10 Movies Way Better Than They Have Any Right To Be

Helmed by stuntman Chad Stahelski in his first directorial outing and penned by Derek Kolstad, who had previously only written a pair of schlocky direct-to-video Dolph Lundgren features, 2014's John Wick was ready to dump leading man Keanu Reeves into Nic Cage's world of action obscurity.

Reeves, who is not know for his dramatic range at the best of times, had just bombed the year before in 47 Ronin, and hadn't led a great action film since his Matrix days. John Wick's budget also marked a step down for him, considering $86 million was the amount he made (via initial and back-end fees) from each instalment of The Matrix.

By all the laws of cinematic nature, John Wick shouldn't be anything.

But it is everything we want from an action-thriller, and more! Replete with nail-biting drama and flowing longshots, it moved away from the shaky cam, quarter-second edits of Bourne and birthed a new cinematic mode designed to showcase perfectly choreographed action sequences. The budget only really shows in the iffy blood spray effects, but CGI was never going to be an important element of these films, as Stahelski's stunt history placed his focus on practicality first and foremost.

While the franchise is now beginning to eat its own tail, trying to deepen a mythology that isn't built to support heavy excavation, it has had more than its fair share of time at the helm of action movie innovation, and the world is all the better for it.