Dogs...Lots Of Dogs.
131 Mins. Starring: Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Asia Kate Dillon, Mark Dacascos, Lance Reddick, Ian McShane, Angelica Huston & Laurence Fishburne. Director: Chad Stahelski.
Dead wife. Dead dog. Broken pencil. Taking it to the 'Godfather' mattresses with army guns? Lots of guns! 'John Wick' is basically a country song in this Wild West. Are you ready for one last dance with the devil in the pale moonlight? Is this it? The final chapter? Although Keanu Reeves admitted to GQ that as well as the T.V. spin-off that will hopefully have more in Common like a professional courtesy on the Subway or an as much missed mechanic John Leguizamo, he's more than willing to do this for as long as people will have him. Classic, down to earth, nice guy Keanu. 'Parabellum'. Latin for, "John Wick is about to f### your s### up whilst riding on horseback!" Woah...woah! O.K. it's actually Latin for "prepare for war" and is also a type of 9mm semi-automatic pistol or machine gun so go figure. Kung-fu. Gun-fu. Car-fu and now dog-fu. He knows it all. And how about horse-fu? Anything but bird flu. Keanu Reeves is cold. He's taken the Liam Neeson all action revenge genre as his own. And he didn't have to shamefully walk around with a cosh to do so. He will find you. And he will kill it as the action hero we all need. The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra plays along with a symphony of violins over the streets of New York. From the rain soaked sleazy neon sidewalk puddles of Chinatown, to the Empire State for this King Kong franchise in an endgame Summer of Godzilla blockbusters, Keanu does it his way. One more for his dog and one for the road. He's such a legend to us that horror redefining, revolutionary director Jordan Peele even named a film about a feline after him. Get out?! The cats out the bag now like Goose. Just wait for the claws. 'John Wick' may be Keanu Reeves' biggest and most famous franchise yet. And this guy along with Alex Winter is bringing the bogus journeys of 'Bill and Ted' back over 30 years later. You know what we're going to say...excellent. And it's fitting that it's his former 'Matrix' stunt double Chad Stahelski helping him dodge bullets as director. It's poetic like Wick himself. The soulful, boogeyman angel of death with a heart. All in honour and the name of his beloved, lost wife and what she means to him in passing. As old blue eyes in the trailer says on his Broadway version, "to be willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause." "If you want peace...prepare for war." Sure he body counts more souls than the devil, but they killed his dog...HIS DOG. The dog that his wife left for him after she passed away. Giving him some semblance of joy until they took that all away along with his car and made him sledgehammer the concrete that contained his "retired" armoury, bullet to cli...O.K. I'll admit it all the guys who put down his pooch are probably bones now. But I'll use any excuse to justify more fire from his arm before Wick's candle set off fuse goes out. Everyone justifies it to a classic cult following. Maybe in this pondering, meandering age of insecurity we pedestal look to an assured for his cause hero who tick, tock doesn't dilly dally and just gets the job done like a bullet to the head. Originally I never saw the first film at the cinema, but then rushed to it for 'Chapter 2' after my good friend put me on. And then after doing the same thing with the DVD to my dad here we are on opening night bonding. And a week before, I never usually book tickets this far in advance. Even when 'Endgame' came out I just walked in on opening night, clicking my fingers and hoping for the inevitable. But Mr. Wick with Dad is different. It's something special. It means more. So you can either hand me your son...or you know the plastic bag over the head for Keanu finally losing his trademark, Hawaiian first name meaning cool rest. At this point in the trilogy I'll settle for him taking care of business because of a noise complaint. Noise complaint? Noise complaint.
Working again? Excommunicado? Afraid so! But everyone is sharpening their pencils for 'John Wick' and the loveable lone wolf of Hollywood who plays him, Keanu Reeves. 'Point Break' the best as we scream cheers at him firing his gun in the air point blank. Now getting his 'Speed' on-but above 50 miles per hour-he goes all Duke Kaboom (like his Canadian version of Evil Kenevil in 'Toy Story 4' with an almost unrecognisable voice...we told you this John who does most of his own stunts had range) and tries to be 'Gone In 60 Seconds' without his beloved 1969 Ford Mustang. As tick tock against the clock Wick tries to 'Escape From New York' like Kurt Russell before L.A. You see picking right off from the end of the last film where everyone and their dog got a text alert like an assassin app, there's a bounty on this hunters head. And every dog wants their bone too. Perhaps Keanu could cat crawl his way out from under the New York Subway like roaming through Italian catacombs. We all loved that viral video of him in real life gentlemanly giving up his seat for a lady. Like the one of him trying to arrange ground transportation for all his fellow passengers on a grounded flight. But do you remember that sad Keanu meme? The one of him sitting on a park bench alone, head bowed down eating his lunch with the birds as his only company? Of course you do! Well if you were to look at his character do you blame him? This John lost everything. They took his car. They took his dog. They took his wife. So in return he took their life. I told you...poetic. And then like 'The Godfather' just when he thought he was out, they pulled him right back in. So much so that even on continental grounds like Switzerland he had to break the rules even with a gold coin marker that these killers really shouldn't scratch slide across all those exquisite marble and mahogany table tops. Just hand them the change like servers at bars...put it in their damn hands. And now the high table wants his head. And everyone with a sidearm and a smartphone is willing to serve it up on a platter like a fair fight. But boy does Keanu make a literal fist of it. He's knockout as the vulnerable killer again in this operatic orgy of shotgun popcorn, video game violence that firework pounds your chest. Yet for all the violence in 'Parabellum' the ballerina pulling her own toenail off (oh don't give it all away) is what made me squirm and look away...hard as nails. Boogeyman haunting me like I'm about to wake up in the middle of the night like, "woah"!
