r/todayilearned • u/Milwambur • 2d ago

TIL that Eva Longaria spent 6 million dollars saving a film after her agent told her it was the right call. She now says its the best money she ever spent. That film? John Wick

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/eva-longoria-john-wick-checks-1236196504/
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u/Trentus86 2d ago

Even Keanu Reaves wasn't exactly a guaranteed bankable star. It was basically a pet project that they wanted to do which ended up blowing up and changing the way modern Hollywood action movies were expected to look like (aka not crap)

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u/FancySack 2d ago

For reference, the 3 movies he did before John Wick was 47 Ronin, Man of Tai Chi, and Extreme Pursuit.

None of those films would give studios confidence to invest heavily.

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u/WigglestonTheFourth 2d ago

Man of Tai Chi was gaining a following as people saw it on streaming. I thought it was a great film and was happy to see it starting to get talked about on reddit just before John Wick released in theaters. Then it was immediately buried in the response to John Wick.

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u/Nose-Nuggets 2d ago

And yet, still mostly crap fight scenes. Most actors just dont want to put in the time to learn how to actually fight.

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u/Trentus86 2d ago

Yeah but at least it's acknowledged now lol. I hated the preceding era where everything was super shaky cam, close up or in shadows to try and obscure things as much as possible. Felt like a lot of scenes got hyped up during that era that were just an utter mess.

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u/Cowgoon777 2d ago

I hated the preceding era where everything was super shaky cam

The Bourne Identity was a huge hit and those shaky cam fight scenes were considered a breath of fresh air at the time.

And of course within 10 years, we all hated that shit. Still works for Bourne though.

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u/Pkock 2d ago

To some extent you could say the same about the gunplay spawned from John Wick. It's watered down into everything and when it's not executed on that level or near it it's also just not that good.

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u/Cowgoon777 2d ago

absolutely correct. But at least I can still follow the action in those movies.

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u/LastStar007 2d ago

And of course within 10 years, we all hated that shit. Still works for Bourne though.

That's because the general style fits Bourne's atmosphere, and because Paul Greengrass was painstakingly deliberate in the execution—making sure the camera lingered just long enough on the important details.

Directors since have by and large not been so careful.

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u/Short_Temperature202 2d ago

Yeah that's what was so frustrating about other films picking up Shaky Cam style, the Bourne films used it incredibly well, where you can still follow the action despite the Shaky Cam, the majority of other films that did it, not so much.

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u/Plasibeau 2d ago

I still remember how hard my jaw dropped in Bourne 2 (3?) when he leapt through that window and the camera followed him through the entire shot. Hadn't seen anything that high level since the first Matrix.

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u/Rufus_TBarleysheath 2d ago

The fight scenes in Batman Begins were so full of cuts that I couldn't figure out what was happening

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u/raihidara 2d ago

At least with Batman it made thematic sense. So many films use shaky cam for the wrong reasons

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u/hd1080ts 2d ago

Shaky Cam on the Paul Greengrass Bourne movies was planned and rehearsed with the camera operators (Klemens "Mahaga" Becker etc.).

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u/NegotiationJumpy4837 2d ago

I never understood who actually liked these fight scenes. I always have no idea what is happening until the end when they'd pan out and I would see which bodies are still laying down.

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u/FardoBaggins 2d ago

Keanu was training hard for the matrix. His stunt and fight double? The director of john wick.

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u/20_mile 2d ago

Most actors just dont want to...

Specifically, American actors. Korean, Japanese, and Thai cinema have insane fight scenes.