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 The third installment in the much-beloved John Wick series of action films is about to hit. Feel free to use this thread to discuss the movie, the previous two movies in the franchise, other movies Stahelski has worked on, and your favorite stories of Keanu Reeves being just the gosh darned nicest guy. The John Wick films are some of the most critically-acclaimed action films around and are generally considered to be some of the best examples of pure action filmmaking showmanship this side of The Raid. Directed by Chad Stahelski, a former stuntman (whose most famous job was taking Brandon Lee’s role after his death on the set of The Crow,) the John Wick films are widely credited with reviving Keanu Reeves’ career and marking an end to the Paul Greengrass-inspired method of action filmmaking where you have twelve different cuts in the span of five seconds to mimic how stressful a fight is or whatever. Each action scene in these movies is a beautiful ballet of carnage, sold by the fact that Keanu has agility that would be impressive for a man in his 20s, let alone his mid-50s.  Unfortunately, Chapter 3 is one of those movies you can’t describe the premise of without spoiling the previous, so here goes: In a secretive underworld of assassins, a central organization known as The High Table runs a cabal of skilled hitmen (hitpeople?) and a shadowed society for them complete with its own currency. The Continental Hotels serve as shelters for these professionals, with one central rule: no business conducted (read as: no capping motherfuckers) on hotel grounds. So our buddy John went ahead and killed a leader of The High Table in the hotel.  Hunted by The High Table, hotel cleaners, and the scores of assassins otherwise after the $14 million bounty on his head, John Wick is the most wanted man on Earth, and is set to spend the rest of his life on the run, however much is left of it.  New cast members include Halle Berry, Tiger Chen (who played the protagonist of Reeves’ surprisingly solid directorial debut, Man of Tai Chi,) Jason Mantzoukas (oooh, maximum Derek,) and Asia Kate Dillon. Returning will be Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, and Laurence Fishburne. The John Wick films are just solid filmmaking from start to finish. The premises and writing all sound like they’d be loving insufferable on paper but they pull it off with just enough intrigue and ambiguity it still manages to stay cool. The situations are goofy but all taken gravely seriously, to prevent too much obnoxious self-aware yuks. And many, many people get shot in the head. You owe it to yourself to check these out if you ever had a fantasy of being an action hero as a kid.  To be fair, it was a really cute dog. Pirate Jet fucked around with this message at 08:04 on May 18, 2019 |
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May 15, 2019 07:14
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Basebf555 posted:If I ever really told people the true # of times I've watched John Wick 2 they'd probably have me locked up. I mean, if your action movie is gonna be a blatant ripoff of another one’s, Enter the Dragon is a pretty drat good one to pick.
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May 15, 2019 19:14
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504 posted:Ah, another in the line of "thrilling action" movies where the indestructible, perfect at everything, never in the slightest danger hero slaughters unending hordes of automatic weapon wielding baddies by doing impossible things and only being shot where hes wearing magic body armor. I’m not sure you’ve seen an action movie before.
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May 15, 2019 21:18
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Just wrapped up over here too. The action is superb and it’s been amazing to see Stahelski perfectly handle the gradual increase in budget over the course of the series, but I agree with the notion that the plot just treads water and the movie basically ends in the same place it began. Also really feels like an asspull that both John and the Bowery King survived what they both went through.
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May 17, 2019 03:11
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Chad Stahelski deserves a spot among the all-time greats for action directors. There are a lot of stealthy characters in this movie, and the things he does with blocking and shadows to conceal things and people in plain sight is NUTS. You can also feel the bigger budget, hard, but not in boring ways like having more big name actors all at once against more CGI monsters, but actually creative stuff like dogs in action scenes, scenes on motorcycles, scenes on location far away from NYC, etc.
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May 17, 2019 05:04
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BENGHAZI 2 posted:Here's my take It fuckin owns that Stahelski is aware of and intends the imagery of John teaming up with an army of homeless people to take down an organization of high-class hoity-toity rich people. Do you know where the interview is?
