#Keanu reeves delivered yet another insanely good movie

[halsteadsbradshaw]

I just got home from watching John Wick chapter 4 and I just have no words

[thenerdparty]

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum - Film Review

Written by Shawn Eastridge

Five years ago I heard about an action movie in which Keanu Reeves played a master assassin seeking revenge on the men who killed his puppy. I thought it was a joke. Turns out, it was one of the best action films of the decade. Two years later, John Wick Chapter 2 rolled around, taking things to the next level with more amazing action sequences and an impressive amount of worldbuilding. While it wasn’t as fresh as its predecessor, it still got the job done and ended with a thrilling cliffhanger that left me excited for more. 

Now here we are with John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, which might very well be the best of the bunch. Everything great about the first two films is amplified and refined to perfection. At a little over two hours, Chapter 3 never out-stays its welcome thanks to outstanding choreography and a wide variety of settings and scenarios for the brutal carnage on display. There’s plenty of breathing room to allow for this world’s finer details to shine through. These moments provide some relief, but for the most part the film is relentless in its divvying out of one adrenaline rush of an action sequence after another. 

One of the great joys of cinema is when an action scene is executed with flawless finesse. Chapter 3 gives us multiple action set pieces that would serve as the showstopper for any one action film. It’s an embarrassment of riches. Even more impressive I rarely felt fatigued. Each fight is carefully choreographed and staged based on John’s surroundings, bring something fresh to the table each time. That this freshness is maintained through the entire runtime is impressive to say the least.  

Part of the key to the film’s success is Reeves himself. Reprising this role for the third time, Reeves exudes an aura of effortless cool and world-weariness tinged with bits of humor and an undercurrent of tragedy that makes him so endearing. His willingness to throw himself into these stunts, to fully devote himself to the action only helps. Note how many fight sequences play out in wide shots and long takes so you can clearly see Reeves is the one doing the fighting. 

Returning cast members Ian McShane, Lance Reddick and Laurence Fishburne are a delight, as are the new additions. First and foremost, Mark Dacascos is an absolute treat to watch. He makes for one of the most lovable baddies this franchise has offered up as of yet. Anjelica Huston shows up, lending her elegant gravitas to a small but effective role. Also joining the fray is Halle Berry, and to say she kicks ass in this movie is an understatement. She holds her own, matching Reeves’ penchant for amazing stuntwork. And hey, wait a second, is that Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman from The Raid films? Yes, PLEASE. 

Of course, another vital ingredient to the film’s success is Chad Stahelski’s masterful direction. The guy made his feature debut with the first John Wick and his talents have only grown more refined which each entry. His direction on Chapter 3 feels even more confident and assured. He knows exactly how to frame these fight scenes to ensure they’re at their most effective and he trusts his insanely talented stunt team to deliver the goods. Boy oh boy, do they. Aiding the visual appeal is returning cinematographer Dan Laustsen (The Shape of Water, Crimson Peak), whose sensibilities create a neon, comic book style world that feels both fantastical and totally grounded. He outdoes himself here.

Some might complain about the lack of stakes. I get it. John Wick is, after all, seemingly unkillable. But he doesn’t earn his victories without immense struggle. You feel every bone-crunching blow and that effort, plus the brilliant choreography and staging, kept me engaged. And perhaps the most pleasant surprise? This franchise doesn’t show any signs of stopping. Thank God for that. Maybe someday these films will start to overstay their welcome, but that day seems a long way off. I, for one, am ready for another go. Long live Mr. Wick.

[keanuital]

Decoding The Keanu Reeves Enigma 

 Clean talking, slightly withdrawn if not aloof, simplistic and utterly uncomplicated. There is really a barrage of salutations one can construct about Keanu Reeves, rather, about his usually calm disposition in life. He doesn’t party, at least, not that much, is hardly seen enamouring fans on swelteringly exquisite red carpet events but even then, commands attention and boy- some respect in worldwide media.

What makes Keanu Reeves a sensation?

For someone who at 53 looks not a day beyond 35 or 38, his famous mugshot is yet to star alongside cosmetic creams and all that age-defying paraphernalia. One reckons, Hollywood, at best, personifies a stage where Keanu simply steps on, acts, does well and bows out gracefully upon a films’ release.

That is, in effect, the Keanu Reeves ideology- simple and unflustered by all that is happening around him

For a bloke who was born in Beirut, but grew up in icy cool Canada and eventually drove all the way to L.A. in a laid back Volvo wagon, life’s resembled a rollercoaster ride, considering Reeves has battled more personal ups and downs than there are palpitations in an ageing heart patient’s lifeline.

With releases like the Matrix trilogy, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Constantine and more recently, the John Wick series, Keanu’s given major box office hits, rather, delivered magnanimous bazookas built on painfully exorbitant investments and yet, when it has come to cashing on his good looks and charming persona, Keanu doesn’t seem to rest on his starry aura.

He instead hangs out with people like a commoner, eats an odd sandwich at a Manhattan joint, takes to the stairs on a subway station and, even vacates his seat for ageing commuters.

