Sequels are tough, especially when the first movie is as good as the action thriller “John Wick.” With “John Wick: Chapter 2,” the bar was set high — and they hurdled right over that bar, giving you all the awesomeness of the first movie and then some. Deco’s Chris Van Vliet flew to Los Angeles to chat with John Wick himself, Keanu Reeves.
Riccardo Scamarcio (as Santini): “I need you to do this task.”
Keanu Reeves (as John Wick): “I’m not that guy anymore.”
Riccardo Scamarcio (as Santini): “You’re always that guy, John.”
Here’s the thing. We all know John Wick is still that guy. He just doesn’t want to be that guy.
Keanu Reeves: “The film takes place about five days after, so it’s the same week. He had made a decision, and he had earned his freedom, and that gets taken away from him again.”
The film starts with John Wick enjoying his newfound retirement when an Italian gangster shows up and tells him he has to repay a debt. When John says no, they blow up his house, forcing him back to work.
Keanu Reeves (as John Wick): “You want a war, or do you want to just give me a gun?”
Chris Van Vliet: “I’ve always wondered, what do they actually look like on the page of the script? Like when you’re going into a 10-15 minute action sequence, what does it say in the script?”
Keanu: “‘They fight.'”
Chris Van Vliet: “That’s it?”
Keanu Reeves: “No, no, no. There’s different styles. There’s some that describe each blow, so on the page, with John Wick, yeah, there’s some stuff there, but it’s kind of not as descriptive as a lot of other films.”
The movie is also a reunion for Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne, who we haven’t seen together since “The Matrix.”
Laurence Fishburne: “Our scenes are very sort of interesting, because we’re not exactly friends and we’re not exactly enemies. And I know that people are responding to the two of us being on screen like Neo and Morpheus, but we’re not really playing those characters in this. It’s very different.”
John Wick may have met his physical match in this movie, going head to head with Common.
Common: “‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ really just continues the story, continues the energy of what you saw in ‘John Wick,’ but the action is growing. The fight level is growing.”
He’s not kidding. Everything about this movie builds on what you loved about the first movie.
Chris Van Vliet: “As you were preparing for this film, there was a video that went viral of you doing the gun training. How many weeks or months does it take to get when you’re at in the film where you look super comfortable with a weapon?”
Keanu: “That video was probably my eighth time at the range.”
Chris Van Vliet: “No!”
Keanu Reeves: “Yeah.”
Chris Van Vliet: “You’re a beast!”
Keanu: “But I have the base from the first film, right?”
Chris Van Vliet: “Still!”
Keanu Reeves: “Yeah, but I was working with an amazing teacher.”
Keanu Reeves (as John Wick): “I’ll kill them all.”
Ian McShane (as Winston): “Of course you will.”
“John Wick: Chapter 2” tears into theaters Feb. 10.
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