John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)

Whether it's the type of gun or the Latin word meaning "prepare for war" you're thinking of, Parabellum makes for the perfect title for the third chapter of the John Wick series, an action flick which unfortunately has too much action for its own good and becomes tiresome before even hitting the first hour mark. 

Co-written by the franchise's creator Derek Kolstad, the film picks up immediately where the previous left, with hitman John Wick (Keanu Reeves) on the run with his pitbull in Manhattan, New York, as he is declared excommunicado by the High Table and is now the target of every assassin in the world. 

Cut off from any help, John calls in a favour from The Director (Anjelica Huston) to go to Casablanca, Morocco, and bargain for his life with The Elder (Saïd Taghmaoui). In the meantime, an Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) from the High Table arrives to deliver consequences to those who helped Wick assassinate the member of the High Table at the Continental, and ensure that Wick meets his fate. 

Although it seems heavy plotted, just like its two predecessors, John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum has a very thin plot which is laid out before our eyes within the first thirty minutes of the film and features elements — specifically the High Table, a secret society similar to 007's Spectre or Mission: Impossible's Syndicate — that aren't nearly as explored and developed as they should have. Unfortunately, while the first two films succeeded in spite of this lack, Parabellum suffers from it and, as a result, the film is quite tedious and unengaging. 

The writing is quite lacklustre character-wise too. While John Wick is still the badass hitman we fell in love with and started rooting for when he went on a killing spree to avenge his late wife's dog, and we learn more about his past and background, the supporting characters are disappointments, specifically new entry Sofia (Halle Berry), who barely has any reason to be in the film — from the promotional material I was expecting her to be much more important honestly.

The villain, Mark Dacascos's Zero, on the other hand, is quite memorable. He may not be the strongest villain in terms of writing but he does have a nice personality — which is occasionally the source of humour — and makes for a great (physical) opponent. 

As for the cast, John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum benefits from yet another charismatic although a bit wooden performance from Keanu Reeves; also, he may not be the greatest actor out there but he delivers a hell of a physical performance here. The rest of the acting is average at best though, and Anjelica Huston is wasted.

I have nothing negative to say about the visual aspect of the film though as it looks stunning, and it's a real feast for the eyes. The neon night sequences look gorgeous, the set pieces are fantastic, and the action sequences are beautifully choreographed. As I mentioned above though, there is too much action — the film is essentially two hours of non-stop action — and while it's inventive and entertaining at first, I eventually got tired of them as they lacked unique elements to make them stand out, or differentiate one from another.

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)

I really liked Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure so it was only a matter of time — or rather, a matter of finding the film — before I watched its sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. 

Two years after the events of the first film, Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) have somehow managed to graduate from high school and be accepted into college, and, although they are still struggling, they are on their way to becoming rock stars. In the future, however, there's a man, Chuck De Nomolos (Joss Ackland), who hates the Utopian society they created and sends two evil robots disguised as Bill and Ted to kill human Bill and Ted, take over their lives and change the future. 

And it makes perfect sense if you consider the ridiculous pieces of clothing people are forced to wear in the future. Jokes aside, while it's a lot dumber and way, way less informative than its predecessor's, the story is still quite engaging and entertaining, especially the plot that sees human Bill and Ted in the afterlife interacting with Death 

Just like the plot, the characters of Bill and Ted too are dumber than they were in the first film — I didn't think it was possible but it is, as it turned out. The robots at times even seem dumber than human Bill and Ted though — but they still are lovable and both Winter and Reeves are amazing in their roles as they give such charming and humorous performances and share terrific chemistry. There's also an array of new, crazy characters, the Grim Reaper — a parody of Ingmar Bergman's Death in Seventh Seal — being the funniest of the bunch thanks to William Sadler's hilarious performance. The bodacious princess babes are still pretty bland though and the actresses very unconvincing. 

Orion Pictures

The comedy is yet again juvenile to say the least, there are jokes that fall flat, some others are just plain silly and some gags that don't work as good as they should have, but overall it's quite enjoyable, and it does a fairly good job at poking fun at its own absurdities. Ultimately, the film is not as good as Bill & Ted Excellent Adventure, but it's a pretty solid, enjoyable sequel that it's dumb in a funny and kind of relaxing way. 

