John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)
Directed by Chad Stahelski
Super-assassin John Wick returns with a $14 million price tag on his head and an army of bounty-hunting killers on his trail. After killing a member of the shadowy international assassin’s guild, the High Table, John Wick is excommunicado, but the world’s most ruthless hit men and women await his every turn.
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What critics say influenced John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
Alongside the references to Wick’s childhood, there are bizarre scenes set in Morocco and in the African desert, through which Wick walks in search of spiritual enlightenment, looking like a cross between Harry Dean Stanton in Paris, Texas and Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia .
This character alludes to Rashid ad-Din Sinan – the “Old Man of the Mountain” who led the historical Order of Assassins in 12th-century Syria – although for most viewers he is likely to evoke Prince Faisel as depicted in Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
The room is just one flank of the franchise’s visual style with its neo-noir flair that now extends to Lawrence of Arabia homages.
You’ll notice nods to plenty of genres and cinematic legends, from Lawrence of Arabia to Rumble in The Bronx .
New York exteriors recall “Blade Runner,” cinematographer Dan Laustsen favoring rainy midnight blues and neon reds, pops of gold anticipating the Sahara of “Lawrence of Arabia” in Morocco.
The look of New York resembles a highly stylized noir, while the dessert portions are shot with a grand scope that evokes the grand epics of cinema history (it’s not quite on Lawrence of Arabia ‘s level, though nothing is, really).
Here, Kavanaugh tops himself with spectacular, anachronistic clashes (people use cellphones, but also old-fashioned switch boards and rotary dials) and a stunning, all-glass high-rise office building no doubt inspired by the iconic Hall of Mirrors climax from Bruce Lee's chop-sockey classic "Enter the Dragon."
Guns are standard, but this time Keanu Reeves gets to play with swords, books (in an hilariously violent opening), horses, belts, motorbikes, hatchets, some pretty cool attack dogs (alongside Halle Berry) and also appears in a homage to the hall of mirrors finale in Enter The Dragon .
The film regains its footing in the final battle in a glass-filled space, similar to the Hall of Mirrors in “Enter the Dragon” (1973).
A climactic duel takes place in a glassy hall-of-mirrors-like set that may be a shout-out to the climax of the Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon .
Brief respites for humor (villain Dacascos is irregular but amusing to see in a big-budget endeavor), some Jackie Chan-styled fighting, and vengeful dogs become the high points, while the protracted finale, overflowing with heavy-hitting yet underwhelming skirmishes, is a strangely disappointing lull (mixing “Enter the Dragon” with “The Man with the Golden Gun”).
Reeves places his body in harm’s way often, not unlike Tom Cruise in a “Mission Impossible” film, but not as death-defying.
But for pure excitement and craft, the "John Wick" films have grown into one of our most reliable action franchises -- right up there with the "Mission: Impossible" series.
…the next “Mission: Impossible” has its work cut out for it, James Bond may have his license revoked and the “bullet time” from “The Matrix” is nothing compared to what a bullet from a silenced automatic weapon does under water.
All the intrigue, characters and subplots are enough to keep the series going into “Mission: Impossible” length.
For instance, I’m sure you have seen the beat where one character holds a knife really close to the unblinking eye of another; it’s in everything from Mission: Impossible to Spider-Man 3 .
Directed by The Matrix stuntmen Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, the film is an ultraviolent homage to Hong Kong action cinema which introduced the world at large to the concept of ‘gun fu’.
He became an action icon with “The Matrix,” indeed there is one line that is an upfront tribute to that classic, and as John Wick he again proves he can be the perfect, fictional superman, capable of speaking all languages and somehow defying all blows to his body.
Reeves even nails a nod to The Matrix – 20 years old this year – that is every bit as satisfying as it sounds.
There are points when the film could be taken for an occult allegory in the vein of Reeves' and Fishburne's earlier action franchise The Matrix (quoted directly at least once).
He also brings — to a cite a line from The Matrix, the landmark where Stahelski served as Reeves' stunt double, that gets reprised here — "Guns.
…the next “Mission: Impossible” has its work cut out for it, James Bond may have his license revoked and the “bullet time” from “The Matrix” is nothing compared to what a bullet from a silenced automatic weapon does under water.
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For action fans, this film deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as “The Raid” and “The Raid 2.” “Parabellum” is the best thing to come out of the genre since Gareth Evans showed the world how to make a great action movie.
Reeves remains a formidable physical presence when engaged in combat, and he’s matched by Berry’s own ferocity along with Mark Dacascos and excellent uses of Yayan Ruhian (Mad Dog from “The Raid“) and Cecep Arif Rahman (“The Raid 2“), who are easily some of the most dynamic fighters on film in recent years.
