10 Movies That Peaked Too Soon
3. John Wick
John Wick is surely one of the most surprising movies of the entire decade, taking a groan-worthy revenge film premise and elevating it courtesy of surprisingly robust world-building and thrilling action sequences.
The film's gonzo high-point is undeniably the mayhem at the Red Circle, where John (Keanu Reeves) shoots and fights his way through the nightclub in search of the pissant gangster who killed his dog and stole his car, Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen).
The sequence, which occurs right in the middle of the movie, is a cathartic orgy of violence and by far the film's best showcase for John's skills, enough that the actual climax seems positively staid and pedestrian by comparison.
The rest of the movie is still plenty entertaining, but the final showdown at New York Harbor is just more pared-down and familiar than the intense kineticism of the club-set carnage.