Pound for bloody pound, I have seen just a handful of action movies in my 48 years that I would consider the best ever made.
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is now on that list.
More so, with this third, magnificent entry, Keanu Reeves’ John Wick trilogy has firmly claimed its seat in the holy triumvirate of All-Time Best Action Franchises next to Mission: Impossible and The Raid.
Seriously, Parabellum is that good.
For longtime fans, Parabellum picks right up from the closing frame of John Wick: Chapter 2 with Reeves’ titular assassin racing through Times Square as a $14 million bounty is being offered for his head.
While it helps to have seen the first two films, it’s not a necessity.
For new initiates, here’s what you need to know: The John Wick films focus on a secret society of assassins across the globe who all live and co-exist based on a very specific code of conduct. The ruling majority of this hierarchy is known as the High Table, and they have eyes everywhere. In the first film, Wick returned from retirement to avenge the death of his dog. In Chapter 2, he broke a cardinal code while dealing with the fallout.
Parabellum, like its predecessors, refuses to play it safe. These movies are the literal equivalent of an insatiable shark, constantly moving and constantly killing. The thrilling fight sequences erupt without warning and leave you speechless, often providing mere seconds for the audience to catch its breath before the next huge battle begins.
The fights are wildly inventive, intricately staged and chaotically beautiful. Some feature nothing more than a library book as a weapon; others involve endless stockpiles of firepower and ammunition. One of Parabellum’s best moments takes place in an antique weapons museum with a seemingly infinite number and variety of knives and hatchets.
Whether showcasing hand-to-hand combat or pulling back for a panoramic view of a gunfight the likes you’ve never seen, such moments are never boring and rarely repeat. Parabellum takes the action further, introducing equestrian combat, motorcycle jousts and two killer Belgian Malinois dogs owned by Halle Berry’s lethal Sofia, a high-ranking assassin and former colleague of Wick’s.
The climatic centerpiece of Parabellum spans nearly 35 to 40 minutes and provides an exhilarating rush of anxiety and exhaustion. Reeves is so believable in this role that you begin to feel each blow that his indefatigable body absorbs.
Taken as a whole, the six or seven standout sequences in Parabellum would be enough to justify calling the film one of the best ever made, but it’s the subtle yet significant character development, the wonderfully understated details and the perfectly timed humor that distinguish and elevate this trilogy above other big-budget action franchises like The Fast and the Furious.
Even the supporting characters feel fully formed, none better than the addition of The Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon), a ruthless enforcer for the High Table, and Zero (Mark Dacascos), a formidable martial arts mercenary who can’t help but idolize Wick’s legendary exploits, even as he tries to eradicate him.
Also new to the Wick universe is Anjelica Huston’s The Director, who helps shed some light on Wick’s life before he was an assassin. Likewise, returning characters like the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) and Charon (Lance Reddick), the concierge of The Continental Hotel, each get ample screen time and multiple moments to shine.
No one ever just dies in a John Wick movie. Bodies are blasted with multiple rounds or cleaved open with multiple blades. And you would be hard-pressed to accurately calculate just how many people are killed. But every death has purpose, every passing another entry in the assassin’s code that permeates each film.
“Sometimes you have to kill what you love,” Sofia says at one point, and she’s right.
Hopefully, as far as the John Wick franchise is concerned, the killing won’t stop any time soon.
John W. Allman has spent more than 25 years as a professional journalist and writer, but he’s loved movies his entire life. Good movies, awful movies, movies that are so gloriously bad you can’t help but champion them. Since 2009, he has cultivated a review column and now a website dedicated to the genre films that often get overlooked and interviews with cult cinema favorites like George A. Romero, Bruce Campbell and Dee Wallace. Contact him at Blood Violence and Babes.com, on Facebook @BloodViolenceBabes or on Twitter @BVB_reviews.
This article appears in May 16-23, 2019.