Movie Review: John Wick Chapter 2 “A Ballet of Blood”

I think the best compliment you can give a sequel is not only is it a better film than the one it follows, but it makes that original film better in retrospect.  I was not an enormous fan of John Wick when it came out (you can read my underwhelmed review here, which I would now probably bump up several points).  I think it was a combination of it being one of those cult movies that gets overhyped  by the time it gets to you and you can no longer be pleasantly surprised along with some thematic material in John’s origin that whacks certain personal buttons with me (btw, we’ll try to stay spoiler free on Chapter 2, but if you read on, I’m assuming you saw the first film).  John Wick Chapter 2 takes everything that worked in the first film, amps it to 11, and ends up being a much better movie that earns both its own existence and the inevitable Chapter 3 to come.

Trailer Time: John Wick Chapter Two Trailer #2 (2017) *Man Loves His Dog; S’all.”

I was not a huge fan of the first John Wick (or THE WORLD’S ANGRIEST PET OWNER).  People hyped it to me as an amazing action movie, and I just thought it was kind of boilerplate, and with any Keanu Reeves movie, you need to have a whole lot of stuff happening so he doesn’t have time to try to, God forbid, act.  It’s kind of like jangling your keys in front of a Golden Retriever so he gets all excited and forgets to drool.  That’s how you win with a Keanu movie.  I did give it a second try, and was less harsh on it.  I can see it as a guilty pleasure action movie. It did extremely well at the box office and revived Reeves dormant career, so there’s obviously now John Wick Chapter 2 (cause it’s so literary).  For more details reed Coming Soon’s take below and check out the trailer and poster for the February 2017 release.

Trailer Time: John Wick Chapter Two Trailer #1 (2017) *Stay Away From His Dog!!!*

I was not a huge fan of the first John Wick (or THE WORLD’S ANGRIEST PET OWNER).  People hyped it to me as an amazing action movie, and I just thought it was kind of boilerplate, and with any Keanu Reeves movie, you need to have a whole lot of stuff happening so he doesn’t have time to try to, God forbid, act.  It’s kind of like jangling your keys in front of a Golden Retriever so he gets all excited and forgets to drool.  That’s how you win with a Keanu movie.  I did give it a second try, and was less harsh on it.  I can see it as a guilty pleasure action movie. It did extremely well at the box office and revived Reeves dormant career, so there’s obviously now John Wick Chapter 2 (cause it’s so literary).  For more details reed Coming Soon’s take below and check out the trailer and poster for the February 2017 release.

Trailer Time: American Gods Season One Trailer #1 *First Look at Shadow*

Following the announcement that Kristen Chenoweth would be playing the character of Easter (which is perfect casting) in the Starz TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s best-selling novel American Gods, the network debuted the first footage from the series at the panel and immediately put it online for the rest of us to consume. I read the book and wasn’t crazy about how slow the pacing was, but the visuals of the show are outstanding and I wonder if the whole story might play better for me across hours of television instead of pages of a novel. We’ll see when American Gods comes to Starz sometime in 2017.
*Text from Geek Tyrant

My Favorite Scene: Kung Fu Panda (2008) “Po’s Dream/Intro”

Kung Fu Panda was a film that had to overcome a WHOLE lot with me.  First….I thought the concept was stupid.  Second, the trailer made the entire film look stupid.  Then reviews started rolling in; really positive reviews, but I still didn’t see it in the theater.  I did give it a chance at home though, and within the first 2:16, I was on-board.  Po’s Dream sequence is over-the-top stupid funny, kung fu awesomeness with enough tongue-in-cheek that it wiped my preconceptions and I genuinely liked the first film very much.  I thought the second was lazy and piggy-backed off the first, but the early reviews for the third installment, really the fist 2016 release of any note, are very positive.  Should my area thaw by the time it release this weekend, I may even go see it……or Star Wars again.