By Bernie ‘The Movie Guy’ Ment

Contributing Writer

Will these people ever learn?

In the first installment of this franchise, a Russian mob leader’s son steals John Wick’s car and kills his dog. The resulting mayhem wipes out that arm of the Russian underworld when the father puts a bounty out on Wick’s head and instead pays the ultimate price for the son’s misdeed.

During the course of that movie, we are introduced to an entire underground culture of international assassins who indiscriminately travel wherever they please with a network of facilities that they can rely on for aid no matter where in the world they may be. As “John Wick Chapter 2” opens, we once again find Wick, played with monotonous blandness by the aptly cast Keanu Reeves, mopping up the last of the Russian operation in order to recover his 1969 Mustang. Watching Wick in motion, though, is like poetry, every movement fluidly flowing from one assassination to the next, always using the tools on hand to dispatch the next bad guy.

When all is said and done, everything is a total mess, including not only Wick, who never seems to escape without damage to his own person, but even his car is a total disaster, having been rammed and banged, dented and nearly destroyed in the recovery attempt.

Fortunately, Wick has a go-to guy who will be able to restore the little gem of a vehicle. John Leguizamo returns here as Aurelio, a master mechanic who thus far in the franchise has been featured in little more than extended cameos. But then again, this is a movie built on extended cameos. For instance, Ian McShane, whose past credits include “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Deadwood” (the TV series) and “Snow White and the Huntsman,” just to name a few, appears in only a few scenes here as the leader of the assassin’s underworld.

Likewise, other well-known faces show up from time to time in roles ranging from other assassins to back up for the venerable Wick who is just trying to maintain his own honor among the morally questionable practices of his chosen line of work.

So, now that he has recovered his car and dealt a serious blow to the Russian mob, it is Wick’s plan to once again fade into retirement. That, however, is not destined to happen when another underworld figure calls on him to cash in a marker given some time ago. An ambitious Mafia wannabe asks Wick to kill his sister who recently inherited a seat at the Mafia head table when their father passed away. It’s not an assignment that Wick wants, however, and he turns the young hotshot down.

So, the hotshot does what any self-respecting mobster would do in this situation — he blows up Wick’s house. Talk about stirring up a hornet’s nest.

It’s no surprise that this movie storyline will involve double-cross after double-cross and while one man may be left standing in the end, no one will leave the chess board without some serious damage along the way. Even Wick himself looks like a brick of swiss cheese in the end.

The unenviable task of playing the killers who are sent to chase Wick in this storyline fall onto actors Common and Ruby Rose. Each is quite capable an assassin in their own right, but then again, they’re going head to head against Wick with predictable results.

While the ending is not unexpected, it is surprising and neatly sets up yet another chapter for John Wick. How he’s going to get out of this pickle is anyone’s guess.

February is not normally a month when one would expect an action blockbuster to do well, but with the dearth of good movies in theaters right now, Wick offers a welcome breath of fresh mayhem. It’s a perfect popcorn movie to while away the winter doldrums.

I give “John Wick Chapter 2” four and a half out of five stars.