A John Wick copycat set on Valentine’s Day quite possibly just for the open release date. 

Ke Huy Quan finally gets a chance to shine as the lead in a movie, but his mannerisms still feel like they’re meant for a side role. Just like Nobody, Quan isn’t supposed to look the part of a hired killer. The charm of that quickly wears off as his eccentric side overtakes the seriousness of what the film is pretending it wants to be. 

Too many other characters are filling up screen time in an already compact feature. There’s somehow one hundred conversations about backstories that don’t clear anything up by the end and leave you even more lost about relationships. Movies like John Wick work because we get tons of innovative action without needing an over-explanation of things that won’t matter. This gives us the complete opposite of that. 

The action is gory almost to a fault while feeling over choreographed. If it’s supposed to be a more serious world, most of the injuries would have been a lot more deadly. It feels cartoonish at points; humans look like rubber, and way too many props are used- not in a fun way. One particular scene does somehow utilize the violence, action, and humor in a great way, but a surprise hybrid star might be the only reason for that. 

As far as other characters go, we are all over the place. Lio Tipton is back in our lives in a big way. They’re sarcastically real in a not so real world and the best part of the movie. Marshawn Lynch is still trying the acting thing as a mercenary of sorts, which might be the perfect role for him as he wasn’t as bad as expected.The worst part of this has to be Ariana DeBose though. Currently on a streak of I.S.S., Argyle, Kraven the Hunter, and now this, she continues to act like the hottest actor in the world ever since West Side Story.

Putting stunt coordinators behind the camera continues to show it does not work. There’s too much focus on showing what you can do with a few harnesses and blood capsules instead of putting any real likeable characters or new stories on screen.

4.2/10