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John Wick | 2014 | R | - 2.7.9
In New York City a retired hit man (Keanu Reeves) loses his wife to disease. Unable to mourn he comes out of retirement to eliminate the Russian gangsters who stole his car, wrecked his house and killed his puppy, the last gift from his dying wife. Also with Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe, Ian McShane, Bridget Moynahan, Michael Nyqvist, Adrianne Palicki and Dean Winters. Directed by David Leitch and Chad Stahelski. Several lines of dialogue are in Russian with English subtitles. [1:36]
SEX/NUDITY 2 - A few shirtless men and women wearing bikini tops stand in a pool; a waitress in the pool area is nude from waist-up, but holds a large champagne bucket in front of her chest (we see a close-up of her buttocks and thighs in a thong bikini as she walks past and away from the camera). A few women in a club wear V-necklines that reveal cleavage along with skirts that reveal bare thighs above the knees. A female club singer wears a sequined, legless body suit with long sleeves and a neckline that reveals cleavage and her bare thighs. A man sits on a bed in a T-shirt and mid-thigh boxers, revealing his bare upper thighs. A bodybuilder in a nightclub scene wears only tight trunks that reveal his bare chest, arms and thighs. A shirtless man drives a car (we see his bare back, chest and abdomen). We see the back and arms of a man covered with large tattoos and Latin phrases in a shower scene, a woman's arm is tattooed full-sleeve with large black flowers.
► A man and a woman kiss briefly in three scenes.
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VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - In a nightclub with a swimming pool annex, a man with a handgun kills a dozen other men without harming patrons and we see little blood: he shoots at close range, shooting two men in the head as he slams their heads onto tables while at longer range he shoots and we see blood spurt from the backs of two men in a long shot, he enters the pool and shoots a man, knocks over a tall towel shelf in the process with a crash and some scuffling, inside a changing room he chokes a man and stabs him twice in the gut and then under the chin with blood spurting, he stabs a bodybuilder in the neck (he falls backward into a pool) causing men and women to scream and run into the club, the gunman follows through strobe lights, killing a dozen more men as we see a little blood spatter, and he encounters another twelve men and kills them all with blood spurting from two of them; a man picks the first man up and throws him off a balcony to the lower club floor, where the man shoots and kills him, and he then man limps and walks into his hotel where he orders a doctor for his room and the doctor cleans a wound that we do not see (the gunman's shirt is covered with blood and he winces).
► During a home invasion at night a man hits another man with a metal pipe several times, bloodying his face, and then punches him in the nose while in the background a blurry image shows a man hitting a puppy with a metal pipe as we hear a yelp and the puppy falls to its side; a man awakens to find a trail of blood on the floor behind the puppy, which is lying with its back to the camera and close to him, and we see the blade of a shovel stabbing the mound of a small grave; the man is then seen in his house with his T-shirt covered with large spots of blood and he has a sledgehammer that he uses to break his concrete basement floor where he uncovers a trunk containing firearms and gold coins. A man kills over a dozen other men and we see only sparks and flashes of muzzle fire as we hear groans and strangled sounds; one man uses a handgun, shoulder throws, neck breaking and punches while vases along a wall crash and break, a police officer appears at the door and asks about the noise, sees a dead body and leaves and a cleaning crew wraps the bodies in plastic, cleans the home and takes the bodies away in a van.
► A man shoots another man and we see blood spurt form the head and neck while the first man fistfights with another man, rolling, punching and choking each other until one man pulls out a long switchblade and during the struggle the other man pulls the blade into his own stomach, and then pulls it out and stabs his opponent in the throat.
► A man sits with his hands cuffed behind him as another man screams at him and tells him that God took the cuffed man's dead wife for his misdeeds; he says, "We are cursed, you and I" and tries to talk the man into returning to work for him; two men put a plastic bag over the captive's head and a sniper shoots one of the men in the head as we see blood spatter; the cuffed man fights the other man and kills him by choking him with the cuff chain, he runs outside, jumps on the hood of an SUV and shoots the driver through the windshield (we do not see the driver). A man puts his fist into a bowl of ice and wipes blood from it as the camera pans to a man in a chair, his face, mouth, and shirtfront drenched in blood and in a close-up, the injured man spits blood off-screen; the first man and a woman shoot the man several times and then six additional shots into the body as it sits on the floor. Five men surround a woman in a hotel portico at night and all five men shoot her with handguns; she falls on her knees and then falls onto her face, dead (no blood is showing). A man shouts many times at a friend playing a video game in a warehouse room with the sound turned up loud (we hear loud metal music and gunfire); gunfire begins coming through the windows and the first man runs, a gunman corners him in a hallway after shooting him in the abdomen, and shoots the downed man in the face in a long shot (the head is turned away from the camera).