Riding on horseback like a western legend (he just told Stephen Colbert on the 'Late Show' that he's never done one but would love to. Are you seeing this Cohen's?) in this fight for N.Y., this old dog learns new Wick's in this chapter that even throws the 'Bourne' book at 7 foot 6 Philadelphia 76er, NBA player and paint henchman Boban Marjanovic in full Bond versus Jaws mode (also looking like-according to Twitter-he's about to be moonlighting in South Philly's Will Smith's 'Bad Boys For Life' like fellow big man John Salley in the first two with Martin Lawrence and teammate Tobias Harris now the Sixers have gone fishing early these playoffs), I guess he won't be playing next season. Now process that. Trust. And how about motor crossing some samurai sword fight across motorbikes? Reeves getting his 'Man Of Tai Chi' on for a different slice like the Avenging Hawkeye having Ronin in his sights in Tokyo, Japan. Now if you think that's sharp, he knows knife-fu too. And when he shows you, you're really going to feel it in your gut. Again and again with an axe to grind too. All traded hands on deck for fist fights to gun-cuffs set to an action art Met Gala, Guggenheim gallery of high-rise fashioning, neon, New York backdrops. Carrying on tradition in this ultraviolet ballet with Morticia icon Angelica Huston legendary in watching over this problem like a Russian mortician of death as she tells it like it is saying, "art is pain and life is suffering" in a self-aware movie that is still not afraid to take itself seriously in its respect to the beauty of the B movie. All the way to a truly terminal, UV goggle, lights out scene stop to one at Grand Central that's off the rails like the quiet please, check out of another iconic landmark in the New York Library. Reeves like Cruise post 50 (they're both a mere couple of years off staring down dancing at sixty), giving 100 shows it's still not a mission impossible too late to be an all action hero like the 80's and Schwarzenegger and Stallone 90's greats. This new millennium sees the beef and brawn being traded for fine wine, father time aging. And who better to direct Keanu than former stunt double Chad Stahelski? The man doesn't just know his every move...he is his every move. It's no mirage. All the way to his suit and tie stepping in the Sahara sands of Hollywoodland's favourite Casablanca. Where he meets a 'Swordfish' in the razor sharp with canine teeth at her ball busting command assassin in Halle Berry. An Mixed Martial Arts obsessed, 'Parabellum' rapid-fire perfect cast this side of a 'Blind Side', 'Bird Box' Sandra Bullock reunion that would have kept 'Cruise Control' afloat like 'The Lake House'. And one who like the luck of 'Lucy', an 'Atomic Blonde', South Korean 'Villainess', or 'La Femme Nikita' like 'Anna' deserves her own spin off franchise for her middleweight heavy hitting scene. But for all the new guests in this battle royale hotel-like non-binary 'Billions' in the making star Asia Kate Dillon affording so much more and straight to home video legend Mark Dacascos' sushi chef serving up a knife cutting treat after introducing us to the Japanese fish that almost killed Homer Simpson-the familiar faces are back for your stay like the tattooed operators lead by that old dear and now Gotham's own Penguin, Robin Lord Taylor. Like 'Hellboy' star and 'American God' Ian McShane back in gold standard power charge as Churchill with Winston cigar and top hat authority serving as the manager. Or his classic concierge, Lance Reddick, scene stealing even more this time riding blunderbuss shotgun. All the way to the pigeon friend rooftops of Keanu Reeves' 'Matrix' Morpheus reunion revolution with Laurence Fishburne. Reloaded again and this time in rain soaked, stark symbolic contrast in this downpour of death as Wick reigns killer king. Long live the dog day afternoon of the maverick mustang on the back or a horse's hind legs to the sky. After this going fourth people will keep asking if John Wick's coming back. And I don't really have an answer. But yeah...I'm thinking he's coming back. Be seeing you. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'Siberia', 'Atomic Blonde', 'The Villainess'
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