Podcast - Adam Savage Project
John Wick SPOILERCAST – 3/3/2015
Adam, Will, and Norm discuss their favorite revenge films and spoil John Wick, featuring Keanu Reeves. Enjoy!
Comments (38)
Adam, Will, and Norm discuss their favorite revenge films and spoil John Wick, featuring Keanu Reeves. Enjoy!
One Day Builds
Adam embarks on one of his most ambitious builds yet: fulfil…
Show And Tell
Adam recently completed a build of the royal St. Edwards cro…
Making
Viewers often ask to see Adam working in real-time, so this …
One Day Builds
Adam and Norm assemble a beautifully machined replica prop k…
One Day Builds
One of the ways Adam has been getting through lockdown has b…
Making
Adam unboxes and performs a quick test of this novel new hel…
Making
When Adam visited Weta Workshop early last year, he stopped …
One Day Builds
Adam tackles a shop shelf build that he's been putting off f…
Show And Tell
Time for a model kit build! This steampunk-inspired mechanic…
One Day Builds
Adam reveals his surprise Christmas present for his wife--a …
I could see Adam starring in some kind of revenge version of F/X.
Proprioception is knowing where *you* are. Situational awareness is knowing where everyone else is 🙂
I wish you’d all seen _Kingsman_ for more context/comparison in this conversation. Not sure it’s worth revisiting, but if you’re up for it, I’d love to see a spoilercast of _Kingsman_.
Proprioception is relative knowledge of where parts of “you” are. It’s a partial why soft sleeves are used on injured joints (elbows, knees), as it helps the brain keep track and thereby stability/control.
Source: My own busted knee and what my physio has me doing
Better description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception
Yes! I totally agree, Club Mate is an awesome drink, so glad I found a good source for it in the Netherlands.
Absolutely loved John Wick, best revenge movie I think i’ve seen in a long time. Would love to see Adam star in a revenge movie, he could totally pull that off.
I am super excited to listen to this. Watched Wick recently after much twitter hub bub so love to see Tested’s thoughts.
If you like “John Wick,” watch “Kingsmen”, especially the scene in the church
Adam has my vote for an action film. Although, he needs to work on his poker face. Whenever he’s enjoying what he’s doing he has a huge grin. I don’t see Adam not enjoying making an action film.
Liked “A History of Violence” better…They seemed like similar movies.
I’ve already watched John Wick THREE times. I saw it twice in theaters and once for the commentary on the Blu-ray which has lots of great extras. If I had a word to describe the movie I’d say it was *efficient* more than anything. Everything leading up through the Red Circle is so much fun to watch. Small stuff like the henchman turning to see the door just closing.
The slow build up of John’s character with him barely uttering a word was masterful. I also love the response to the phone call with John “What did he say?” “…enough.” Then after all the build up the house invasion extravaganza was a wonderful payoff.
Also, one horrible detail I had pointed out to me was that either the henchmen dragged the dog across the floor leaving a trail of blood. Or even MORE horrifying is that the dog wasn’t dead, and pulled itself over to John where it died :'(
I don’t really understand the hype around John Wick. I watched it. It was entertaining. It had some very nice action sequences but that was pretty much it.
I should mention that fighting/action sequences are one of my favourite things in film so I tend to be very critical of them. John Wick was quite good in this regard but I wouldn’t say exceptional either. There are far better films in this genre.
P.S. Special commendation to Willem Dafoe for being very bad at holding his breath. :V
I think they are drastically different films.
I figured the gold coins were Krugerrands
I hadn’t considered the similarities in the fighting style of the Kingsmen and John Wick until this spoiler cast, especially notable was repeated headshots in close confrontations and the smoothly dynamic transitions from target to target. Overall, both movies are something of a deconstruction of their particular genres. That might be part of what made both so much fun to watch.
So little on the coins.They were by far my favorite part of the fictional world.
Here, something for your entertainment on the coins.
http://entertainthis.usatoday.com/2015/01/14/whoa-keanu-reeves-is-golden-in-this-exclusive-john-wick-clip/
Secret project with Jeremy?
!
