John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (Blu-Ray + Digital)

Blu-Ray Reviews | Sep 18th, 2019

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (Blu-Ray + Digital)
Image used with permission for review purposes.

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Halle Berry, Lance Reddick, Laurence Fishburne, Mark Dacascos, Asia Kate Dillon, Anjelica Huston
Written By: Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten, Chris Collins, Marc Abrams
Directed By: Chad Stahelski
Studio: Lionsgate
Buy On Amazon.com

John Wick 3 is an intense action film that ups the ante from the prior 2 movies. It’s got Keanu shooting guns, kicking ass, stabbing guys, using swords & guns on horseback but wait, there’s dog fu too!

Chapter 3 picks up immediately after Chapter 2, where John (Keanu Reeves) is on the run after killing someone inside the Continental. Winston (Ian McShane), the manager at the hotel declares him “excommunicado.” The entire movie is John on the run, with a bounty on his head of 14 million and climbing. He manages to flee to Casablanca to seek out The Elder, the only man above the High Table. He gets some help from Sofia (Halle Berry), a sort of friend and former manager at the Contintental Casablanca. Meanwhile, an Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) from the High Table puts a target on people’s backs that have helped John Wick in the past, including Winston and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne). Anymore explaining is pointless, just watch Keanu kill and kick the shit out of people.

John Wick Chapter 1 was cool and great action flick and something refreshing in terms of action movies go. Chapter 2 saw him go to Italy and cranked things up a bit but Chapter 3 raised the bar even more. There was so much enjoyable violence on the screen, incredible stunts from all the actors. The first 15 minutes was non-stop action that was so satisfying from a fan perspective. John on a horse was insane, but what was even cooler than that was Sofia’s 2 dogs in Casablanca. Those dogs easily stole the movie for me, doing all these moves and going full speed at people. It was a lot of fun to see. Sofia’s character itself, was okay I guess but would have liked to have seen more in the movie. Halle Berry certainly looked badass doing all those moves alongside Keanu.

The movie’s plot continues from the previous movies, so there’s only a little bit of expanding on those movies. It all takes place continuously so John has been having an interesting few days. We still only get certain glimpses of John’s origins, which might not be enough for fans but I can’t see them ending this franchise anytime soon. Definitely not ending, especially with the way the movie ends. I thought adding Adjudicator into the mix was cool, and the Adjudicator’s team with Mark Dacascos as the main villain. I’ve liked him since Only The Strong, and loved his character in Brotherhood of the Wolf too was it was cool to see him in this. It was a little silly to see him turn fanboy of John halfway through the movie, but this entire franchise is a bit silly in a way. Don’t get me wrong though, I love these movies and definitely some of the best action movies in the last 20 years.

You know there’s going to be at least 1 or 2 movies, setting things up with John going after everybody in the High Table, etc. I feel like there needs to be one big baddie for the final. There’s only one actor that I can think of, that could up the game of the franchise. One who is even crazier than Keanu when it comes to training and doing the majority of his own stunts and that’s Tom Cruise. I know some of you are cursing me right now but I really think having Tom Cruise and Keanu facing off would be something else. I mean, come on, have you seen the Mission Impossible movies. Tom Cruise is flying helicopters and all that crap. That’s just me and probably won’t happen but it would be cool to see I think.

The Blu-ray special features contains a bunch of featurettes that will make people happy craving that stuff. There’s one about the plot of the movie and the franchise, one talking about Wick’s excommunicado, a featurette on the gunplay and action scenes, John Wick getting on a horse, the dogs of the movie, Halle’s training, and lots of other things. I loved seeing Keanu and Halle training, which was like 8 months or something. Halle created a bond with the dogs in the movie, which ended up being 5 of them and were trained by the guy that trained the wolves in Game of Thrones. There’s a good amount of extras on here so I was happy about that.

John Wick 3 might be the best movie in the franchise so far. The action sequences were insanely good but the movie was just a blast to watch from start to finish. I’m hoping if they continue doing these, it’s only 2 more so they don’t exhaust the premise of it. Then again, there’s a TV series coming out taking place in LA featuring new characters. I’m fine with the world of John Wick continuing, but for Keanu’s John Wick story, I’d like it to end in 2 movies. I just don’t want this to become too much or like the later seasons of 24. Like how much can we put Jack Bauer through. Hopefully there’s an end game to this story of John Wick.

Features:
Parabellum: Legacy of The High Table
Excommunicado
Check Your Sights
Saddle Up Wick
Bikes, Blades, Bridges, and Bits
Continental in the Desert
Dog Fu
House of Transparency
Shot by Shot
Theatrical Trailer 1
Theatrical Trailer 2
John Wick Hex Game Trailer
Behind the Scenes of John Wick Hex

Video:
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio:
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles:
English, English SDH, French, Spanish

Bottom Line: Best movie of the franchise…so far
Running Time: 131 mins
Rating: R
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:

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