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

Believe it or not, I had never heard of Bill & Ted before Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter announced the third film and basically Film Twitter lost it.  Since I love Keanu Reeves, I decided to check out the first of the series, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

The story follows Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves), two Californian teens who want to start their own rock band. Unfortunately, they both are on the verge of flunking in high school and if they don't pass their upcoming history report, they will be expelled and separated as Ted's father (Hal Landon Jr.) will be sending him to military school. Help arrives from Rufus (George Carlin), a man from the 27th century who comes down in a time-travelling telephone booth and gives the dudes the chance to travel back in history and gather historical figures in order to complete their report for the next day and save the future.

The plot is very simple, it makes no sense whatsoever —not only nobody in the past thinks Bill and Ted are oddly clothed, but it also assumes that interactions with historical figures and removing them from their time, even for only a day, will not alter the past nor the present/future— and it's quite predictable —pretty much nothing goes according to plan, but eventually the two friends succeed— and yet it's tremendously entertaining and fun to watch Bill and Ted interacted with historical figures.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure would have never worked if it wasn't for the cast though. While the characters are a bit one-dimensional —Bill and Ted are your typical slacker idiots, and the rest of the characters, the historical figures, are barely characterized— the actors are just delightful. Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves effortlessly carry the film with their charm and likeability, and the chemistry between them is such that the friendship between Bill and Ted feels real. As for the supporting cast, the actors do a nice job at shaping up their iconic characters, but Terry Cailler completely steals the show with his over-the-top and hilarious performance as Napoleon Bonaparte.

Orion Pictures, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group

As for the comedy, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is juvenile to say the least. Despite this, the film is funny as there's plenty of gags —most of which involving historical figures interacting in 1980s California—, fun jokes, and so is the dudes' mispronunciation of the names of the historical figures, and the physical reactions Bill and Ted have throughout their adventure are just priceless.

Ultimately, the film isn't completely original —not only it's not the first 1980s movie involving time travel, but the time-travelling phone booth has also been done before—, but it still feels like a breath of fresh air and it's very enjoyable.

Destination Wedding (2018)

As you may already know, I'm not in romantic comedies but when I saw the trailer to Destination Wedding on YouTube months ago, I knew I would end up watching it because Keanu Reeves is my freaking kryptonite and Winona Ryder is awesome.

The film follows two cynical, miserable and unpleasant people, Linsday (Winona Ryder) and Frank (Keanu Reeves), who meet at the airport while on their way to a destination wedding. They get off to a bad start when he cuts in front of her at the gate; things get worse on the plane when they learn they are both heading to the same wedding. As they are forced to spend time together, they begin to bond over their mutual distaste for the groom, who is Frank's half-brother and Lindsay's ex-fiancé. 

It's the typical plot where hate turns into lust and lust eventually turns into love. It's predictable and probably has any romantic cliché you can think of --there's no kissing in the rain, though--, and yet it's not as terrible as it should be. Actually, I was quite invested in the story and I was rooting for love to triumph.

And there's only one reason for that, actually two: Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves. Both their characters, Lindsay and Frank, are narcissists and unpleasant and supposedly irritating: Linsday is filled with angst and still hasn't put her past behind her --she accepted to go to her ex-fiancé's wedding for closure; Frank is grumpy all the time and struggling at life because of his fucked-up childhood. Who would want to see those two on screen for an hour and a half, am I right? Well, Ryder and Reeves are both so charming (and gorgeous) they make the characters likeable, charming and interesting. Also, their chemistry is so good, it's impossible to not be won over by them. 

Regatta

What amazed me the most about Destination Wedding though is the importance given to the dialogue and how good it is. The film is indeed filled with quite bright and clever dialogue so much so that it almost feels like watching one of the movies of Linklater's Before trilogy. And Keanu Reeves handles it is extremely well. The only problem here? It's not as funny as it is supposed to be for a comedy. It is funny only at times, which it's definitely not enough for a comedy. 

Ultimately, Destination Wedding is not as terrible as I anticipated. Sure, it's clichéd and predictable, and the characters are terrible, but Ryder and Reeves are so good you'll find yourself glued to the screen. 

The Bad Batch (2016)

I loved Ana Lily Amirpour's A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night so I could tell you I watched The Bad Batch because of it. I could also tell you that I had high expectations about it. But the truth is I watched it because of Jason Momoa, which is why I didn't have a lot of expectations from it (also, I read m.brown's review months ago and it didn't sound that good).

