it if you can find it) I thought that Lucifer himself had come up to Earth to play a role. Then Al Swearengen in “Deadwood” put him on the list for evil-est with some level of redeeming qualities; like an Elmore Leonard character-white hats with dark souls, black hats with a streak of humanity.

    They should have named this “Something something Baba Yega”.

  25. My non-gun owning friends (all of them New Yorkers) think that John Wick is the most realistic gun movie ever made, because they don’t know any better.

    I tend to think that JW was one of the most entertaining gun movies ever made, and I’m prepared to be disappointed by JW2. Hollywood fvcks up everything if it gets a second chance.

  26. Best “Gun Movie” so far? Depends how you define “Gun Movie.” I’m thinking it may be a toss up between Die Hard and Die Hard 2 Neither of those in my opinion focused on the guns over character and story, but how many iconic firearms were featured between those two, and how many Beretta 92 fetishists were created?

  27. The first one had some pretty good actions sequences.

    I don’t mind a simple plot or story, but that wasn’t the problem of the first movie. To me, it felt a bit contrived.

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