► Lying in his hotel bed with his arm in a sling, a man witnesses a sniper on the next roof firing into an adjacent pillow; he rolls to the floor and a woman enters, firing a handgun at him and missing before an extended fight ensues with kicking, punching, throws, choking and shooting, creating a lot of noise and shouting; the man puts a sheet over the woman's head and punches her in the face hard (both of their faces are covered in blood) and the man throws the woman through glass doors to the patio and she crawls back into the room and out to the hallway before the man punches her unconscious and gives her to a neighbor tenant. A gunman fights several men in a parking lot and some of them fall bloodlessly; one man is bloody as he rolls over the top of an SUV and the driver shoots him through the roof.
► A woman slips her handcuffs, puts a throw pillow over a man's face and shoots through it, killing him (we see no blood). In a garage a man punches another man to the floor and another man draws a gun; the first man successfully orders the other two men to leave. A gunman enters a fake Orthodox Church, shoots the priest, shoots several other men in the balcony, enters a vault behind the platform, and tosses a firebomb into a pile of cash, a CD, and ledger books, destroying the room in tall flames after two women run out; the fake priest has a bloody hand and curses. A Russian crime boss punches his son in the abdomen twice, shouting at him for stupid actions and for killing a dog.
► A man drives an SUV into the concrete steps of a building, stumbles out of the vehicle with bloody hands and face, holds his stomach, sinks to the ground and lies on his side, closing his eyes as the scene ends. A woman collapses into a man's arms as she walks along a sidewalk and we see her in a hospital room, where she lies in a bed with her tracheal tube capped off and an IV line running into her arm under the covers (her eyes are closed and she is unmoving, presumably dead).
► A man blows up three SUVs as men try to get into them, filling the screen with fire and black smoke. Two SUVs collide, sending a man who is standing nearby rolling toward the camera. A man drives a high-powered muscle car fast in a large truck yard, squealing the tires and braking just short of hitting an empty semi-truck; he drives fast in the lot again on two other occasions. A man chases two SUVs at night in a high-powered muscle car, forcing one SUV off a bridge to crash loudly on concrete below (we see no injuries) and the other SUV crashes into a concrete pylon; another SUV appears and forces the car off a bridge and onto a concrete pier below with a loud crash (the car rolls) and the driver jumps out the back windshield before the car goes over the side.
► A man lying on his side on a high curb has bloody hands and a wound in the abdomen that bleeds somewhat onto his jacket; he imagines hearing the voice of his dead wife, opens his eyes and stands up, breaks a door window of a veterinary clinic and dog pound, pulls disinfectants and bandages from a cabinet and then pours disinfectant over a large spot of blood on his abdomen under his bloody shirt (he winces and groans); he looks at the cages of dogs howling, steals a quiet bull terrier and the camera cuts to the pair walking down the street.
► A murdered dog's owner shouts about his dog in a few scenes. A man cries loudly as he receives a prearranged card and puppy from his wife after her death. A Russian crime boss screams about all the money and blackmail info he lost in a fire. A man hires another man to kill a third man for two million dollars; the second man pulls automatic rifles from beneath a staircase.
► From inside a grave, we see a black coffin lowered into the hole and men and women dressed in black carrying black umbrellas as they walk away in the rain.
► A puppy walks away from a clump of defecation in a front yard.
LANGUAGE 9 - About 41 F-words and its derivatives, 6 scatological terms, 1 anatomical term, 4 mild obscenities, name-calling (old man, boogeyman, punk, Baba Yaga, drunkard, pussy, idiot), stereotypical references to Russians, mobsters, playboys, hit men. 2 religious profanities (GD), 3 religious exclamations (Holy [scatological term deleted], Oh My God, My God).
SUBSTANCE USE - In a warehouse room a man smokes a marijuana cigarette, a doctor gives a man an unmarked bottle of pills to take before each time the man pursues criminals, and bottles of pills are seen near a physician's bag with labels we cannot read. Three men drink whiskey in close-ups in a penthouse, a man drinks a glass of amber liquid at a wake, two men drink whiskey in a mechanic's garage and one of the men drinks more whiskey later that day, a man drinks Bourbon in his hotel room, and a man drinks whiskey in the back of a car and two decanters of alcohol sit in the back seat on a console. A man smokes a cigarette beside a gasoline pump, two men smoke cigarettes on a sidewalk as well as in an office and in a penthouse apartment and in the back seat of a car, a man smokes a small cigar and puffs smoke at the camera, and a man and a woman smoke cigarettes in a nightclub.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Russian mafia in the US, crime, consequences, death, revenge, justice.
MESSAGE - Evil behaviors bring consequences.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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