The film is set in a near future and follows a young woman named Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) after she is dumped into the Texas desert with other rejects of the American society known as the bad batch. Eventually, she is captured by a tribe of cannibals, led by Miami Man (Jason Momoa), who severe her right arm and leg. She manages to escape and makes her way to another tribe, led by a man known as The Dream (Keanu Reeves).

There is no need to delve more into the plot as nothing really happens in the film. Just a lot of tedious nonsense and characters doing the most idiotic and crazy shit, which is a bummer since the beginning was quite interesting and gripping.

In addition to a non-existent plot that moves at a snail-like pace, The Bad Batch also has plenty of uninteresting and weird characters --I mean, cannibal bodybuilders? I think I've seen it all now. They are pretty thin and underdeveloped, they barely speak and you won't probably give a damn about any of them.

Considering that, it doesn't come as a surprise that the cast does a terrible job. Suki Waterhouse (I had to google her because I had no idea who she was. Apparently she is a British model. Which explains a lot) is a terrible lead. She doesn't have the charm needed to make you like the character, and she has the same blank expression from start to finish. Not to mention the awful, Texan I suppose, accent she is doing here. Unfortunately, hers isn't even the worst accent. That would be Momoa's accent. The guy is really struggling to do a Cuban accent and the result is that a, it sounds weird, and b, it's almost impossible to understand what he's saying. Jim Carrey, who plays a sunburnt, mute Hermit, looks like he can't believe he is in the movie. Keanu Reeves, on the other hand, seems to be having a lot of fun as the Dream.

Neon

Thankfully, The Bad Batch has some redeeming qualities. The film has a really great dystopian atmosphere which is enhanced by the great soundtrack Amirpour picked, and the cinematography is terrific (and Jason Momoa is shirtless). These few aspects alone aren't enough to make the film bearable though.

John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)

Genres

Action, Crime, Thriller

Director

Chad Stahelski

Country

USA

Cast

Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio, Common, Laurence Fishburne, Ruby Rose, John Leguizamo, Ian McShane, Bridget Moynahan, Lance Reddick, Thomas Sadoski, David Patrick Kelly, Peter Stormare, Franco Nero, Peter Serafinowicz, Claudia Gerini, Tobias Segal

Storyline

John Wick (Keanu Reeves) returns to the criminal underworld to repay a debt only to get a large bounty put on his life.

Opinion

I watched John Wick a couple of months ago only because I was excited about John Wick: Chapter 2. Everyone was saying how great it was, and I just wanted to join the party. I did, a bit late, but I did. And it was the best party I've ever had.

I have to admit I was a bit sceptical about this one. Sure, the first film worked wonderfully with a paper-thin, revenge plot. But that could have been the beginner's luck, you know. But it wasn't. Chad Stahelski yet again brings to the screen a simple story - actually, I'm not even sure the film does have a real plot - that doesn't feature smart plot twists but that, on the other hand, has many holes, but it's tremendously engaging.

And the characters are improved. Kinda. While most of them still are one-dimensional, John Wick is more defined and his struggle between living by his code and wanting to leave this life once and for all is well delivered. Also, there's something about him that makes him feel more believable, more human. Maybe it's the fact Keanu Reeves did most of the action sequences himself.

Which brings me to the next point, the goddamn good action. More non-stop and thrilling than ever, spectacularly choreographed and wonderfully paced, John Wick: Chapter 2 has that kind of action that deserves to be called so.

Sure, this is not a masterpiece, but it does exactly what an action flick sequel is supposed to do, it exceeds its predecessor and it's fun as hell.

New Release Dates For Universal's 47 RONIN And JURASSIC PARK 3D

Universal has changed the release schedule of a couple of their 3D movies - namely 47 RONIN and JURASSIC PARK 3D.

Everything we've heard and seen from Keanu Reeves new samurai movie 47 RONIN looks like it's really going to impress. The movie has been moved from February to Christmas 2013 (and it was originally slated for a November 2012 launch). Director Carl Rinsch probably has some fairly intense visual effects that need to be perfected and thus the time shift. An argument can certainly be made that the move wasn't done as a defensive maneuver as Christmas is a much more crowded market than February.

Further, Universal has pulled up JURASSIC PARK 3D from July 19 to April 5, 2013. Generally this move is being seen as simply a better marketplace for revisiting Steven Spielberg's dinosaur classic - now sporting a modern new 3D conversion.

Looks like these moves make a lot of sense, so I'm happy in the end...