John Wick 3: Parabellum

2019 Summit Entertainment
Directed by: Chad Stahelski; Written by: Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten, Chris Collins, and Marc Abrams
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Laurence Fishburne, Mark Dacascos, Asia Kate Dillon, Lance Reddick, Anjelica Huston, and Ian McShane
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 131 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 9/10

In the past decade, pure action films seem to have gone the way of the western. With the glut of superhero movies, many of which feature generic, CGI battles, perhaps there's no more room for them. For me, the summer of 1997, where Nicholas Cage starred in not one, but two box office smash R-rated action films, seems like yesterday (Harrison Ford also played an ass-kicking President that summer). However, as I think of recent years, R-rated action flicks have been tough to come by. 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road may end up being my favorite film of the decade, but it unfortunately did not usher in a new age of stunt-based, non-CGI heavy R-rated action films...and though it's the first addition in 30 years, it is part of an already established franchise. I hoped it would  inspire imitators, but no one seems to want to follow in its sandy footsteps. Thankfully, in his third film in the last five years, its John Wick to the rescue.
A franchise pumping out a title with a higher number after it every couple of years dates back to the horror and action franchises of the 70's and 80's. Of course, generally, with those films, the higher the number after the title, the schlockier and worse the film. I guess the distance between John Wick and the last pure action franchise is far enough to where John Wick doesn't realize it's supposed to start sucking now. John Wick 3: Parabellum is the best of the series, yet.
When we last saw the titular assassin, he was on the run, given an hour head-start before the opening of a 14 million dollar bounty on his head. Parabellum begins about 40 minutes after John Wick 2 ended, with Wick running through the streets of New York, an army of assassins soon to be on his tail. And then they catch up. What follows is two hours of perfectly choreographed action mayhem.
As John Wick, Keanu Reeves brings a level of physicality and grizzled authenticity to the role that few if any working actors today can match. Under ex-stuntman Chad Stahelski's direction, the camera lingers on Reeves in excellent medium shot long takes, as he pummels his foes with his body, with knives, with guns, with a horse, a motorcycle...the choreography is as brutal as it is breathtaking, and also ensures that the viewer knows Keanu is doing as much of this as possible...and there is so much of it.
The action is nearly wall-to-wall, which is for the best, as story is always the weakest element of a John Wick film. The bare bones of it is fine, and humorously straight-forward, but when the movies attempt to delve more deeply into the mythology of their world, with its various layers and lexicography, the series feels like a bad comic book. Thankfully, this third volume is light on that, and high on action. What it does reveal about Wick is actually fairly interesting, and opens up some possibilities for a future endgame...as, yes, they are making another one of these.
With the build-up after the last two films, it i not shocking just how incredible and hypnotic the action in John Wick 3 is. The biggest revelation here, though, is Halle Berry. The Oscar-winning actress has not necessarily been well-served by the action genre. In the X-Men films, she was given the clumsiest lines, and the directors never really seemed sure of what to do with her (I'll call those action films, as they are far less CGI-reliant than the superhero movies that came after them). Berry had the misfortune of starring in the worst James Bond movie, as a heavily sexualized character, written by two white guys as if she came from a blaxploitation film. In between those two, she was cast in the action dud, Swordfish, for the sole purpose of having her take her top off. And then, there's Catwoman...for which she won a Razzie.
Maybe Stahelshi and the rest of John Wick 3's producers saw these missed opportunities, and determined to create a role worth Berry's salt. Parabellum creates a character for Berry that both respects her as an actress, and allows her, in her 50's just as Reeves, to be an absolute badass. She's incredible. The film's centerpiece, an extended sequence where she fights alongside Reeves and her character's two attack dogs--real, awesome dogs--is absolutely jawdropping and worth the price of admission. It may have followed 20 years of failed attempts, but John Wick 3: Parabellum, finally makes Halle Berry into an action star.