'John Wick' burns action at both ends

APPARENTLY, Denzel Washington left some Russian mobsters un-killed in "The Equalizer," so Keanu Reeves cleans up leftovers in "John Wick."

The former is the grittier vigilante movie, the latter more of a stylish put-on.

"Wick" has the look and feel of a movie adapted from a Frank Miller-ish graphic novel or a first-person shooter game, but is evidently the original work of a couple of professional stunt men. The influence shows.

So does some conceptual wit.

They've created a blue-tinted world built on a fun mythology - a community of professional assassins who take the Corleones' "it's just business" creed and run with it.

They have an informal trade association that establishes rules and ethics, they stay at a posh hit-man hotel in Manhattan, have access to private hit-man clubs and have their own Kruggerand-like currency (this needs to be updated with bitcoin and Applepay).

John Wick (Reeves) is a former member enjoying a comfortable retirement that's disrupted when Russian thugs invade his home and kill his dog.

The rest of the movie is his systematic elimination of an entire mob structure (and you'll be glad they're dead, not because they're mobsters, but because they're such hammy actors).

The movie has a vaguely "Matrix"-y look, but it's less grandiose and self-serious than the tail end of the "Matrix" franchise.

It has a sense of humor - Ian McShane, Willem Dafoe and Clarke Peters turn up as some of Wick's former colleagues, contributing hardboiled film noir laughs.

Adrianne Palicki has a cute role as a femme fatale, although this is the sort of dude/bro movie that seems to keeps its female characters on the periphery.

I'm not sure that "John Wick" warrants the sort of hosannahs it's been getting, and it needs an edit, but it's a movie with a stunt-man's heart - real fights, no robots, muscle cars.

There's always a place in the multiplex for a movie like that.

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