JOHN WICK 3: Parabellum
A review by Joe Viglione
PRELUDE:
On February 6, 2015 the
Wachowski Brothers....errr...the Wachowski Sisters....uhhhh...what the hell,
the Wachowskis delivered a terrible Jupiter Ascending with a production budget
of 176 million. This boring piece of alleged film-making brought in about
184 million worldwide, chop that in half and you see what a bust this was for
the directors who should have given the world what the world wanted: Matrix 4.
John Wick 3, for all intents and purposes, IS
Matrix 4. It reunites Neo, Keanu Reeves, with his mentor, Morpheus,
Laurence Fishburne, a duo who last appeared together in the November 5, 2003
The Matrix Revolutions (150 m budget, over 427 million return,) and the May
2003 The Matrix Reloaded (both films shot at the same time; budget 150 m, 742
plus return; and for good measure the original March 1999 The Matrix cost
around 63 m and brought in around 463m)
According to WICKipedia, the 122 minutes of the 2nd
John Wick film cost 40m and brought in 171.5 m. Wikipedia, usually
reliable with the film costs, doesn't have info for JW3 budget just yet.
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THE REVIEW
Ultra-violence is the theme here with cutting
and slashing and gore beyond gratuitous. So much so that, despite
my enjoying the film for its acting, spectacular cinematography and many, many
Matrix elements, I probably won't be watching it again anytime soon. Was I judging the film for the MPAA I would rate it X for the extreme meat grinder
that it is.
But there IS the taxi cab in the pouring
rain, a la Matrix 1, chase scenes a la Matrix 2 and 3, Keanu and Laurence back
together again, images reminiscent of Neo vs Mr. Smith, and ninja battles that
are so reminiscent of the fight scenes in Matrix that you get the marketing at
play here: this is Keanu Reeves "Mission Impossible," the safety net
Tom Cruise has when he needs a little career jolt. Reeves' acting is
superb, twenty years after the naive Mr. Anderson/Neo, Keanu Reeves is in full
control, superb acting from all involved. Anjelica Huston?
Marvelous, brilliant, as is Halle Berry, Lance Reddick, Ian McShane, they all
came to this deadpan humor fest with tons of brÃo,
Indeed, the bloodletting is offset by the
humorous camera shots, director Chad Stahelski and the actors adding dark humor
to the axe to the head or the dozens of slice and dice moments. The
younger audiences want the lurid killings, and that's a shame. Svengoolie
on METV playing The Bride of Frankenstein this past weekend (May 11, 2019) is
Exhibit A as to why the vintage early sound horror movies had a touch of class
when it came to the bloodshed. Words like "macabre" and
"morbidly gruesome" were used by critics for the 1935 film which was
a masterpiece of movie-making and certainly in my Top 25 of all-time great
films. Eighty-four years later you have overkill, hacking away at the
human body, deconstructing Frankenstein's monster with so many bullets flying
beyond the two hours plus that the NRA probably would give this film its stamp
of approval.
And that's the dicey part at play here. For today's young
slasher film audiences, John Wick 3 is going to make money hand over
fist. For those of us who see the potential of the brilliant
acting, cinematography and thick, dark humor - the bullets and the
killings are a detriment. Were this film more vague about the butchering,
an opaque mind twist leaving more to the imagination, it would be in a class by
itself. But, alas, the kids want the slasher flicks, and this is high
quality slash, slash on a stylish and sophisticated level, the pluses being the
minuses, but ones that will deliver hundreds of millions at the box office, and
for the bottom line, that's what it is all about. Money over true
art. But for those in need of a Matrix fix, this is as close as you
are going to get until the Wachowskis are forced to plug us back in. The
feel of this motion picture, especially the zombie-like
"adjudicator," Asia Kate Dillon, makes it FEEL like you are back in
the Matrix. Dillon is known as "non-binary" with Wikipedia
explaining the person as " having a fluctuating gender identity
(genderfluid)." Back in the Star Trek pilot with Jeffrey
Hunter, The Menagerie/ The Cage, the Talosians were women with men's voices, so
Gene Rodenberry had the idea long before people started exploring different
aspects of gender. There's even a line from the Oracle (the Matrix
series) though not bringing my notebook, I can't recall it at the moment.
Visceral vagueries and more cerebral parlance would have made this an extraordinary
epic. But, alas, ruthlessness and barbarity are the order of the day
here, so let the bullets fly!
