Uh Uh Oww Oww Squee Squee Eee Eee Da Da Bang bang

January 25, 2017 5:52 AM

Forget the Wilhelm scream, here's the Jackson squeal (warning: 1:17 of John Wick violence)
posted by elgilito (11 comments total)

This is an action movie sequence that's punctuated with...Michael Jackson going "oooh"? Were they in the original movie or added?

This is among the weird of the web, if not its best.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:04 AM on January 25, 2017

Added after the fact.

Also, if you haven't seen it, John Wick is really worthwhile. It's Keanu being directed by the stunt coordinators from The Matrix, basically as an excuse to get the old crew back together and have Keanu do a ton of excellent action.
posted by tocts at 6:15 AM on January 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

I know it's about the soundtrack but I can never get past the way the bad guys wait their turns to step up and be killed in these things.

Just goes to show action movies are a lot closer to pop music choreography than actual martial arts.
posted by spitbull at 7:08 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

spoiler: I agree its a good movie but I cannot watch again because of the puppy :(
posted by supermedusa at 8:56 AM on January 25, 2017

John Wick is one of the purest, most satisfying action movies in the they-messed-with-the-wrong-man subgenre in this century. The reason that a movie that is no more original than a hamburger feels so goddamned refreshing is because it's been a while since someone artfully, elegantly, and plainly followed that old chestnut with any conviction. It's like, after years of deconstructed hamburgers, gourmet hamburgers, turkey burgers, veggie burgers, ____/_____ fusion hamburgers, etc. someone simply fired up a charcoal grill, and perfectly charred eight ounces of prime USDA, serving it up on a lightly toasted potato bun with a fat slice of tomato, a little mustard, and a piece of good old American cheese. It's a no frills revisiting of an archetype that is an archetype for a reason.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:29 AM on January 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

I think I need to rewatch John Wick as I was so bored by it. But so many people, whose tastes I usually vaguely share, have loved it.

Loved this video though.
posted by Fence at 10:41 AM on January 25, 2017

Wick is awesome, his Mustang is awesome, and he gets the Russians who hacked the election!
posted by AugustWest at 11:12 AM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

The thing I loved about John Wick, is it seemed like the absolute platonic ideal of what it was trying to do. And they told you what they were going to do, essentially the first ten minutes of the film told you what the rest of the film was going to be. And that's okay, because the execution was incredible.

(if you haven't seen it... russian mafia punk son fucks up John Wick and kills his dog. Unfortunately they messed with the wrong dude - he was the best hitman the industry has seen, and he's going to get revenge, and it will have a ridiculous body count).

It's easy to mess up such a classic premise, it sort of takes guts to retell such a basic story. But they do an incredible job.

(meh on this video, but it gets me excited and nervously hopeful for the sequel).
posted by el io at 12:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

the most important part of the JW2 trailer is how it explicitly shows his (new, rescued at the end of the last film) dog survive/escape an explosion totally unharmed
posted by poffin boffin at 1:04 PM on January 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

the most important part of the JW2 trailer is how it explicitly shows his (new, rescued at the end of the last film) dog survive/escape an explosion totally unharmed

I haven't watched the trailer, but I sure hope there's at least one scene where he's cradling the dog in one arm while shooting guys who totally deserve it with the other.

(I mostly liked John Wick for successfully avoiding so many of the sins that modern action movies commit: overcomplicated plots, incomprehensible action scenes, vapid obsession with style and "cleverness", too much CGI, too much grimdark, etc. It felt more traditional, in a good way.)
posted by neckro23 at 1:54 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is genius, and the image of Michael Jackson funkily dispatching people and scatting as he does it is probably going to make me laugh inappropriately when I see John Wick 2.

> I can never get past the way the bad guys wait their turns to step up and be killed in these things.

For what it's worth, it felt like they made a real effort to avoid ever having people waiting around on screen, which is one of the things I really liked about the fight choreography. Sure, they wait patiently in the next room despite hearing The World's Most Gunshot-Like Breeze*, but whenever they actually pop into view Wick always immediately disables or impedes them.
*Subverted slightly in the club scene where he fires in time with the music and dancers ignore it.
posted by lucidium at 2:35 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]