But is that the reason why Keanu has proved to be so endearing to an audience base that measures upto millions of fans, undivided in their love for Hollywood’s ‘nice man’? Or could it be that implicit in Keanu’s memorable journey, one wherein he’s covered the long mile from Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey to delivering an insanely gaudy hit such as John Wick. 2- there lies a man boasting on monk-like qualities.

If you saw 47 Ronin, where Reeves settles scores with the merciless shogun responsible for killing his master, fans saw in his warrior- a combatant who understood the meaning of peace. If you’ve witnessed the grand silence in his fiery Buddha eyes in 1993’s The Little Buddha- then it was impossible not to understand the middle line Keanu walked between disconsolation from the material world and the incessant quest to discover the peace within.

Fans have often jokingly lauded Keanu as Hollywood’s own Buddha. How else would one explain Keanu’s frequent trips to the ‘land of the rising sun’? How else would one make sense of Keanu opting to play the enlightened one when right at the start of his career, when playing the poignant spiritual character also carried the risk of branding Keanu as a fit for offbeat Hollywood roles, not necessarily concerning mainstream lead roles in commercial potboilers?

It isn’t too hard to ignore the fact that Keanu, a man sitting on an accumulated wealth of $350 million preferred to give away his earnings from the famous Matrix movies to the men and women who toiled arduously behind the scenes of the famous sci-fi series. Neither is it easy to disassociate oneself from the fact that in an age where actors and fashionistas prefer to indulge in rose-tinted lifestyles emblazoned with luxuries, buying island after island in an expansive display of material gatherings, dare on say spoils, Keanu prefers to design bikes and opts to go demon riding.

Not the one you’d see hotting up the town on a Halloween night, nor the guy you’d liken to a spoilt dude who enters a club armed with two blondes for company, Keanu has lent magnificent meaning to his surge for creativity ever since he came up with Arch motorcycles, evidently stemming from his desire to build lasting exotic American bikes.

The man, once famously ‘memed’ as Sad Keanu, when he appeared somewhat haggled and lost eating a sandwich all by himself on a warm, fuzzy New York afternoon, with BBC going as far as inviting Keanu into their studios to figure out just what was going on with him, his style statement is one that is marked with utter simplicity, distancing himself from uber-cool shenanigans of modernistic style.

There is nothing edgy, not even bordering on showbiz lines of eccentricity when we spot Keanu in a press conference or a movie promotion duo, dressed in all blacks with brown shoes and unkempt hair. The growing, waywardly mane only goes to complement the reticence blossoming in an unhurried gait.

With fans dying to see Keanu reprise his role as John Wick in yet another enactment of the down on his luck, killing machine, and who knows even as Ted, with Keanu himself yet to confirm either movies, one expects Hollywood’s showman to carry on his intriguing journey with the same passion with which the lost, gangly youth in him found is way back home in My Own Private Idaho.

[godslonelycinephile]

Review - John Wick: Chapter 2

Back in 2014, I walked into a theater that was half full with reasonable expectations for Keanu Reeves long awaited return to action films. Me and everyone else in that half-capacity theater had a blast. I walked out of that theater having seen one of the most pleasurable action films perhaps this century. John Wick became a litmus test for whether or not I could trust somebody. If they don’t like John Wick, I don’t trust them. I dressed as John Wick for Halloween that year. One time a friend finally watched it and I got two texts from him in response that read “DUDE JOHN WICK” and “HOLY SHIT.” The list of what that film meant to me goes on and on. With that said, Chapter 2 is not only one of the best action sequels I’ve ever seen, it’s possibly one of the best sequels I’ve ever seen, period.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of Chapter 2, which any great sequel should do, is that it completely validates its existence despite the first film not really asking for a sequel. When you finish John Wick, you don’t sit there during the credits going “Can’t wait for the sequel! So many questions!” yet still when you finish Chapter 2 you nod your head approvingly, acknowledging that yes, we actually did need this. It keeps the core tenet of the original, which is that you should not fuck with this guy. It’s as the tagline on one of the poster says, “Never stab the devil in the back.” Chapter 2 finds most of its narrative thrust by expanding on a cautionary line from Winston to Wick in the first film: “If you dip so much as a pinky back into this pond, you may well find something reaches out and drags you back into its depths.” Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio), a member of the most powerful family in Italy comes to Wick to demand a return on a favor he is owed. By the rules of their trade, Wick must honor this request or die. Thrust back into the world he wanted to leave behind, Wick has a target on his back. Chapter 2 manages to to expand on what happened in the original for new material without undermining anything that happened previously.

