John Wick 1 & 2 (2014 & 2017)

American action films directed by Chad Stahelski, starring Keanu Reeves.
A former assassin's wife has died and left him a dog. Attracted by his reputation and wealth, a Russian mobster's son kills the dog and steals the car. The assassin comes out of retirement for revenge. Once he regains his automobile and adopts a new canine companion, an old business partner calls upon him for work in his old trade. The assassin says no and the co-worker burns down his house. Desiring retirement, the assassin agrees to the job and accomplishes it, but people were lying and not everyone knows the whole story, so with a $7 million bounty on him, the assassin is pitted against the entire workforce of his old job.
I know that the plot sounds interesting. It's not a bad movie, but I'm writing about it because of how mediocre and predictable it was. Has modern American action cinema become the decadent and trite type of crap that China produced in the 1980s? It's getting pretty close. 1980s Chinese films had a rich history of martial arts, kung fu and far eastern culture to draw upon. Modern American films have recording and editing technology to draw upon. We've got the same type of revenge plots going on, films are dominated by action sequences and all of them seem to share sets and costumes. Where 1980s China had the ancient sets and costumes, 2010s America has modern and futuristic items. It seems that American heroes now wear black and fight in cities. There is always a car chase and guns are the weapon of choice. Another similarity is audio production. 1980s Chinese films hardly passed a second without "whoosh" or "whack" being heard with clipping audio levels. America has done the same thing with guns. If a character even thinks about a gun, it sounds like there is a busy factory cutting and pressing steel machine parts. I would conclude that 2010s American action films are too similar to 1980s Chinese action films. Go ahead and watch them if you want, but don't expect anything different or interesting. I rate this o.k. and would recommend it to fans of Drunken Shaolin Monk 4, Flying Tiger Fist of Death 6 and Revenge of the Kung Fu Dragon.