Having recently watched Keanu Reaves fourth outing as the virtually unkillable Baba Yaga, it strikes me that the character of John Wick is one that also embodies the titular concept of this film. As such, I'm going to build this review around a comparison to _John Wick Chapter 4_.

First off, length. John Wick 4 was almost 3 hours long. The lean 90 minute run time of this film was certainly the better choice. I definitely felt the length of John Wick, with actions scenes that dragged on and felt repetitive and too many non-action scenes where the less than compelling dialogue and story were more apparent. By comparison, this film is refreshingly paced, with a collection of bite size action sequences, all of which are entirely unique. John Wick gets so bogged down in it's gun-fu, whereas this film never does the same thing twice. The creative and increasingly over-the-top action sequences were a consistent source of incredulous smiles in the theater (how could you not smile when [spoiler]Aatami invents SCUBA diving by sucking the oxygen out of the slit throat of a Nazi[/spoiler]).

While suspension of disbelief is shattered early and often, generally speaking the movie gets away with it, hiding behind the folklore/legend element. That said, there were still specific moments that were a bit too much for me. For example, I could have done without the sequence where Aatami [spoiler]uses his prospector's pan as if it's Captain America's shield[/spoiler]. I also was disappointed that the final sequence ([spoiler]surviving a nose diving plane crash[/spoiler]) didn't have any clever or creative component to it.

As for the less than compelling dialogue, this movie solves that problem by having very little of it. Yes, there are still examples of on-the-nose, or otherwise expository dialogue (the opening narration even felt a bit off), but more often than not we go minutes at a time without a single line. Of course, no dialogue doesn't always work for me either, but between the near constant action and an impressively expressive performance by Jorma Tommila (as opposed to the admirable, but notably one-note performance Keanu Reeves is known for), I had no problem with it here. It also helps that Aksel Hennie, the central Nazi who almost certainly has the most dialogue in the film, gives a strong performance. If you want to see him in a _very_ different role, I highly recommend _Headhunters (2011)_, a Norwegian thriller that is perhaps one of my favorite foreign films.

All in all, a lean, mean action film that accomplishes exactly what it set out to do and is an easy recommend for action junkies.