Tag: John Wick Chapter 3

film

My Top Ten Favorite films of 2019

Posted on by spacecortez

This was an excellent year for movies. There’s a few movies I have yet to see that may have knocked others off this list, but hey, there’s a lot of movies out there and this year I’ve watched an inordinate amount of old and foreign films thanks to the Criterion Channel streaming service (I highly recommend it!). There’s only so much time in a year, what can I say? The films listed below have some reviews all to themselves, but there’s also several here that I saw and loved but never got around to writing a review of it.

10 Joker

Joaquin Phoenix certainly committed to this role, and it paid off incredibly well. When I initially heard about the concept of Joker origin story with no Batman to counterbalance the chaos, I wasn’t interested. To the filmmakers’, and performers’, credit- I actually really dug what they were able to do with the premise. The world building was excellent, the brooding tension was palpable and damn near overwhelming at times, but the best part was Phoenix’s incredible descent into madness. He carried this film and should, at least, be nominated by the Academy for this role. He earned it.

9 Ad Astra

I did not expect to love this sci-fi adventure as much as I did. Brad Pitt’s performance as Roy McBride was one of my favorites of the year. This “Apocalypse Now” meets “2001 Space Odyssey” vibe worked insanely well in my opinion. The irony of an Astronaut traveling to the furthest reaches of the solar system to reach his father is a fascinating inward character drama for Pitt’s McBride. Usually heavy-handed narration could sink an otherwise decent film, but here it not only enhances the drama, it’s essential to understanding who Roy McBride is. This journey to Neptune was an evolving and engaging one that I really dug.

8 The Wretched

I caught this film at the Traverse City Film Festival over the summer and it was one of the best original horror films I’ve seen in years! Set in Northern Michigan, a teenager visiting his father for the summer notices his Dad’s neighbor is a bit… off. I don’t want to ruin anything about this movie, but just trust me on this one, go watch it! Smart characters, awesome practical effects, chilling sequences, and literal edge-of-your-seat intensity- this film knocked it out of the park for me and I highly encourage every horror fan to seek this one out!

7 Ford V Ferrari

I recently caught this one with my Dad, I mean it’s the perfect Dad movie and the marketing worked for me. What I didn’t expect was that this one would be one of the best damn movies of the year in every conceivable category. Acting. Pacing. Heart-pounding thrills. Funny, sad, and powerful. The story of Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles working with Ford to beat Ferrari at the 1966 24-hour Le Mans race in France was compelling and once fully immersed, I didn’t want to exit the car when the credits rolled. It was incredible. They don’t make many movies like this anymore, check it out when you can!

6 Godzilla King of the Monsters

Look, I’m a sucker for giant monster movies, Godzilla especially. I grew up on those old Toho, man-in-a-suit, relics. I have a warm nostalgia and earnestness for these cheesy flicks, and this American sequel brought a lot of heart to some old favorites. The use of classic Toho movie monsters Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah were 100% on point for their larger than life personalities. This movie, correctly, recognized that the monsters are the stars, and the human cast is just there to react to their mayhem. Lots of solid throwbacks to the fifty plus year history of Godzilla. I wholeheartedly loved this movie.

5 Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

Is it just me, or is Quentin Tarantino’s skill as a writer/director aging like a fine wine? While this isn’t my favorite outing from the filmmaker, it is an excellent film. This is Tarantino at his most relaxed and most meta, his love for Hollywood, filmmaking, and the people who made them is made crystal clear here (if you haven’t already noticed). Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio excel as stuntman, and eternally cool, Cliff Booth and the internally wrought actor Rick Dalton. This is a film that’s completely at ease with it’s characters and lackadaisical with it’s pacing- though I’d argue that the relaxed speed of the plot was finely tuned for maximum enjoyment. The two friends can feel their time passing them by, and their conflicts come with meditative questions about how to evolve with the transitioning film industry. How do they stay relevant? Does it matter? It’s all good man, just kick back and enjoy the ride with Cliff through the Hollywood Hills, it’ll all work out.

