Wick is Pain Review

 

Gotta say, wasn't expecting a John Wick documentary to happen this year. Buy hey, at least it's a pleasant surprise.

Wick is Pain is a documentary that's produced by Thunder Road Pictures and distributed by Lionsgate, and directed by Jeffery Doe.

The documentary explores the John Wick franchise. Through both never before seen footage and interviews with Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves, we get to see how this small indie film became the newest and biggest franchise.

Initial Reaction

Much like Room 237 I was hesitant to review this. Because much I'm not a documentary guy. Sure I've watched plenty of them but up until Room 237, I've never reviewed them. But people liked my first documentary review so I'd figured I try it again. Also this documentary is about the John Wick films. One of the best modern day franchise to grace film.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

Let's get into how this gives some good insight. Firstly, we get a lot of behind the scenes. We see how Chad Stahelski & David Leitch started off a stuntmen, how those two became friends, when/how they befriended Keanu Reeves, their flip book during the beginning stages of production on the first movie. The movie is also a celebration of stuntwork. It shows how the stuntmen & women were just as much as a big part of the franchise's success as much as the directors, actors, and writers are. It's glorious glossy Hollywood behind the scenes. But the documentary was also no afraid to get personal. They mentioned how Keanu's previous attempts at action movies (those attempts being Man of Tai Chi & 47 Ronin) were failures, how sometimes Chad & David would be at each other's throats, how Chad's marriage was falling apart, and Keanu talking about the physical pain he would be going through and also showing footage of that pain. Now that was all good but at the same time they could've put more. What I mean and this is a huge example is they spent a lot of time focusing on the first movie, but the second through fourth movie's behind the scenes were kinda sped up. I get it, the first was the one that started it all but the others were also huge hits. I guess maybe they didn't want it to feel overly long but if that was the case they could've done a docuseries. I would've been down for that and I'm pretty sure Wick fans would've loved that too.

Pros

One aspect to that's good is the quality. The editing is great fast cuts and he shows a very polished look at the action scenes and how they were worked. The last thing I'll praise is how much of a love letter this is. Fans will eat up all of the hard work everybody put into the films not only as a way to be see as serious filmmakers, but because of how much they cared about the people who are going to be seeing these movies. I also think aspiring filmmakers can learn something. Cause even though I slightly criticized how they fast forward with the sequels, we still get plenty of information about all of the challenges that went on. We get creative challenges, logistical challenges, and of course the financial struggles.

Despite some flaws Wick is Pain still offers a lot of enjoyment and gives quite a few insightful stories about the film series's production.

My final rating is, Good.

Okay that's a wrap. Come back on Monday, May 12th, for a my fan theory segment called, Is It True? For that I'll be tackling a theory on Super Smash Bros. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.