Film Review: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

"A Fourteen Million Dollar Bounty On His Head, And Everyone In The City Wants A Piece Of It? I’d Say The Odds Are About Even..."

Beginning life in 2015 as a self-assured, no holds barred, overly knowing B-movie, John Wick not only felt comfortable in bringing back well executed, genre influenced action to a Westernised audience who had been bored to tears with the same old generic blockbusters, but also a surprising cult hit which reasserted Keanu Reeves as the cinematic hero we all deserve after locating the action appeal labelled upon him during the 1990's which then somewhat vanished come the turn of the twentieth century. Wooing audiences and critics alike with his return in John Wick: Chapter Two, a second installment which expanded both the universe and the loire of Wick's rather unhinged world, the suit wearing dog lover takes centre stage once again in Parabellum, a suitably exhausting and over-the-top maniacal second sequel which picks up in a true Quantum of Solace style fashion by arriving directly after the conclusion of its' predecessor, in which Wick's decision to murder Santino D'Antonio, the antagonist of Chapter Two and a leading member of the sprawling and ethically shady, high table, on the grounds of the Continental Hotel results in him quickly becoming excommunicado from all privileges previously offered alongside a sweet fourteen million dollar bounty being placed on his shaggy-dog haired head, resulting in every hitman from across the globe suddenly hoping to catch the man of little words in their sights in order to claim such an illustrious prize.    

Helmed once again by stuntman turned director, Chad Stahelski, Parabellum takes no time whatsoever in laying down its' cards with a screenplay which expects its' audience to already be well up to speed with proceedings involving Reeves' Wick, and whilst there is a slight offering of exposition regarding the position such a character finds himself in, I clocked my watch at just over seven minutes before the film got to the sort of set piece every one heading into a John Wick movie expects from the get-go. Whether it be library books, an assortment of decorative knives or throwing axes, the opening segment of Parabellum turns the carnage and action up to eleven and never really slows down, and even when the movie attempts to expand Wick's ambiguous childhood and background by introducing the likes of Anjelica Huston (The Witches) and Halle Berry (X-Men: Days of Future Past) in supporting roles, the primary goal of the movie is undeniably to exhaust an audience expecting oodles of superbly orchestrated madness, and whilst I thought the likes of The Raid 2 and Mad Max: Fury Road could never be matched in terms of sheer cinematic outlandishness so soon, Stahelski's movie gleefully squeezes into such a pedigree level of action movie. With memorable scene after memorable scene, including one stand out section involving attack dogs which will leave you speechless as you attempt to work out how on earth such impracticalities were captured on film, Parabellum has somehow managed to make a beloved franchise even better and with Reeves seemingly not slowing down anytime soon as he hits his mid fifties, I'm up for as many Wick movies as time can allow. 

Overall Score: 8/10

Film Review: John Wick: Chapter Two

"You Stabbed The Devil In The Back. To Him This Isn't Vengeance, This Is Justice..."

Along with The Raid movies in 2011 and 2014 respectively, 2015's John Wick stands up there as a prime example of how to do an action movie properly in modern-day cinema, utilising the somewhat distant characteristic of everyone's favourite Lebanese export by creating a stone-cold merciless killer and placing him in the middle of a quite admirable neo-noir backdrop which offered the opportunity for the titular retired hitman to kill as many bad guys as humanly possible. Where the original thrived in the best use of a handgun since Michael Mann's Collateral, with the thrilling action set pieces akin more to tightly packed choreographed dance scenes than just mindless free fire, the main pulling power of the original was the B-Movie-esque straightforward storytelling of the movie, one which at no point attempted to be something more than just a classic action adventure, inevitably resulting in a much more enjoyable thrill ride than one might have previously thought. As per the norm of current cinematic climates therefore, the success of Wick inevitably has brought with it a sequel, one which once again features Reeves in the leading role and a movie which actually manages to surpass the quality of its' predecessor, featuring bigger set pieces, cooler kills and a heightened sense of sheer lunacy which creates a sequel which takes the OTT nature of the Wickverse all the way up to eleven. 

Following on almost immediately from the conclusion of the first film, Chapter Two heads straight into the action-packed territory everyone in the audience seemed to expect, highlighting Wick's reunion with his dearly departed vehicle after a mildly intense car chase, a bout of tough hand-to-hand combat battles, and a peace treaty with guest star Peter Stormare, who chews the scenery portraying the sheepish relative of Wick's foes from the first movie in a theme-setting opening ten minutes. Although more stylised than the first movie, Chapter Two also ramps up the levels of violence depicted on-screen, with its' titular character using everything from high-powered weaponry to an everyday pencil in an attempt to kill as many cannon fodder as humanly possible. In the leading role, Reeves too seems to have found peace with the character, having fun where necessary in a performance which is once again low on dialogue but ripe in complete bad-assery from start to finish. Whilst the plot is pretty straightforward, the ambiguity and strangeness of the underworld nature of Wick's world is intriguing enough to carry the film to a conclusion which inevitably leads on to the certainty of a sequel, yet if the levels of quality continue to be as superb as Chapter Two, I look forward to see what eventually comes around next. 

Overall Score: 8/10