This movie could have easily been subtitled “John Wick: Chapter 3 – John Against the World” and that would sum up this third movie quite neatly. As with its predecessor (my review for John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) can be found here), the assassin world is getting bigger (I am starting to feel like the only person on the planet who isn’t a professional assassin at this point) the stakes are getting higher, the rules/world building is expending and Keanu is in the middle of it, kicking more ass than ever. But this time, he’s got Halle Berry alongside him (for about 20 minutes). And I loved every second of it.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum starts where the previous finished – without getting into spoilers, let’s just say something big has happened and now, John has to deal with consequences. Thus begins the longest chase throughout New York you can imagine, where almost every New Yorker is a semi-professional assassin, and Keanu kills not just one, but TWO people by using a horse. I don’t think this is a spoiler or very major detail, it’s just so funny and great, it needed to be mentioned, as I honestly can’t remember if I have ever seen a movie death so unexpectedly funny.

Thinking about it, this is how we could describe Chapter 3 – unexpectedly funny. It felt like more than the other two movies, this one has the most laughs, but it doesn’t feel any cheaper because of it, if anything it makes certain scenes standout (Mark Dacascos‘ character almost fan-girling on John right after they’ve fought, for example) and again, it fits well within this story.

With every new John Wick movie, the action set pieces are getting bigger and more imaginative and I love it. Some of the highlights in this movie include the motorcycle chase with katanas (Japanese swords), the “John travels to a different country” part of the movie and the very end. Let’s talk about the end (without spoilers).

This is the first time it felt like the creators behind this movie knew, there will be more movies to come, so the story almost accounts for that, by trying to have some twists (can you even call it like that?) It will be interesting to see whether the next two movies (that’s all that’s been announced, but you know how it is, if they make money, they will make more movies) will keep the high standard/bar as the first 3 movies, or whether it will start to slip up. Personally, with what I know based on the end of this movie, I am intrigued to see where the other movies will take John and us and I am ready to give the creators the benefit of the doubt on this one, as they have proven by now that world building and action set pieces are their bread and butter. I just hope they won’t go the route of “it’s John Wick, therefore he can survive anything”, as that would be the only thing worrying me about upcoming sequels, as in this movie, John survives a lot. Like a normal person would be dead 10x prior the end.

I need to mention something else, one more thing John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum has done perfectly. Even big budget movie like Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) tried, but ultimately failed to do this properly. This film gave the guys from The Raid movies (Cecep Arif Rahman and Yayan Ruhian) roles, that allowed them to showcase what they know and go toe-to-toe with Keanu. I don’t think that’s a spoiler, as from the moment they show up on the screen, you know that two real-life skilled fighters must have a fighting scene here and they do. That is how you utilise those guys, Star Wars, and not by having them be there for a pointless cameo, just for them to die within 5 minutes (oh yeah, spoilers for Star Wars, but honestly, it has no impact on the story, so the same as that movie, I can’t be bothered to do better).

Overall, if you liked the previous John Wick movies, the chances are really high you will like Parabellum too. It’s true that so far, this movie pushes you to suspend your disbelief the hardest, when comes to “he survives this” but I still haven’t found it outrageous. Or, more likely, I am still having fun with the movie, so that doesn’t bother me as much. If I had less fun with it, it would have bothered me a bit more, and that’s my only worry for the upcoming two movies. But so far, I am actually hopeful, as the people behind these films seem to know what they are doing. And I am hoping for Halle’s return, as she only gets better with age and she stood her own alongside Keanu.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

In order for you to understand my review for the new Hellboy, I need to embark on a quick journey through time to acknowledge both Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008). Both of these I’ve only seen once so far, but I remember liking them very much. But even though I liked them, I never understood the hype (at least around mid 2000’s) around Guillermo del Toro – sure, he is stunning visual director, but surely anyone would be able to do what he did with that kind of property, right? How foolish was I…

The latest (would this be considered a remake?) take on Hellboy was supposed to be darker, yet it was trying to stay funny. Emphasis on trying. And sure enough, the movie isn’t shy from being dark (blood, plenty of gore) and have “dirty” fun (plenty of swearing, which I don’t mind) but it’s somehow not jelling well together and it comes across as boring. I know I should not compare the previous movies to this one, but I make the rules around here on this… really tiny blog, so I say why not compare two directors and how they approached the “same” material.

