STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

After the tragic death of his wife, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is given a dog as a parting gift from her, in order that he won't return to his former life of violence and mayhem. However, a run in with gangster's son Iosef (Alfie Allen) results in his home being invaded, and his pet being brutally murdered. This sets the fire raging in John's heart again, and before long, he returns to the streets to enact brutal revenge. However, Iosef's father is Viggo (Michael Nvquist), a Russian mob boss and his former employer.

It's remarkable that, while far better actors have descended into a DVD bargain bin hellhole from which there seems no return, Keanu Reeves would still appear to have the star power to headline a Hollywood action film. He could be comfortably settled into that world quite nicely now, but here he is in this fairly well received action film. Quite hard to fathom why, really, when what we have is a fairly standard, join the dots piece of work, with unexciting action scenes that are too sped up and hyper kinetic to make any impact.

While Reeves broods, and does the action hero typeset that he's so suited to, singer Lily Allen's brother Alfie appears as the despicable young villain, and the likes of Willem Dafoe and John Leguizamo are drafted in as support. Its appeal seemingly lies in its simplicity, with what seems to be a deliberately straightforward, uncomplicated plot that takes you from A to B pretty easily. It does this pretty competently, but rather than be an admirably simple bit of fun, it's just a piecemeal, ineffective affair that washes over you like rain. **