Brilliant But Also A Little Too Long

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There’s rather a lot I like about John Wick 3: Parabellum, starting with the primary scene. John Wick — performed by Keanu Reeves, after all — kills a foul man with a ebook. He simply props it up on a desk and locations the bottom of the man’s cranium on it and fatally hobbles him, like American History X meets Misery. That’s solely one of many inventive, brutal stunts within the film, which had me questioning if that is one of the best stunt choreography I’ve seen since classic Jackie Chan.

And the world constructing! John Wick lives in a universe the place the prison underworld is organized below a strict company umbrella referred to as “The High Table,” which employs a workforce of no-nonsense, tattoo-covered switchboard operators dressed and styled like ’50s waiters and housewives, the place the ladies seem like strippers from Portland and the boys like members of My Chemical Romance. They work in a spot that appears like a cross between a inventory trade and a on line casino counting room, the place the names of the “excommunicado,” these marked for loss of life, like John Wick, are marked on an enormous chalkboard and known as out just like the day’s specials. Today, John Wick’s life is price $14 million. Tick tock, John Wick.

Some of the gangs organized beneath the excessive desk embrace a workforce of assassins dressed as homeless males led by Laurence Fishburne’s character, who additionally raises pigeons. “You see flying rats, I see… the web,” he says at one level, which is humorous to start with, however further humorous when it’s Morpheus. There’s one other, barely much less creatively realized gang of sushi chef/martial arts college students led by Mark Dacascos — also referred to as The Chairman from Iron Chef America.

It’s all enjoyable sufficient, principally skating that line between cool and silly. But discussing the world-building in John Wick is form of like admiring the drapes in a porn film. We come for the brutal killings; we keep for the brutal killings. And there are tons! There’s a complete combat scene incorporating Belgian Malinois, which appear to have been educated solely to chew dicks. A combat scene incorporating vicious dick canines was one thing I hadn’t seen in an motion movie earlier than, and it was good.