‘The Continental’ Review: Firing Blanks
metroweekly.comWe will never be able to escape the capitalistic empires who demand that we not only see one movie, but its dozens of spin-offs as well.
Yet out of all the big-budget franchises we’ve seen over the past two decades, John Wick managed to set itself apart.The action gun-fu film series started small in scope, with its 2014 eponymous film starring Keanu Reeves simply wanting revenge for his murdered dog growing into a blockbuster series, each bigger than the last, making it one of the rare original success stories not based on a comic book.Thus, we find ourselves at Peacock, for The Continental: From the World of John Wick (★☆☆☆☆), the prequel from Greg Coolidge, Kirk Ward, and Shawn Simmons about Winston Scott’s rise to power in the 1970s.
While pretty to look at, the series is rotten to the core.In the world of John Wick, The Continental is a hotel that moonlights as a safe space for assassins who aren’t allowed to be violent inside the hotel or risk the wrath of the High Table, essentially this world’s version of the Illuminati.
It’s only fitting for a John Wick spin-off to start with an extravagantly gruesome robbery gone wrong, with Frankie (Ben Robson) barely making it out alive.In London, we meet Winston Scott, played in the movies by Ian McShane, but here portrayed in his younger self by Colin Woodell, running million-dollar parking lot con-jobs before being kidnapped by Cormac (Mel Gibson), the current owner of the hotel and the man who entrapped the Scott family, alongside his assistant Charon (Ayomide Adegun, who in the films was played by the late Lance Reddick).
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