I think the biggest difference is Guillermo del Toro isn’t normal, in the best possible way. He’s by his own admission, into weird things, you could consider him a geek, an enthusiast into monsters, creepy things and he’s managed to make a carrier out of it, standout from the crowd. And that is why his take on Hellboy works much better – because, on some level, he is Hellboy, he understands him better. He’s the guy who no matter what, will always standout, not because of his psychical appearance, but because of how he thinks about things such as camera work, monster design, trying to make them unique… From what I remember about his two Hellboy movies, they both looked visually great, they had that unique feel that I foolishly believed it was so “simple” to achieve with that kind of material…

Let’s go to this Hellboy, shall we? Nothing here looks unique (except maybe one sequence I will talk about soon) and the story is kind of all over the place. There are couple of twists in the movie, but one is twist for a sake of being a twist and the other, at the very end, is just plain dumb. I did say “seriously?” when the twist happened, but not the excited version, like what you’d say to your significant other when asked “I have more chocolate stashed in a cupboard, do you want more chocolate?” It was more along the lines of your boss asking you to do overtime for no money, that kind of vibe.

The only memorable thing about this movie for me was the Baba Yaga sequence. Not only it felt more “horror-like” (which I wouldn’t mind if most of this movie felt like this) but I actually liked the Baba Yaga’s monster design, as that actually looked unsettling. So, whoever has done that, really great job to you.

The rest of the movie is just a mix of bland CGI with some blood and guts, with David Harbour trying his best, but missing the mark big time. I know this was probably the direction he was given, so I don’t really want to say he did a bad job, but this version of Hellboy didn’t work for me, as there wasn’t much to grasp, the whole “I’m different, and yet I fight for those who hate me for it” didn’t hit me the way it did with the previous movies. The same goes for Milla Jovovich – I really, really admire her and everything she’s done, but she wasn’t really given much to do here and the movie is worse for it. Shame movie, for wasting two great actors like this.

And it’s a movie’s fault really, as I believe the biggest problem was with the tone. Either Neil Marshall or the producers tried to balance comic book movie with horror/action/comedy and the result is something that’s trying to be all of the above, but fails horribly in every genre. For a comedy it’s not funny, for a horror, it’s no scary, for an action movie, there isn’t enough action. I wouldn’t mind having just a darker interpretation of Hellboy, with little to no jokes, more skewed towards horror, like that Baba Yaga sequence. That would at least differentiate itself from its predecessors and gave us, the audience, something truly unique and definitely better than what we’ve gotten now. This mixed bag of nothingness, that somehow managed to take really popular and beloved actor from Stranger Things and make him… really meh. Don’t even get me started on waste of Milla’s character (what was her screen time in total, 10 minutes…?)

Would I recommend watching the new Hellboy movie? Yes, I would, but only if you’ve seen the previous two movies. Not because they are connected (they are not) or because this one is great (it is not) but to make more people see why Guillermo del Toro is considered one of the best directors alive right now and to give him (albeit retrospectively) the credit he deserves. And yeah, also for the Baba Yaga sequence.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

I need to admit something – unlike plenty of people, I have only seen the original Zombieland (2009) once and that was the year it came out. For me, it was enjoyable movie, which I remember fondly (even though I wonder how it would play for me today) but I wasn’t really craving “seconds”, never thought this film should have had a sequel. But I am not a Hollywood producer, who were trying to make something happen ever since the first one came out, but didn’t have the script ready, or the main actors weren’t available. But finally, it happened and 10 years later, the result is… meh.

Zombieland: Double Tap is one of those sequels that definitely counts on you going in and LOVING the original. And that means you want to see plenty of the original movie to be referenced here, right? No, you don’t want that? Would you rather have meaningful story line that makes sense within that world and characters who have some growth? Well, then look way further than this movie, because this ain’t it, chief. I am not saying Zombieland: Double Tap is a horrible movie, not by any means. It’s just fairly repetitive, all the beats seemed really familiar (and I need to mention this again, I’ve only seen the first movie once, 10 years ago!) and most of the jokes were predictable. That was the case until Madison (character played by Zoey Deutch) showed up.

I don’t know how they’ve managed to do it, or whether there is just something about Zoey, but she was THE standout performance of this movie. Which is strange, as her character of super-dumb, yet friendly (really friendly) blond girl is nothing new and most of the time is actually really annoying character addition. But she reacts to everything with such a sincerity and all her line readings always landed where they had to, it’s almost impossible not to laugh at almost everything she says. I am not even overstating anything when I say I only laughed at her jokes. They also were smart about her character not becoming the annoying one, so they’ve done something, that I appreciated. Since it’s a new a movie, I won’t say anything more, but that definitely was a smart decision and played well.