Not many films attain the level of action opera. The only other one this decade was The Raid 2. I haven’t quite written down the rules of entry for the classification of action opera, but if you’ve seen The Raid 2 or John Wick: Chapter 2 hopefully you understand what I’m getting at. It’s just another level of action filmmaking, where you’re watching it at its grandest and most theatrical. Take John Woo for example, if you’ve seen The Killer or Hard Boiled, that guy knows how to make an action opera. The action in Chapter 2 is bigger, more expansive and theatrical, yet doesn’t lose the key pleasure of the first, which is watching Reeves demolish scores of baddies unassisted. The operatic nature of the film is immediately felt. The opening sequence is created by answering one question left unanswered from the first: where did his car go? He never got it back in the first film. In a giddily coked up turn from Peter Stormare, he plays the brother of Viggo Tarasov who’s in the unlucky position of having something of Wick’s. It doesn’t have much impact on the plot to follow, but it’s a wonderful, delirious sequence to reintroduce Wick to us. John Wick is a pure force of nature. We spent the first film getting to know this character and how badass he is, now we get an entire film that knows we already know that, and all it has to do is continue to display his ultimate levels of badassery.

It doesn’t tiredly rehash plot points of the original, instead taking the opportunity to flesh out the underworld that Wick has reentered and can’t escape from. It’s terrific world building, there’s a good amount of expository construction about how this world functions that happens visually, or in how characters insinuate things in dialogue. There’s so many bizarre little oddities to absorb about this world. The sommelier at the Rome Continental doesn’t recommend wines, but guns, in a great stunt performance from Peter Serafinowicz. To put out a hit, you contact a building full of women in pink blouses, all with the same tattoo sleeve on their right arms, and they connect calls using old-timey phone line connectors, then enter the hit info on a computer that is older than me. The introduction of an amulet known as a marker is integral to the plot. It’s a blood oath of sorts that must be honored at all costs.

Keanu Reeves is 52 years old and is out here with the dexterity and athleticism of an NBA power forward, doing physically grueling stunt work while making it look like ballet. Meanwhile, I am 24 years old, and this morning I woke up with my back really sore because I guess I slept on it wrong. Keanu Reeves is one of the last movie stars, along with Tom Cruise, who can do the most insane stunts themselves. They don’t need a double. There’s a trustworthiness to their presence, you can trust everything you’re seeing. The second shot of the film nods to one of the greatest stunt artists of all time, Buster Keaton, subtly relating that the filmmakers understand that stunts work at their best when their star is actually performing them. Keanu Reeves was already in my mind one of the great action stars, but Chapter 2 puts him in the Hall of Fame discussion.

Scamarcio turns in a wonderful villain as Santino, a sniveling sleazy presence. Common plays another assassin hunting John Wick and rises to the challenge of the stunt work and fight choreography. They have an epic extended couple of fight scenes, and they really beat the shit out of each other, it’s incredible to watch the sheer athleticism on display. Here’s hoping he comes back for Chapter 3. Ruby Rose also delivers a terrific character, a mute assassin also hunting Wick, and she too pulls off the physicality required extremely well. Side characters from the first make welcome appearances (I greatly appreciated another exchange with Jimmy), while other characters like Winston (Ian McShane) get a larger role. The legends Laurence Fishburne and Franco Nero contribute great turns that further flesh out this world, with Fishburne getting the juicy line “SOMEBODY GET THIS MAN A GUN.”

It’s just Chad Stahelski directing this time around, but the spirit of collaboration between himself and David Leitch is still felt. Stahelski’s past as a stunt coordinator and double is essential once again to why the film succeeds. The action is as good as it gets, filming them in long and extended takes, avoiding the noise and fuzz of hand-held action in clean camera movements. Stahelski knows how to make this look good, and with an actor like Reeves, he doesn’t have to hide anything in cuts. How Wick weaves his way through battle is like watching the greatest ballet act, he pulls off the feat of making heavily rehearsed action sequences look and feel in the moment, like they’re a product of this character’s expertise and skill. Chapter 2’s action had me sweating. Each sequence and showdown continually gets more impressive. Every single action scene feels like a highlight, you could put nearly every scene in this film down for the best action scene of the year. This film never runs out of tricks and showmanship to wow you with. There’s a sequence late in the film that takes place in an extended maze of mirrors that should have been impossible to film. It just should have been impossible to orchestrate so much mayhem while trying to hide the camera from reflection. You’ll need a cigarette after watching it.

The aesthetic of this world is always striking, a heightened reality made from shadows and neon lights. It would be enough if the fight scenes were just as good as they are, but the fact that the whole filmmaking process is as driven and ambitious really goes the distance. I didn’t realize until Chapter 2 just how great and understated the score from Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard is. They use the same score from the original, only a few new compositions are added. It’s a pulse-pounding work that relies on muffled guitar riffs and electronic machinations, yet there’s a 4-note synth melody that finds its way through each time, like Wick’s own dwindling humanity.

Even though I would watch another 10 chapters, there’s comfort in knowing that they plan to only make 3, and the final chapter is set up terrifically. Chapter 2 ends on an incredible note, with the most dangerous character in these films running for his life with no sanctuary. John Wick joins the annals of the greatest action heroes on screen, up there with the John McClanes, the Rambos, the Bullitts. We get many films with great action heroes, but so rarely do we get great action films driven by character. John Wick and Keanu Reeves are two of the greatest gifts to action films, and to cinema in general. I’m just so happy to be alive while these films exist. At the end of each year, I like to do an action hero power rankings, and Reeves is far and away the top seed right now for 2017.