Opening in media res followed by our hero waking up to an alarm clock gave me PTSD-laden flashbacks to student film screenings in college.
How much I would've loved to see a scene where John hires a concrete guy to properly hide his weapon cache. Then again, if all the cops don't want nothing to do with him, was it necessary beyond a bad-ass sledgehammer scene?
Nice touch on the subtitles with their varying placement and fonts, artistic brushstrokes that communicate a sense of whimsy and properly set up the storybook-aspect re: John as the one you send to kill the Boogeyman.
World building was this film's strongest suit, the entire underground criminal world was unlike I've ever seen in a movie before. Not realistic but incredibly entertaining, with very little expository hand-holding. A bad version of this movie would've featured John voiceovering about the gold coins, the rules of the hotel, histories of the various players.
I was That Guy who Proselytized "The Wire" in College so something awakened inside once I realized Lt. Daniels and Cool Lester Smooth were at the Continental, even if they didn't share a scene together. Which reminds me, if you want to borrow my DVDs of the best show ever -- snap out of it, Peck!
Can movies stop ignoring that you can't legally pump your own gas in New Jersey? I get that you need the inciting incident of the Russian punks seeing and wanting John's car but there had to be a better location/situation for that to happen.
Kill count: 77! According to Wikipedia, that number is associated with Jesus Christ, where C=3, H=8, R=18, I=9, S=19, T=20 which add up to 77. See, this overwrought device to sum up my thoughts was planned from that start!
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