Hmmm! I just don't get all the excitement around this franchise. This sequel sees the eponymous assassin (Keanu Reeves) trying to escape from just about every other killer on the planet after he manages to hack off "Santino D'Antonio" (Riccardo Scamarcio) and now has an eye-watering bounty on his head. He has to travel to Rome where he is soon subsumed in a web of secret societies all wanting him on a slab. Add to this perilous mix the truly wooden talents of Ian McShane ("Winston") and after countless extended, hugely artistic and choreographed fight scenes I was heading for the arms of Morpheus. It's just dull! Well produced, yes. Good looking - yes. Stylish - yes. Sadly, though - the repetitive nature of the action scenes and the wafer thin plot leaves no jeopardy whatsoever and it's so obvious that there are more of these to come that it doesn't matter how precarious his predicament, you just know he will survive - even if the beating he takes would kill a rhino! Lawrence Fishburne adds a little bit of panache as the "Bowery King" but otherwise, sorry - I'm clearly not the demographic!