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May 17, 2019 13:35
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Not sure I understand the reading that Winston betrays John at the end when his conversation with the Adjudicator in the lobby afterwards makes it pretty obvious he intentionally kept him alive. Still dumb he survived that fall and that the Bowery King survived his execution. I’m sure they’re going for some back from the dead/underworld imagery here but I dunno, there’s probably a less clumsy way to do it.
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May 20, 2019 07:27
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Reeves and Stahelski met on the set of The Matrix, a movie by two trans women that’s one big long metaphor for being trans (early drafts even had Neo change gender when entering the Matrix) so it makes sense they’d be inclusive like that. I think Ruby Rose is non-binary as well and they didn’t codify them as one gender in specific in 2. Of all the filmmaking teams to make a big comeback I’m pretty glad this is the one that did.
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May 20, 2019 20:05
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Xealot posted:That's an interesting point. I think this is more shown by the fact that everyone is scared of the Adjudicator and they don’t even fire a bullet. Their power is entirely bureaucratic and therefore the opposite of everything John stands for. Urdnot Fire posted:It sort of felt like they realized they wouldn’t be able to wrap it up in one movie while working on 3, so I wouldn’t be overly surprised if they hadn’t already filmed some of it. Ultimately my assessment is that while I agree that the story they’re trying to tell here is too much for one movie, it’s also not enough for two. It’d be nice if franchises other than massive superhero tentpoles could survive releasing three-hour flicks.
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May 21, 2019 00:03
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Hello everybody. My name is Pirate Jet, and after nine years on these blessed forums, I still haven’t learned that quote is not edit.
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May 21, 2019 00:11
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Xealot posted:I don't know, it seems like the plot of the next one will be John and the Bowery King joining forces with other underclass malcontents angry with the High Table, and then murdering all of them. I could see that being a complete film in its own right. The entire plot of Chapter 2 was concerned with killing 2 members of the HT. You've even got themes...the Italian crime groups, the Bratva, the Yakuza. Sounds cool to me. I’m trying to insinuate that there really wasn’t enough to spread for 3 to work. I’m sure 4 will be fine.
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May 21, 2019 00:46
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He did use that book like a guillotine.
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May 21, 2019 01:06
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Snowman_McK posted:The Man From Nowhere is hella good. It's only really got one big action scene in it, but it's a hell of a scene. The director's follow up, 'No Tears for the Dead" was also excellent, though similarly glacially paced. Korean cinema seems to be one of the few cinemas that really understand how loving terrifying knives and knife fights are. Asia Kate Dillon prefers they/them, from what I’ve read. I get you though, it’s an honest mistake. I didn’t know about Dillon being non-binary until I did the light research needed for the OP. Pirate Jet fucked around with this message at 02:41 on May 23, 2019 |
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May 23, 2019 02:35
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Yeah, the downside of the ambiguity of these movies is that the hierarchy isn’t really clear, though never in ways that really matter at least. I thought The High Table was a totally separate organization from the assassins until 3 came along.
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May 28, 2019 15:06
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The line delivery on “...he was.” makes me giggle just thinking about it.
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May 31, 2019 19:11
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Yeah I get the argument over whether John was in on it but I don’t understand how people debate whether Winston intended to kill him. Like Charon turns to him and goes “well played, sir” and then he’s a sarcastic gently caress with the Adjudicator about it.
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Jun 12, 2019 05:37
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You should watch Man of Tai Chi if you haven’t already, it’s on Netflix. Keanu directs and plays the main antagonist, and while it’s not the best action movie, it’s really good for a directorial debut. He pulls off some genuinely clever stuff with blocking, though nothing quite as bonkers as Stahelski did with the ninja guys assaulting the Bowery in JW3.
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Jun 20, 2019 01:47
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You’re not wrong, it’s just that 3 is in a really weird place where they’re basically laying groundwork for the inevitable conflict of John vs. High Table - it’s so clearly where they’ve wanted to go since the end of 2 but 3 mainly sags because it feels like a bunch of busywork that needs to get out of the way before they can do that. If 3 had the same budget as 1 or even 2 I’m pretty sure it would suck rear end, the thing that saved this movie was creative expensive poo poo like shooting in the desert, putting animals in fight scenes, fights on motorcycles, etc.
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Aug 30, 2019 17:07
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