Chad Stahelski

  • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)

    John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Amazon Streaming, December 2020) Every new John Wick instalment is bigger, slicker, longer and more expressionistic – at least from an action/visual standpoint, albeit not so much from a narrative one. In John Wick 3: Parabellum, we pick up where the second left off – with the entire world of assassins gunning for Wick after he’s been declared excommunicado. This, of course, ends up being a license for John Wick to kill more people, starting with a book and then moving on to other weaponry, improvised or otherwise. True to form for stuntman-turned-director Chad Stahelski, the action is meticulously choreographed, set in visually distinct environments, employing dozens of small gags to make sure it doesn’t all blur into undistinguishable “and then they fight” sequences. Surprisingly colourful for an action film, Paralleum also throws in several directorial flourishes (the extended long shots being only the most obvious) for a result that feels far more deliberate (and maximal-effort) than countless other similar assassin-versus-assassin films. The set design is also exceptional – and it’s very satisfying to see a humble Commodore computer used at the Suicide-Girl switchboard. Where the film doesn’t do as well, alas, is at the script level. Sure, it’s not bad – the dialogue is polished, the narrative moves its pieces with style, and the actors get some great characterization to play with. But at the overarching narrative level, John Wick 3 ends in more or less the same place as it began, the canvas betting bigger but not the composition within. It’s still loads of fun – there isn’t a better action series going around outside of The Fast and the Furious—but let’s hope that the inevitable John Wick 4 gets some degree of evolution or closure.

  • John Wick (2014)

    John Wick (2014)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Video on Demand, May 2015)  Hitmen movies are a dime a dozen and so are revenge thrillers, but there’s something to be said for competent execution.  John Wick is right up there as a genre-savvy action thriller that completely understands what it’s doing, and seems determined to keep entertaining its audience even as it riffs off the oldest clichés in the book.  Keanu Reeves stars in a vengeful assassin role that’s not a bad fit for his acting range: He doesn’t have to emote much, and he’s able to meet the physical requirements of the stunts he has to do on-camera.  As with his Man of Tai Chi (and before that, of course, the Matrix trilogy), it’s easy to guess that his willingness to give himself up to his stunt experts give him added credibility in carrying the role.  Still, much praise goes to directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, two stunt specialists who clearly understand what it takes to build an exciting action sequence: long shots, clean geography, dynamic camera moves, small details to build credibility (such as reloading bullets) and actors willing to commit to the demands of the film.  Add to that the hints of a deeper mythology in which assassins seem to operate within a subculture, and you get a film that deliriously enjoyable, not so much for seeing Reeves shoot people in the head as much as being in a universe where that kind of thing is possible.  There are some memorable action beats scattered throughout the film (the most striking being a drifting drive-by shooting), but the key point here isn’t so much the oft-ridiculous premise as much as the refreshingly good execution of the formula.  John Wick is the kind of out-of-nowhere modest surprises that still manages to entertain in a world dominated by franchise behemoths.  Alas, that means that the sequel is only a year or two away…