CAUTION: SPOILERS for John Wick 3 follow
Since 1888’s Roundhay Garden Scene, thousands of movies have been made. Comedies, action flicks, highbrow dramas…we’ve seen it all, and a lot of it is great. But I’m here to tell you, none of those movies are as good as the latest chapter in the John Wick saga: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Avengers: Endgame…they’re solid, but none approach this level of joyful perfection.
Let me walk you through why.
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When we last left our seemingly indestructible super assassin, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) had been labelled “excommunicado” and had a $14 million dollar bounty put on his head for murdering a member of the assassin United Nations, the High Table. Given an hour to escape New York, Wick decides to visit the library for some light reading…and to retrieve a mysterious cross, along with a marker like the one Santino D’Antonio used in John Wick 2 to pull John out of retirement.
Tuck the mystery away for now. The action scenes begin in the library, where an assassin tries to claim the bounty on John’s head. It’s here we get a taste of the splendor to come. In Man on Fire, the lovably drunk bodyguard John Creasy (Denzel Washington) is described as an artist who’s art is death. With respect to Denzel, if Creasy’s art was death, then his artwork look like my one-year-old’s finger painting. John Wick is Leonardo Da Vinci, and John Wick 3 is the Mona Lisa.
Keanu Reeves stars as ‘John Wick’ in JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM.
John Wick brutally beats the out-sized assassin to death with a book, and then calmly replaces it on the library shelf. For the next 20 minutes or so, we get a montage of mayhem. John gets access to cabinets full of knives. He mounts a horse and has it kick a couple of his opponents to death. Everyone in my row at the theater was grinning at the absurd beauty of it all.
That’s not to say this film is entirely wall-to-wall action; there are plenty conversations where guns don’t do the talking, and they’re every bit as interesting as the action scenes. John Wick 3 pulls back the layers of its assassin mythology. This movie takes place in a world where hotels are sacred ground and assassins are free to wander the streets murdering at will. It’s a fascinating trip. Each of the three films in the series have managed to reveal just enough to keep things fresh and interesting without overburdening us with lore or exposition.
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When the Elder of the High Table tasks Wick with offing Winston (Ian McShane) for giving Wick an hour to vacate New York at the beginning of the film, its back to the Big Apple for an epic motorcycle chase as the High Table’s newest favorite assassin, Zero (Mark Dacascos), attempts to wack John before his inner fanboy takes over. Zero geeks out whenever he has the chance to kill the legendary Wick. It comes off as genuine and is always hilarious.
The finale plays out like the final level of a video game. Wick starts at the bottom of the Hotel Continental and engages in a brutal firefight with High Table thugs armored to the teeth. Its a good thing Wick’s snappy suit is armored, because those things pack a punch. Anyway, Wick slaughters the High Table’s All Star team before advancing higher into the hotel to face off with Zero and his students using a bunch of knives and, in one key moment, his belt.
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Is John Wick 3 a thinking man’s movie? No. It’s a lean action film with a star born to play the role. Keanu is as inseparable from the role of John Wick as Ryan Reynolds is from Deadpool or Hugh Jackman from Wolverine. John Wick 3 doesn’t have a large cast and dialogue is minimal, so Reeves deserves commendation for carrying the movie with charisma so natural it hardly feels like acting. HE IS JOHN WICK.
John Wick 3 knows itself and doesn’t try to be anything it’s not. It spends just over two hours doing only what it does best: creative action sequences, interesting world building and quippy dialogue. Everyone in my theater walked out happy.
John Wick 3 is the greatest film ever made. Until John Wick 4 comes out.
Rating: 4 out of 4 Stars
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