ReelBob: ‘John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum’ ★★★

By Bob Bloom

“John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum” is an amalgamation of various influences, including Quentin Tarantino, Chuck Jones and Tex Avery.

It’s more about style, lighting and atmosphere than substance. The movie is preposterous.

The sequel, like its predecessor, is exceedingly violent. But the mayhem and the gore are so cartoonish and outlandish that they mostly elicit laughs instead of winces.

At the end of “John Wick 2,” Keanu Reeves’ Wick has been labeled excommunicado for killing a member of the High Table at the Continental Hotel, which, under the rules of the shadowy organization, is supposed neutral ground.

Winston (Ian McShane), manager of the Continental, gave Wick one hour to leave New York before a $14 million bounty is placed on his head, giving any killer who is able the right to kill Wick and collect.

As “Parabellum” opens, Wick is attempting to leave the Big Apple, but time is running out.

In the “Wick” world, it always seems to be raining in the city and half the population appears to work as assassins — at least part-time.

Wick is like an Energizer bunny. He takes enough punishment to land a platoon of men in a hospital for a year. Yet, like the bunny — or more aptly, Wile E. Coyote — he never gives up and continually bounces back to kill and maim those trying to end his life.

And his choice of weapons vary — including some unexpected stablemates.

Wick uses knives, hatches, swords, his belt and guns — plenty of guns. And as in the earlier movies, when he shoots an opponent, it is usually several shots and many to the head. And in “Parabellum,” no body part is sacrosanct or goes unscathed.

Near the finale, Wick takes on several swordsmen, recalling the duels in the Tokyo bar in Tarantino’s “Kill Bill: Vol. 1.”

Martial-arts combat sequences have the feel of Hong Kong action movies, while some of the chases and stunts appear so absurd that they could have been lifted from a 1940s Tex Avery animated short or one Chuck Jones’ classic Road Runner–Wile E. Coyote battles.

The acrobatics is reminiscent of some of the comedic work done by silent film stars Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd in their precision and timing.

The plot of “Parabellum” is secondary,  most of it centering on Wick’s attempts to reach Morocco, so he can find the leader of the High Table simply to talk with him and make things right.

This part of the movie features Halle Berry as Sofia, one of Wick’s assassin compatriots, who has a pair of dogs that are definitely not man’s best friends. The coordination between the dogs and the stuntmen whom they attack is very impressive.

And Berry, though her role is small, also holds her own with a gun and her fists.

“John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum” seems to be set in a parallel universe in which nearly everyone has a license to kill and carries some sort of weapon.

Yet. the movie is not just about getting Wick; it’s a parable about, as stated many times throughout, “rules and consequences.”

You break the rules of this deadly society, and you suffer the consequences.

An orderly world exists within this group, despite all the deadly chaos. People know their place and act accordingly.

“John Wick 3” is brutal, but beautiful; graceful, but violently graphic. Director Chad Stahelski is like the Sergei Eisenstein of fight sequences, and in Reeves he has found the perfect partner. He may not move as gracefully as a Bruce Lee or Fred Astaire, but his coordination and reflexes are like watching a lethal ballet.

“Parabellum” is entertaining as hell, and it is smart enough not to take itself very seriously. It feels as if the filmmakers threw a concoction of video game, cartoon, martial arts, drama and comedy into a blender, then poured it directly onto the screen.

And it’s tasty enough to wish for more.

I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My reviews appear at ReelBob (reelbob.com) and Rottentomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com). I also review Blu-rays and DVDs. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com or on Twitter @ReelBobBloom. Links to my reviews can be found on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3: PARABELLUM
3 stars out of 4
(R), graphic, bloody and constant violence, language