[wp-review id=”76340″]

After they killed his dog and took his car, John needed to wrap up any loose ends before going back into retirement. A man he knew from his former life named Santino D’Antonio taps John for an assassination. Because John has sworn a blood oath to him, John has to honor the oath or all hell will break loose.

JOHN WICK: Chapter 2 is directed by Chad Stahelski and he was the director on the first film. He also used to be Reeves’ stunt double before he began his directing career. The idea that Chad had for this time around is to take everything awesome from the first go and make it bigger. The fighting and gun choreography (or Gun-Fu) is insane. Also, the Car-Fu is a larger part of this film. This is where there are people getting thrown around by the characters smacking each other with vehicles. There is plenty of quick hand to hand and the Gun-Fu is so quick that it looks like the action has been sped up.

One of the best things about these films is that the people who haven’t viewed them might think that they’re just cheesy, action movies but they couldn’t be more wrong about them. These are more THE MATRIX than SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO because it makes the cheese look awesome. There is more substance and with this sequel being on steroids, doesn’t mean that they are too much for the average moviegoer to enjoy.

Cast
Keanu Reeves as John Wick
Riccardo Scamarcio as Santino D’Antonio
Common as Cassian
Laurence Fishburne as The Bowery King
Ruby Rose as Ares
John Leguizamo as Aurelio
Ian McShane as Winston

VIDEO QUALITY:

Blu-ray
The video is a 1080p AVC and it looks beautiful. There is a variety of lighting that brings out the boldness in the colors such as in The Continental and the entire end scene in the modern art exhibit. The blood is bright for the most part but does darken in random spots. This is probably attributed to the lighting or some other change that was done in post. The contrasting is strong but this is where the Blu-ray and UHD differ but I’ll get to that in a bit. There is no crushing or pixilation that I caught in most of the places that one might expect.

4k
The coloring that I mentioned on the Blu-ray portion is even stronger on the 4k version. There is a brilliance that you look for in a 4k release is seen here. The HDR is this real standout due to most of the movie being at night out in dark spaces where you can only make out some of the characters face in the main shot. Also, John’s black suits against the black spaces in the fame can be clearly seen on the UHD most of the time. The contrasting is boosted by the HDR as well. As for the details, they make the little intricacies like small lettering and John’s scruff looks great. Some of the gritty parts of the movie come to life in this transfer too. If you look at the crumbled concrete after John puts his weapons away, the dust can be made out on everything in the scene.

AUDIO QUALITY:

The audio on both the Blu-ray and 4k UHD is a Dolby Atmos mix that defaults to a Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mix depending on your setup. Honestly, there are nothing but strengths in this sound mix. The gunfire is loud but even at its loudest, it never steps into the overdriven realm. The shots are felt rather than just heard. Bullets whiz overheard, crossing over the sound field, and ricochet in places as the next shot is fired or even while it is being fired. The effects and echoing could practically be a character in the film because getting these sounds properly mixed is that important to a film like this. The LFEs are deep and come out at all the right times. The dialogue is natural and everything keeps separated.

SUPPLEMENTS & PACKAGING

-Audio Commentary: with Keanu Reeves and Director Chad Stahelski

-Retro Wick: Exploring the Unexpected Success of JOHN WICK: This quick look at the phenomenon that this franchise has become.

-Training JOHN WICK: This looks at training Keanu to get him in the mindset of using his skills on film.

-Wick-vizzed: This looks at the shots in previz before they his the effects people in post.

-Friends, Confidantes: The Keanu/Chad Partnership: This featurette looks at the friendship of the director and Keanu. Chad used to be his stunt double until he took up directing.

-As Above, So Below: The Underworld of JOHN WICK: This featurette looks at life as an assassin in this world.

-Car Fu Ride-Along: Yeah, Car-Fu is a thing and this shows how it is accomplished.

-Chamber Check: Evolution of a Fight Scene: This featurette shows how the fighting can be graceful and organic.

-Wick’s Toolbox: This featurette looks at the arsenal in John’s armory.

-A Museum Tour with Sir Jonathan Wick: This is a tour of the gallery in Rome with Sir Jonathan.

-Kill Count: This is exactly how it sounds with all of the kills counted up from the movie.

-Dog Wick Short

-Deleted Scenes

-Theatrical Trailer

Disc Details
2-disc set w/1 Blu-ray and 1 4k UHD
Digital copy
case cut slipcover
Exclusive Blu-ray Steelbook from Best Buy

Running Time
122 mins

Edition Ratings
Rated R

Region Coding
Region A

Blu-ray
Video Resolution
1080p AVC MPEG-4 AVC
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

Audio Mixes
English Dolby Atmos
English Dolby TrueHD 7.1
English Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles
English
English SDH
Spanish

4k
Video Resolution
2160p HEVC H.265
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

Audio Mixes
English Dolby Atmos
English Dolby TrueHD 7.1
English Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles
English
English SDH
Spanish

THE BOTTOM LINE:

JOHN WICK: Chapter 2 easily stands up against the first film in all the categories that you would want it to like the action, gunplay, and the story. The filmmakers laid the groundwork for this character and the franchise in the first movie while this one is just making it stronger. The Blu-ray has been well authored and the 4k UHD is not something to pass up as long as you have the setup to play it. This audio mix is definitely the strongest part of this release and has impressed me from start to finish. Your home theater will get quite the workout from this film. The extras are really good and round off this release nicely. Overall, this is not one to miss and I highly recommend picking it up.