Combat As Character

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is probably the best movie made under the umbrella of the MCU; only Black Panther can really compete for that title. One of the reasons why is that the Russo Brothers know to their bones how to direct action to convey character. The Russos are not flashy stylist directors. Their […]

30 Seconds of Wick: On Va Voir (11:11-12:25)

Hey. Sorry to be away so long. It’s been an astonishingly bad year for me personally, in the midst of a bad year for the planet in general. I’ll probably post about it soonish — it’s a story that needs to be told — but all the matters right now is I’m back, the blog […]

30 Seconds of Wick Chapter 22: Short and Sweet (1:12:00-1:12:35)

Ninety five seconds. That’s how much screen time the second best fight of the movie takes up (I mean, give or take — that’s just my timing). This is a short, sharp, brutal battle — and as a consequence remains the most realistic of the fights, only edging the Perkins battle out because they literally […]

30 Seconds of Wick Chapter 21: The Last Range is the Ground (1:11:30-1:12:00)

(Author’s Note: I’m going to try to get several chapters posted today, for release once a day for the next while, then move onto my interim one-off post 30 Seconds Without Fear about one of the most interesting fights in the Netflix Daredevil) My title for this chapter is a bit of an inside joke […]

30 Seconds of Wick Chapter 20: Wick is Back (1:11:00-1:11:30)

Dichotomies are interesting in narrative. The scene I’ll be covering for the next few chapters is both one of the most technically accomplished and interesting fights in a movie packed with great fight scenes but also the most contrived. We’re in the under renovation church fight, the one that includes the iconic Keanu raging snarl […]

30 Seconds of Wick Chapter 19: John Wick Must Die (58:40-59:25)

Hey folks. Since my first choice dropped John Wick I’ve moved onto another streaming service for the movie, which is a fifteen seconds behind on the time codes. I’ve flipped to their timing as of now, at some point I’ll likely edit all of this to the DVD time codes. Maybe. Also, this is the […]

30 Seconds of Wick Chapter 15 (54:00-54:30): High Kicks Are For Rockettes

Wick is hiding behind a pillar, chest heaving from the pain of those torso shots he took in the last thirty seconds. Keanu looks sweaty and disheveled, one would assume partially from the high fever he was running when they shot this scene, partially to show that John’s calm and control are breaking down around […]

30 Seconds of Wick Chapter 12: That’s Certainly A Mustache (53:00-53:30)

I love this section of the fight, both for the nonchalant way they just let squib blood splatter across the perspex protecting the camera lens (happens multiple times throughout the movie) and for the way the stunt crew here works their asses off to make Keanu look like a god. On the strategy/tactics side of […]