10 Movies Nobody Wanted But Ended Up Loving

10. John Wick

It might seem ridiculous now, but back in 2014 John Wick seemed like just another step down on the career ladder for Keanu Reeves.

The first decade of Reeves' post-Matrix career was a wildly tumultuous one, filled with critical and commercial failures which severely dented his standing as a box office draw.

The trailers for John Wick didn't do a particularly good job of selling the movie as anything more than another conventional, sub-Taken revenge thriller, with the mildly silly hook that Reeves' title character was avenging not a person but an adorable puppy.

Yet John Wick was a surprise hit both with critics and general audiences, largely thanks to Reeves' dryly amusing performance, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch's kinetic fight choreography, and the unexpectedly rich mythology of its criminal underworld.

Its success of course led to two enormously well-received sequels, while John Wick 4 is due to release next year and a fifth film is already in the works.

For a movie that initially seemed like another lazy dud action vehicle for Reeves, what a pleasant surprise the original John Wick truly was.