John Wick 3: Parabellum - Movie Review

Starring Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Anjelica Huston, Mark Dacascos, Asia Kate Dillon, Lance Reddick, Said Taghmaoui, Jerome Flynn and Randall Duk Kim.

Written by Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten, Cris Collins & Marc Abrams.

Directed by Chad Stahelski.

★★★ 

John Wick 3 starts the minute John Wick 2 ends. John is on the run for breaking the rules by killing someone on consecrated grounds, and so he is now “excommunicado,” meaning no more protections or privileges in the assassin world, and there is now a high price on his head. And that’s what we get. We get a week of John fleeing from assassins while trying to figure a way to take the price off of his head.

The mythology of this world was hinted at in the first movie and greatly expanded in the second. The third one is therefore able to rely on what the viewer knows and doesn’t have to explain much. We get a touch more on his backstory and he meets up with “old friends” that we hadn’t heard of before. The action sequences are more non-stop than the first two movies. The wave of assassins after him feels relentless.

Keanu Reeves has the charm of one of the last old-school action heroes. Not the best actor, but he has presence, and everything he does is just indescribably cool. He’s surrounded by award winners to carry the dialogue scenes.

I will say this. They need to figure out how to get Carrie-Anne Moss to appear in John Wick 4.

John Wick 2 - Movie Review

Starring Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Common, Laurence Fishburne, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ruby Rose, John Leguizamo, Franco Nero, Lance Reddick, Claudia Gerini, Peter Stormare, Peter Serafinowicz and Thomas Sadowski.
Written by Derek Kolstad.
Directed by Chad Stahelski.

★★★

Maybe not as good as the first one, as it trades in an emotional hook (they killed his dog!) for non-stop action. But I still enjoyed it.

John Wick (Keanu Reeves), after getting revenge for the death of his dog, is ready to re-retire and enjoy a quiet life with his new dog. But his recent activities have caught the attention of an old acquaintence who holds his marker. In the world of underground assassins, they have a code of conduct, and one is that you must always honor a marker. A marker is a job you owe someone, and this acquiantence Santino (Riccardo Scamarcio) wants to Wick to assassinate his sister, a powerful crime boss.

This movie takes us further in this world and expands it. A good deal of it takes place in Rome, and it turns out they have their own Continental Hotel, where assassins can rest and refuel.

What I liked most about this movie was Common, as an assassin named Cassian. Cassian and John Wick are equals, and their fight scenes are evenly matched. It's the most effective Common has ever been in a movie.

(Side-note: For what it's worth, my wife was bored and said it was like watching someone else play a shoot-em-up video game for two hours.)

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I also recently saw...

THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER'S WAR (★★) Starring Chris Hemsworth, Charlize Theron, Jessica Chastain and Emily Blunt.

A Snow White sequel without Snow White turns out to be a bad idea. It feels like the same misguided thinking behind that James Franco in Oz movie. Why have three gorgeous actresses revolve around a less interesting male hero? It retains some of the elements that made the first movie enjoyable, but I really don't get why the producers thought this approach would work.

The Neon Demon - DVD Review

Starring Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abbey Lee, Keanu Reeves, Desmond Harrington, Karl Glusman and Christina Hendricks.
Written by Nicolas Winding Refn, Mary Laws & Polly Stenham.
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.

★★½

Wow. Nicholas Winding Refn is one pretentious, ambitious, vainglorious artiste (if it's not obvious from when he puts his initials NWR under the title). The guy knows how to set up beautiful and disturbing imagery. The more movies he makes, the more experimental he seems to get, which is fine if you can sweep your audience up in your vision.

This movie focusses on Jesse (Elle Fanning), a teenage model who's just arrived in Los Angeles and finds instant success, creating jealousy among the other models in her social circle. She's taken under the wing of Ruby (Jena Malone), a make-up artist who may want her for herself. This movie has a lot to say about beauty, about artifice, and about obsession.

As for Refn's filmography, this isn't near as good as Drive, and it isn't near as bad as Only God Forgives. I couldn't really get lost in the story, as I was too aware of a director lurking over every frame, and it gets kinda porny, but I give him points for boldness.

Random Movie Stuff - 10/17/13

- Director Brad Peyton will reunite with his Journey 2 The Mysterious Island star Dwayne Johnson for San Andreas 3D, an action thriller about a giant earthquake from the San Andreas fault.

- Keanu Reeves will star in John Wick, about a retired hitman who is forced back into action by a sadistic young thug (Game of Thrones' Alfie Allen). Bridget Moynahan, Willem Dafoe, Michael Nyqvist, Adrianne Palicki and Dean Winters co-star.

- Chris Pine (Star Trek) has signed on as the first of three new Horrible Bosses for the sequel, scheduled to open November 26, 2014.  Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis and Jamie Foxx will all return.

- Ty Simpkins, the kid from Insidious, has joined the cast of Jurassic Park 4, titled Jurassic World. It stars Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help) and Jake Johnson (New Girl). It's directed by Colin Trevorrow (who also worked with Johnson on Safety Not Guaranteed) and it's set to open June 12, 2015.

- Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman are reuniting with their Moonrise Kingdom director Wes Anderson in The Grand Budapest Hotel. It opens March 7. It co-stars Owen Wilson, Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody and Tom Wilkinson.

- The Maze Runner has been pushed back to September 19, 2014. Based on the book by James Dashner, it's set in a post-apocalyptic world where young Thomas (MTV Teen Wolf's Dylan O'Brien) finds himself with his memory erased in a community of boys trapped in a large maze. It co-stars Will Poulter (We're the Millers), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones), Kaya Scodelario (Clash of the Titans) and Patricia Clarkson (Shutter Island, The Green Mile).

Henry's Crime - DVD Review

Starring Keanu Reeves, Vera Farmiga, James Caan, Peter Stormare, Judy Greer, Bill Duke and Fisher Stevens.  Directed by Malcolm Venville.

★★


This minor crime caper has its small pleasures. Fast-forward to any scene with James Caan, and you'll experience them. Otherwise it reminded me too often of Bullets Over Broadway, a much funnier movie.

Keanu Reeves reminds us all how limited his range is here. He plays Henry, a fairly spineless man who goes to jail for robbing a bank, a crime he didn't commit. He befriends a long-timer (Caan) in jail, and when Henry gets out, he decides he's going to go ahead and rob that very bank.

The bank has an old tunnel leaving between it and the theater next door, so they endear themselves to the cast next door, preparing to put on The Cherry Orchard.

The movie needed someone, anyone, with more energy than Henry. I kept thinking how someone like Steve Carell or Paul Rudd might've handled the role. Reeves, though, has the emotive power of a totem pole.