The other jokes delivered by the main foursome (technically just a threesome as Abigail Breslin is basically here as almost a glorified cameo) were fine, but they all seemed kind of over this movie, mainly Emma Stone. I don’t know whether this was the direction she was given, or they just dumped a truck full of money in her garden to make this movie and she wanted two trucks, but she seemed checked out in most of her scenes. And she’s somebody who usually is the standout in most of her movies. Truly strange.

This movie also wastes perfectly fine Rosario Dawson (because Woody Harrelson definitely needed that love interest) and Thomas Middleditch, so that’s not helped to make this film’s case. What did help was the runtime, as it never feels boring, there is always something happening and as far as the comedy sequels made long after their first films, this one is not that bad. But it doesn’t stand on its own. And the world of zombies should give you plenty of choices on how to spin a sequel into something not as predictable.

If it wasn’t for Zoey Deutch, actress who I am going to follow with more interest from now on, my final score would’ve been a bit lower, and I would be forced to write something along the lines “there is no one scene or character that’s memorable”. Luckily, she’s here, so there is a reason for you to watch this and who knows? Maybe you’ll enjoy it much better than I have. Just get ready for plenty of the same where at the end, not much has changed.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

No matter who we are and what we stand for, I think this is something we can all agree on – there is nothing better than a great “whodunit” movie. Unfortunately, this genre either consists of stories we’ve seen done before (Agatha Christie novels being constantly made and remade) or movies that aren’t that great to begin with and rely only on some sort of twist, that doesn’t necessarily work upon multiple viewings. This is where Knives Out comes out and surpasses all expectations. I can’t even think of any new(ish) movie that would come anywhere near to the quality of this one, in the same genre.

You can think anything you want about Rian Johnson, but he doesn’t like to make predictable, boring movies as he’s always trying to do something slightly new. Sometimes, it doesn’t necessarily work for some people, so he might have created one of the most divisive movies of all time (my review for The Last Jedi can be found here) but some other times it works brilliantly (for almost everybody) and then we get films like this one.

What makes Knives Out unique in its “whodunit” category, is not only the fact the movie tells/shows you early on what has happened, but it’s based on an original story. Which works wonderfully, because even if you know what happened (or do you…?!) you are not quite sure where the rest of the film will lead you, so you follow it. And it might, or might not, surprise you several times along the way. I have seen this movie in the cinemas (oh, cinemas… I miss you so much) and I really, really liked it. But I had a feeling that a second viewing would be where a movie like this can be properly tested – once you have all the details at your disposal, you can be the “detective” and see whether the movie holds up, or whether some scenes and details don’t make sense.

And upon my re-watch, I am happy to report that Knives Out only gets better. The film moves well (it’s over 2 hours long, but you never feel it, it just flies by you) it’s genuinely funny, packed with a stellar cast and the great, original story is just a cherry on top of a delicious… in this case it wouldn’t be a cake, but doughnut. But there is a hole inside of that doughnut. 😉 What makes this movie truly great is the fact it’s half an homage to this “whodunit” genre, half almost a parody of it. But not a mean, spiteful parody, it’s parody done with heart and by somebody, who you can tell loves (and knows!) this genre really well.

Let’s talk about the cast for a bit, as a big part of this movie’s appeal is not necessarily the fact most of the actors are proper stars, but the fact they all act against their “stereotypes”. Daniel Craig is playing not so serious, yet brilliant detective with southern accent and you can tell he’s enjoying every second of it. Chris Evans is playing proper douche (complete opposite of Captain America) whose “Eat shit” scene always makes me laugh and Ana de Armas, who’s usually typecast as “the hot girl” in plenty of other movies, is portrayed here as nurse known for her brain/work ethic rather than her looks. These three actors stand out the most out of the entire cast as those were the most surprising “against the type” choices for their respective roles, and that’s a part of what makes this movie great – they all needed to go outside of their comfort zone and try something “new” and it worked. And mainly with Ana, I was slightly disappointed to see her not be at least nominated for the last year’s (or technically this year’s) Oscars, because as much as this movie is an ensemble piece, she carries a lot of it and if her character wouldn’t work, the movie would just fell apart.

It’s already been announced there will be a sequel, and I honestly hope it won’t be a traditional sequel. Rather than, what I could imagine and would be up for, is Daniel Craig’s character solving a new case, someplace else. Just him, as Benoit Blanc with his crazy, over the top southern accent, in a new detective story about something completely unrelated to this film and I’d be on board, 100%. It will be interesting to see where Rian Johnson will go with this and whether we might have something more here. I will be on a lookout and need to admit, I need to checkout more of Rian’s filmography. So far, he hasn’t disappointed me, as Knives Out is definitely one of the best movies of 2019.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke