Keanu, writer Derek Kolstad and director Chad Stahelski return for the third installment in the neo-noir action thriller series, with Halle Berry and Anjelica Huston joining the cast.
John Wick (Reeves) is on the run for two reasons: he’s being hunted for a global $14 million dollar open contract on his life, and for breaking a central rule: taking a life on Continental Hotel grounds. John should have already been executed, except the Continental’s manager, Winston, has given him a one-hour grace period before he's “Excommunicado” – membership revoked, banned from all services and cut off from other members. John uses the service industry to stay alive as he fights and kills his way out of New York City.
The best R-rated American action movie franchise of recent years has delivered the goods again. John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum is not the best of the series so far, but it's still miles ahead of pretty much anything else. While there may be less headshots in this third outing, the inventiveness has been notched up and it's a bloody good time.
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At this point, why would anyone try to kill John Wick? The stoic contract killer in the black suit and blacker mood is not so much a killing machine as an entire assembly line for dead bodies; he gives the grim reaper a quiet day at the office. But still they come: armed goons, samurai squads, overly confident fellow assassins, and armoured soldiers all go up against Keanu Reeves’ latest signature character, only to get a blade to the chest or a close range bullet to the head.
Full reviewWhatever it lacks in narrative intelligence it makes up abundantly in visual moxie, and in a medium that is first and foremost visual, that's what makes something great.
Full reviewWatching "John Wick 3" is an exercise of pure aesthetic desensitisation - the violence we see here is entirely removed from the reality of pain, or suffering, or fear, or desire, or triumph, or loss.
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If you thought Wick 2's turbo-powered takedowns could not be out-powered, think on: intermittent stumbles aside, Parabellum swiftly asserts itself as 2019's actioner to beat.
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Director Chad Stahelski is a fight-scene Fosse and Reeves is his Gwen Verdon: Parabellum takes the hall-of-mirrors high style of the second film and pushes it into overdrive.
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As relentless action sequels go, Parabellum stands comparison with The Raid 2, delivering a meaty set piece every reel or so, and not holding back with the flailing, mechanised slaughter.
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I still enjoyed pretty much every minute of John Wick 3, but there are enough fumbles here to suggest a franchise that is cashing in, when it should know when to quit.
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It's a more brutal and violent affair than the often elegant Chapter 2, but that doesn't feel accidental, and the set pieces are nothing less than transcendent.
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An epic of choreographed mayhem that expands the Wickiverse in mostly pleasing ways, it is destined to satisfy fans of this surprise-hit franchise: If its ludicrous aspects bug you, what the hell are you doing here?
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Combat-heavy pulp of the highest order, this is the most enjoyably over-the-top entry so far. Where else can you get samurai dogs and a Tarkovsky reference?
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