John Wick (2014), on IMDb
Directed by Chad Stahelski, David Leitch. With Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe. An ex-hit-man comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that killed his dog and took everything from him.

John Wick poster

I finally got round to watching John Wick. It was good, and I see what all the fuss is about; the lighting, cinematography, and choreography were all great. The action plays out very much like a form of dance. The plot is very “by the numbers,” but I liked that it was very stripped down and “simple”.

A bit like the title character himself, I found there was more power in what the film didn’t say about the world of criminals and assassins it is set in. My worry for when I get around to watching the sequels is that they fill in too many of the blanks, and ruin a bit of the mystique. The characters in John Wick felt real and believably connected, without ever really giving everything away, so actions have consequences we can understand even if we don’t know the whole background.

So, yeah, I enjoyed John Wick, and would happily recommend it if you’re looking for a great looking action film that isn’t overly complicated but still has some good character moments.

Book 2 of the Siege of Terra series has been announced, “The Lost and The Damned,” and I’m digging the cover illustration 👌

“Dark mode” Monocle looks pretty nice! (courtesy of Firefox with “night mode” enabled)

I could be convinced to try and build this as a real feature… 🤔

I’ve started using my new(ish) test site to build my new IndieWeb WordPress theme. It’s very early in the process, and I’m getting the markup in place first, before I go anywhere near a stylesheet – so it all looks very 1996 right now.

The lessons learned on “K” will be put into use with this theme, along with several ideas I’ve picked up along the way. I’ve already reused some of the more useful bits of K to give me a head-start, so I know that stuff like the feed and post microformats should be pretty robust (if not yet 100% complete). The main improvement I want to make over K is in flexibility  – i.e. it’s not just usable by me, or locks me/the user into a particular setup.

If there is anything you would like to see in an IndieWeb WordPress theme, or any other suggestions, please file an issue in the repository. I can’t promise I’ll implement it, but at this stage, the chances are high 😉