Riffing on modern Asian action cinema more than ever before (look out for some cool nods to The Villainess and The Raid 2 ), Chapter 3 looks absolutely incredible – the lighting and set design, in particular, are both on point – while the director and stunt crew use everything at their disposal in the pursuit of bruising, boundary-pushing dust-ups: horses, antique knives and even library books (eat your heart out, Jason Bourne) are all employed by Wick in his relentlessly bloody rampage.
The Raid 2 and The Force Awakens ’ Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman show up as a sword-wielding duo, and Mark Dacascos, a star of innumerable straight-to-video action movies who’s still best-known as the Chairman on Iron Chef America , walks a nimble line as a ruthless killer who’s also a gushing superfan.
Toss in a return from the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne, Event Horizon ) and the introduction of two badasses played by The Raid 2 ‘s Cecep Arif Rahman and Yayan Ruhian, and you have an ensemble firing on nearly all cylinders.
Stahelski choreographs the protracted impossibilities of hand-to-hand combat from “The Raid” and “The Raid 2” with Mark Dacascos and the action performers from those movies, Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman.
New York exteriors recall “Blade Runner,” cinematographer Dan Laustsen favoring rainy midnight blues and neon reds, pops of gold anticipating the Sahara of “Lawrence of Arabia” in Morocco.
Winston’s secret all-glass office (walls, floors, support beams, etc.), Sofia’s Casablanca Continental inspired by surly sultans demanding delicacies abound, even New York City’s theater district glow trades sidewalk dirtiness and overpopulation for neon hues from a Blade Runner color scheme.
…the shifting color palettes to the ingenious use of mirrors and reflective glass, to the mournful and beautiful and nearly constant rainfall straight out of “Blade Runner.”
Time is running out for the now ‘excommunicado’ Wick as that shadowy criminal organisation ‘The High Table’ has put a bounty of $14 million on his head, and he stalks around rainy, Blade Runner -wannabe Manhattan streets before taking on a giant assassin in the New York Public Library.
Then Stahelski takes a breath and returns to the sweet, gaudy fantasy world, to the “Matrix”-like, “Brazil”-reminiscent world-build, and flips the switch in the brain where “Blade Runner”’s images are stored.
The film looks like a gorgeous, bizarre crossover of a Rembrandt painting with the set from “Blade Runner.”
And for those of us old enough to remember, there are scenes where you can see where director Chad Stahelski pulls from cult films like the 1979 classic, The Warriors when John is being chased throughout New York City.
The opening fight sequence is by far the best and most frenetic the film has to offer, as Wick scrambles for safety across Manhattan while countless gangs of assassins spill out of the woodwork in pursuit; it’s like watching a hyper-caffeinated version of “The Warriors” played at triple speed.
Speaking of 80s action classics (or late 70s in this case), Parabellum excitedly lifts structural cues from The Warriors and Assault On Precinct 13 .
At one point, John runs from the countless bands of thugs after him—each dressed thematically, as if New York is divided amongst The Warriors-esque assassin cliques—leading (in this case) a group of vaguely English dandies into a horse barn, where, upon activating his environment, has two different horses kick two different men to death, their skulls collapsing like deflated souffles.
Well, that and the ingeniously shot, surrealistic final fray-for-all, which recalls Christopher Lee’s Scaramanga versus Roger Moore’s 007 in The Man With the Golden Gun upped by orders of magnitude.
Brief respites for humor (villain Dacascos is irregular but amusing to see in a big-budget endeavor), some Jackie Chan-styled fighting, and vengeful dogs become the high points, while the protracted finale, overflowing with heavy-hitting yet underwhelming skirmishes, is a strangely disappointing lull (mixing “Enter the Dragon” with “The Man with the Golden Gun”).
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There’s a hint of Spaghetti Western, Steve McQueen, Die Hard and plenty of Kung-Fu vibes in this one.
Like Bruce Willis in his Die Hard movies, Reeves’ Wick takes unbelievable amounts of punishment while pushing equal amounts of his luck, always coming out slightly ahead.
This is the kind of escapist movie that encourages us to groan and cringe and laugh at the mayhem, and not to spend too much time noticing how John Wick is close to reaching that latter-sequel “Die Hard” John McClain level of resilience, somehow surviving stab wounds and gunshots and car crashes and multiple-story falls that would give Steve Rogers a run for his money.
There was also a motorcycle fight reminiscent of a similar scene in 2017’s female assassin film The Villainess and just as insane.
But once again Reeves proves he is nothing less than perfect as the title character, while Stahelski continues to cement himself as one of the great action directors working today (even if one motorcycle set piece does feel slightly lifted from 2017’s Korean hit The Villainess ), and if his remake of cult favorite Highlander ever gets made I guarantee I’ll be first in line to see it opening day.
In international cinema, seeing lots of practiced stunt work, unparalleled skills of martial arts and accomplished filmmaking without excessive CGI has been plentiful due to films such as Indonesia’s The Raid films (2011 and 2014), South Korea’s The Villainess (2017), Vietnam’s Furie (2019) and many others.