4 The Irishman

This decades long Gangster epic is one of the finest films from Martin Scorsese in the 21st century. Granted, he has consistently made challenging, intimate, bombastic, and truly cinematic work that will stand the test of time- but this one may be my favorite film of his since “Gangs of New York”. Getting Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci together for this beautifully tragic film was a true delight. This is a film, obviously, made by an aging master of the craft. His directorial touch in this film could only be informed by someone that’s made movies for thirty years or more. He doesn’t just love these characters, he has empathy for them, and it feels as though he may pity these characters and the power structures they live and breathe in. It may be three and a half hours long, but it’s well worth the time sink. Easily one of the best movies of the year.

3 John Wick 3

The John Wick movies just keep getting crazier and more intense and I’m here for that. Keanu Reeves has helped to turn the tide of action movies away from shaky-cam noise and darkly lit confusing brawls into an evolution of clean wide shots with well choreographed, but not defined by dance or ballet, action. This is a film series enamored with the history of action shown onscreen, and I fucking love that. The story may be simple, John Wick is out for revenge against the dirty bastards that ruined his retirement, but the devotion to grisly, eclectic, and unnerving violence is admirable to say the least. This film cracked open the underworld of John Wick’s assassin’s guild and expanded the lore in a few really cool ways. Also, that knife fight will go down as one of the best fight sequences in modern film history.

2 The Lighthouse

Yet another film has confirmed the manic brilliance of the A24 film studio. I will watch every and any film that comes from A24. I didn’t think Robert Eggers could top his first feature, “The Witch”, but this film took huge, gigantic, creative swings and for me, it worked wonders. “The Lighthouse” is a miracle film in my opinion. Not that it’s “so good it’s miraculous” but rather, it’s a miracle that it got funded and made at all. A black and white film shot in an ancient 1.19:1 aspect ratio with a clear and unavoidable admiration for turn of the century silent film work- I mean, this is a film for film nerds if there ever was one. The performances by Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe were both exquisite and legitimate tour de forces- and I don’t take that term lightly. They employ the grand range of expression in their descent into madness. This is one of the standout films I will remember fondly when thinking back on this year’s creative output.

1 Avengers Endgame

What can I say about this film that hasn’t already been discussed ad nauseam? It sits atop the box office throne, and it earned that spot. I’ve always been a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe- since Tony Stark himself was tagged by shrapnel from his own bombs, I’ve been there. I grew up reading a wide variety of the Marvel comic book characters, and the sheer devotion that this studio has had in crafting incredibly accurate adaptions of their superheros has been downright amazing. These films work because of the focus on the characters themselves, about what motivates them, who they are as people rather than what they can do with their various “science gone wrong” superpowers. Endgame is my favorite movie of the year because it paid attention to every detail about their string of movies past and present, and they kept evolving their characters over time. Sure, the world saving stuff is bound to be fun, but I’m more fascinated with who these larger than life characters are and how their heroics, or failures, effect them. Besides, I will never get over the fact that the biggest movie of all time features Captain America, with Thor’s Hammer in hand, saying “Avengers Assemble”. As a longtime comic-book nerd, I will always cherish that very silly and quite amazing moment.

*Films I missed, but wanted to see: Uncut Gems, Knives Out, Parasite, Marriage Story, 1917, The Good Liar, Motherless Brooklyn, Honey Boy, Dark Waters, The Farewell, Midsommar, Rocketman, Shazam, Us, The Dead Don’t Die, Always be My Maybe, Aladdin, Yesterday, Missing Link, Rambo Last Blood, Dolemite is My Name, The Peanut Butter Falcon, The King, and El Camino.

