222. John Wick Chapter 3 - Parabellum; movie review

JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM
Cert 15
131 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong bloody violence, language

Two years ago, I wrote that John Wick 2 was "a sequence of chases and bloody killings and chases and bloody killings and chases and bloody killings and... well, you get the picture."
I added that it had lost the freshness of the first instalment and consequently, it had dipped from a rating of 7.5 to 6/10.
This third John Wick is so much more of the same that it left me and Mrs W. bored rigid.
She had been keen to see Keanu Reeves in action after enjoying watching himself on the Graham Norton chat show.
Sadly, John Wick has none of the charm of real-life Keanu.
In fact, he scarcely utters a word in two hours and ten minutes but he does plenty of shooting, stabbing and strangling.

Chad Stahelski's movie follows on from John Wick 2 with its title subject on the run after killing a member of the international assassin's guild.
The first hectic sequence sees the countdown to him being ruled 'excommunicado' with a $14m bounty on his head. When money is motivation, the pursuit becomes even more intense.
Reeves is 54 now so his high kicks are rather less convincing than in the days of the Matrix but my biggest beef with John Wick is the unfeasible energy levels.
Wick is stabbed and shot multiple times, he is the punchbag for countless hoodlums and yet he is scarcely breathless.
My patchy knowledge of the human body, thanks to gym sessions with my personal trainer, prompt me to say that this is impossible and that his biggest enemy wouldn't be his pursuers, it would be exhaustion.
For goodness sake, the bloke doesn't even have a drink.
But he does have a loyal dog, so that's all right then.
Ian McShane, Halle Berry, Anjelica Huston and Laurence Fishburne are among those on the periphery of the action, weaving together the thinnest of plots.
But who cares about a storyline when Keanu is flying through the air? Not John Wick's fans. They are thirsting for more.

Reasons to watch: It's John Wick
Reasons to avoid: Too much fighting and not enough plot

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 3.5/10

Did you know? John Wick director Chad Stahelski was Keanu Reeves' stunt double in the Matrix movies


The final word. Chad Stahelski: "The whole thematic of this movie in terms of action was: a lot of a little. We’ll do one-on-one with different implements. We’ll do multiple attacker fights with non-firearms, then we’ll do a multiple attacker fight with firearms, then we’ll do one underwater, then one in close quarters, then one in far quarters. Then we’ll do motorcycles, then we’ll go back to hand-to-hand. We try to mix it up."

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