Keanu Reeves is back to fuck shit up in the latest John Wick film and I’m damn happy to see him. I love these movies. John Wick films remind me of the fun and unabashedly violent actions films that I grew up with, the kind of thing that would have starred Stallone or Schwarzenegger back in the 80s. These movies have absolutely no redeeming social qualities whatsoever, and I applaud them for that. Chapter 3 drifts a bit in terms of story, but the action scenes remain as badass as ever. These movies are about Keanu Reeves shooting motherfuckers in the face, and boy does he.
Following the events of Chapter 2, Wick has been excommunicated from the hitman community and has a bounty on his head for $14 million. The hitman High Council decides to go after Wick for his violation of their rules, and they also go after Winston, the manager of the Hotel Continental, for aiding Wick’s escape in the last movie. The rest of the film follows Wick and Winston as they try to survive the hitman onslaught being brought on by both the High Council and the bounty on Wick’s head.
As with the first two films, the main selling point here are the brutal and amazingly choreographed fight scenes. In fact, the vast majority of the movie is fight scenes. From the horseback combat to the desert to the final defense of the Continental, these are some of the best, most beautifully shot action scenes that I’ve seen since…..well, John Wick 2. My personal favorite is actually an early scene in a library, where Wick proves that knowledge truly is power when you’re jabbing someone in the windpipe with it. This also isn’t like most modern action films, where people fall down after a random spray of bullets and that’s that. No, Wick takes special care to put one last shot directly in everyone’s face at point-blank range, just to be sure. The man is thorough. I appreciate that.
The performances are also great as the series’ cast has gradually expanded its roster of A-list members. I’ve always considered Reeves to be an underrated actor with amazing range. He has undeservedly been the butt of jokes over the years about his lack of range, but I don’t know why that is considering that he has been effective in just about every genre over the years. Okay, he sucked in Dracula. I’ll give you that. But he has had an amazing career otherwise and has transformed the Wick character into the modern-day Dirty Harry or Rambo. I look forward to seeing this character again, and the credit largely goes to Reeves. Ian McShane and Laurence Fishburne are also favorites of mine and they get expanded roles this time around, and this time we get Halle Berry and Anjelica Huston joining the fun in small roles. This movie even has Mark fucking Dacascos, of all people, in a villain role. Dacascos has been in a million low-budget action movies over the years, but, if you find yourself scratching your head trying to figure out where the fuck you know that guy from, he was The Chairman on Iron Chef America.
Although I obviously enjoyed this quite a bit, I also feel that it falls short of the first two films (especially the original) because the plot is becoming pretty damn convoluted at this point. While the series has done a great job of world building, we are now far removed from the simple revenge story of the first film and now deeply into this hitman world that has its own bureaucratic structure and warring factions. It’s kind of like how Paranormal Activity started out as a bare bones haunted-house story and, somehow by the fifth film, it had witch armies and time portals and all kinds of fucking nonsense going on. This is far better than that, but I still found myself forgetting why the Iron Chef Chairman wants to kill Keanu Reeves or why Laurence Fishburne looks like he is auditioning for the Rat King in the next Ninja Turtles movie. I was also pretty buzzed going into this, though, so maybe see it sober or bring a notebook or something.
Despite the plot going a bit far down the rabbit hole, John Wick Chapter 3 is the best action movie of the year (though Rambo: Last Blood may have something to say about that in the fall). John Wick Chapter 4 is already set for release exactly two years from when I’m writing this, on May 21st, 2021. No plot details have been released yet, but I’m betting it will involve Keanu Reeves shooting motherfuckers in the face. In the immortal words of Matthew McConaughey: Alright, alright, alright.
Image By: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/John_Wick_Chapter_3_Parabellum.png