Oh, I’d love to know why Will thinks I have delicate sensibilities. I could use the therapy. But I thought John Wick was boring, not offensive. I like plot and story, and action scenes in service of an arc. I also find gunplay dull and unimpressive compared to martial arts. I just thought the movie a waste of time. Oh, well.
Street Fighter was not a good movie but it’s worth watching to see Raul Julia chewing the scenery as M. Bison.
I would like to thank Squarespace for allowing me the opportunity to post a comment about this Spoilercast.
Thank you, Squarespace!
I think Moviebob formerly of the Escapist described these sorts of movies best when he calls them Dad Movies. They are escapist fantasy plays for the middle aged man that play off their fears of aging and being replaced by showing 50-60 something men being complete bad asses and dominating everything.
I had the interesting experience of watching John Wick, but missing a solid 5-10 minutes of it, relatively early in the film. The portion I missed just so happened to contain all of the foundational scenes of the movie [everything directly involving his wife, most of his interactions with the dog, and all of his interaction with the mob boss’ kid, including the home invasion where they kill his dog]. So the movie skips from him grieving and interacting with the dog a little, to the scene in the chop shop.
By missing this portion of the movie, I had to gradually piece together why he was so motivated towards destruction. After the movie was over I had formed a pretty solid theory about what I’d missed, and was able to watch the scenes I missed to compare what I’d built up in my head based on the various references they made to it in the movie with what the filmmakers had decided to shoot.
I wouldn’t necessarily say that the movie was better without those scenes, but it was a genuinely enjoyable experience and it really got me thinking critically about the narrative structure of the movie, comparing it to other revenge films and generally engaging with the film at a higher level than I normally would have. I highly recommend trying something similar with another movie, ideally one you haven’t seen before (it may be wise to have a friend select the movie and work out what scenes to skip)
I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. While there is talk of a sequel, I would like a prequel even more. Specifically I would love to see the deeds that lead to John Wick’s grand exit as a hitman.
Yes!…
He was a mild mannered special effects artist… ’til a bunch of studio execs broke into his house and shaved off one of his eyebrows…
this time it’s personal 🙂
I think it was the dog pulling itself over to Wick. I was surprised how well that set-up worked. When I saw the trailer it sounded so over the top, that dog was a gift from my dying wife, it seemed like they were making fun of an overused plot device.
However, the whole opening sequence with Wick mourning his wife, bonding with the dog, and the dog being killed was very effective. I thought Keanu’s performance here was really good. The scenes of him watching, and rewatching, a video of him and his wife at the beach felt honest and real. It very quickly set up the backstory of his marriage, established his pain and loss, and gave him a legitimate motivation for taking out the trash!
Ironically, the puppy’s death is the only one in the entire movie that you feel anything about. Film-makers always say you kill a dog at your own peril. It’s such a powerful plot device you risk losing your audience. They certainly handled it very delicately. It happens off camera, or in the background out of focus, with minimal sound effects. It’s a great set-up.
How’s your laundry? No one’s laundry is that good. I thought not.
I loved this movie. On paper it’s all been done before. It shouldn’t feel as fresh and fun as it does. I’ve watched it at least three times. And when I want a quick John Wick action fix I watch the trailer! A mini-movie on it’s own, it’s got great action beats, has a lot of humour and is cut to a great song. It gives away most of the plot, but like Adam said you could know everything and still enjoy the movie.
I think I’ll go put on the Blu Ray again . . .
…and just -how- did the three of you recognize the smell of pot? Hmmm?
They live in San Francisco, its basically impossible to avoid, since at least in my experience smoking weed is a lot more common in SF than smoking tobacco.
You smoke weed? Stay in the living room during the party… smoke cigarettes? Please step outside.
I have been listening to old episodes to pass the time in between new ones. I love this podcast. I have been listening to them since late 2012 and just re listened to the on on cooking. Didn’t know what a mandolin was so researched it and decided I wanted one. First time out of the box and sliced my finger tip off. Not too bad though. Just ordered some cut resistant gloves. You guys should do another episode on cooking they are some of my favorites. Definitely suggest noobs get some cut resistant gloves. Would have saved me a lot of medical cloth tape and gauze. Keep up the awesome podcasts.
PS Will we need more Mr and Mrs Smith and definitely more dad casts.
