A female-led, John Wick-inspired franchise starter might be more of the same but it’s done with just about enough flair to pass the time
It feels short-sighted to refer to something as a John Wick rip-off given that John Wick was ripping off so many films before it that were in turn ripping off so many before that, and so on and so on, but the success of the Keanu-led franchise has had an extraordinary, and increasingly exhausting, effect on the action genre. For actors of a certain ilk and often of a certain age, wanting your own Taken quickly became needing your own John Wick, a reinvigorating chance to break loose, have fun and, ideally, secure a decade’s worth of escalating pay cheques.
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