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film

Review: John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum

Posted on by spacecortez

Warning: Spoilers for “Chapter 2”, but not “Chapter 3”

Written by Derek Kolstad, Chris Collins, Marc Abrams, and Shay Hatten and directed by Chad Stahelski “John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum” is the third entry in the John Wick series which finds the titular Wick (Keanu Reeves) right where we left him at the end of the last film; which is to say, running for his life with his dog at his side. For those needing a refresher, the second film established the world only hinted at in the first film, wherein there are rules for the initiated- and those rules are taken with a deadly seriousness. The first rule, is that you may not conduct “business” on continental grounds. The Continental, being the internationally recognized hotel for assassins. The second rule is that once bound to a marker, you must oblige the bearer of any request they make. Markers are circular discs that open to two halves, one side is red with the blood of the needing, and the other is only imprinted with the blood of the subservient once the request has been completed. Once you ask someone for help with a marker, and they accept, you must know that you will have to repay them eventually. “Chapter 2” establishes the severity of not adhering to the will of a bearer with a marker binding you to them. Wick is forced into assisting a bearer in “Chapter 2” and seeks retribution once the task is completed- but kills the bearer on continental grounds and thus labeled Excommunicado with a heavy bounty placed on his head, though the Continental’s manager Winston (Ian McShane) gives Wick a one hour grace period before the contract is open to all known assassins.

You can’t see the dog from the last film here, but trust me, he’s there.

With a $14 Million price tag on his head, Wick scrambles to make it out of the city, but also by getting his dog to the continental where he knows they will take care of him. The first twenty minutes of this film have some of the most inventive and rollicking great action sequences since “The Raid: Redemption” took the action genre by storm eight years ago. Speaking of that film, there are a handful of actors that make the jump to this series for a few particularly formidable foes that Wick must tango with. In fact, one of the best aspects of this film, aside from the crazy-violent and gut-wrenching action scenes, are the multitude of cameos from a variety of sources. The first fight in the film is between Wick and “Ernest”, the 7 ft 3 in tall assassin played by Serbian NBA player Boban Marjanovic, in the New York Public Library. It’s an excellent fight to kick the movie off, it may have been a little short, but wow- I didn’t know you could do THAT to someone with a book! We also get cameos from Jerome Flynn (famously played Bronn in Game of Thrones) and Jason Mantzoukas (He played Rafi from “The League”) as one of the many homeless citizens in league [ba dum tss- I’ll see myself out] with The Bowery King once again played magnanimously by Laurence Fishburne. Of course I’d be negligent in my reviewing duties if I forgot to mention Tiger Hu Chen. Not only has he previously starred as the lead in the only film that Keanu’s directed himself in “Man of Tai Chi” (check it out, it’s fun!) but he also has the goriest death in this film, in my humble opinion.

As with the previous two films, the action in this series is increasingly inventive. If you’ve ever read or seen an interview with the director, Chad Stahelski, you’ll see that he has a deep love of the action genre and cinema as a whole. In both “Chapter 2” and this film the opening scenes pay respect to Buster Keaton in homage to his legendary stunt work in the 1920’s, by playing his work projected on the side of a building and on one of the many large screens in Times Square. Stahelski has thrown in a multitude of nods and winks to cinema’s past and many eagle-eyed, and knowledgeable, fans will catch them. A particularly fun one is when Wick breaks into an old antique gun shop and has to modify two guns into one quickly enough to get one shot off as his pursuers break the door down. The director himself has stated that that shot was a direct callback to “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” with Eli Wallach, putting a pistol together in the gun shop.

While the plot in films like these isn’t always the primary concern, this series knocks that notion off it’s feet by continually expanding on the lore and mythology behind the assassin’s organization by examining how it works, it’s many hidden layers, and who controls whom. I don’t want to get into too many spoilers since the film’s still in its opening week, but admittedly, this one does a great job at giving us morsels of information, like John Wick’s real name for example, and some understanding of where he came from and how he was molded into The Baba Yaga.

This is another excellent entry in the franchise and personally I had a great time with it! The action was superb, satisfying, and mystifying! The cast was well rounded and precise given the runtime, no one felt wasted! However the very best news that this film could give, was that there’s even more Baba Yaga to come! The fourth film has already been greenlit and given a May 2021 release date according to several movie news outlets, and nothing could have made this action fan happier to hear!

Final Score: 7 cuts!

*Here’s a fun interview with the director on the stunt work in the film (though it does contain spoilers!):

https://www.polygon.com/entertainment/2019/5/18/18627988/john-wick-3-fight-scenes-how-they-did-horse-dog-shootout-continental-breakdown

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