This podcast is the first video podcast i have seen of tested. But i have listened to as many of the older episodes as i could find. I absolutely love this podcast. It has entertained me for endless hours and i have never been disappointed. Keep it up fellows!!!
I found out about cut resistant gloves for using with a mandolin from watching Alton Brown, and finally actually got a mandolin and gloves a few months ago. One tip though. They succumb to abrasion after a while, so periodically check the tips, especially if any of the tips are loose on your fingers and may be dragging over the blade without you realizing. I haven’t taken damage from the hole in the loose pinky tip, but I know it’s there.
Just because misery loves company: the other week I discovered that a part of my soldering iron is hot, that I didn’t realize is hot. Took a couple weeks for that little square of right-index-finger-tip to heal. At least the hypnocube works!
I am with some of the other posters here in that while I LOVE a good action/revenge flick, and I definitely enjoyed John Wick, I didn’t quite see what all the hype was about. But having heard this there is some stuff I hadn’t thought of/noticed so maybe it will be better on the rewatch.
Side note, if you like a good revenge flick I would suggest checking out the TV series Banshee. While I absolutely wouldn’t claim its the best show I’ve ever seen, it’s basically a giant mash up of revenge stories and the odd heist movie with all the ridiculous, gratuitous violence that goes along with it. 3 seasons in I’m still not sure if its deliberately over the top or not but it gives me a kind of gritty graphic novel type vibe. Like I said it’s not perfect but there are some fantastic fight scenes and the like so its worth a look.
The revenge movies have something that I like very much and that’s the complete ownage of the main character. A hero type character should win due to his awesomeness and something I dislike in action hero movies is when the hero is clearly underpowered and wins by some fluke.
Take for example Elysium, the trailer shows an underdog character that puts in this robotic suit and becomes really awesome but in fact, I felt that Matt Damon’s character was weak through the whole movie and won by luck or a big blunder of the enemy.
The Punisher with Thomas Jane and John Travolta is another GREAT revenge movie!
For the spoilercast, great job, very entertaining!
I have a beagle who, when she was a puppy, looked exactly the stunt puppy in the movie. Once that went down, I was 100% onboard. “Kill them, John. Kill them all.”
For everyone who enjoyed John Wick (and Adam this really applies to you), you should check out The Equalizer with Denzel Washington. Not only is it the similar type of hero movie, but it (mild spoiler) includes a climax of DW improvising weapons and such in a Home Depot-type store. Like John Wick, it’s a really satisfying movie.
My wife and I completely enjoyed John Wick.
The first chance I get to burn a day and a night on such a thing, I’m running a triple feature of John Wick, Ghostdog, and Unleashed…. My three favourite, No-Tech, Cyberpunk films.
If I get really ambitious, I’m tacking Harley Davidson & The Marlborough Man on at the end.
Great spoilercast…. even if knowing stuff has been cut out of it drives me spare!!
Unedited for Premium Members??
Keep up the awesome
Hi guys, I’ve been listening to the podcast since the Gravity spoilercast made me want to see the movie in the theater.
I just want to say “Thank You!” for having the social etiquette to announce that you are doing a spoilercast. I love listening to your show, but I want to go see this film before getting any commentary.
Podcast paused…
The reason Liz Lemon’s boyfriend Dennis looks so much like the guy in Good Will Hunting is that they are brothers. Dean Winters (Avi in John Wick) and his brother Scott William Winters starred as brothers on the HBO series Oz.
My favourite scene in this movie is when he enters the club following the underground bathhouse. The music and colour work so well together to juxtapose with the subject matter. Great movie, going to have to watch it again now.
Just watched it last Friday, and while I enjoyed the performances by everyone involved I didn’t find a particularly good movie. It reminded me a lot of Steven Seagal oeuvre but with less dialogue and humour. Good wrestling by Palicki in the hotel room.
I loved this movie, and I do love revenge movies in general. the most recent kind of revenge movie I saw was Dead Man Down. I really like Terrence howard and for the most part I like Collin Farrell it the majority of his movies. I guess Gladiator could kind of be considered a revenge type of movie and that is one of my favorite movies ever. the best revenge movie I think I have ever seen is War, with Jet Li.
It’s hard to say