MRMOVIESETC
REVIEWS:
“John Wick Chapter
3: Parabellum”
John Wick has returned yet again to deal some unapologetically
copious amounts of ass-whoopin’. Actually, though, he doesn’t literally kick
many people, like, right in the ass. He does kick a lot of dudes in the junk,
which many said dudes would argue is far worse than getting kicked in the ass;
either way, right after he does that, he puts bullets in their skulls, so
anything else prior is kind of moot.
The point is that Keanu Reeves is still awesome. Duh.
***
Those whom have avoided keeping up on the “John Wick”
films aren’t likely to care about any of this anyway, but for the rest,
“Parabellum” picks right after the events of “Chapter 2”: Wick is alive albeit
badly beaten, and he is quickly trying to get medical attention and hightail it
out of town as he is about to become excommunicado, which simply means he’s no
longer to be in the company and protection of the league of assassins, and
there will be an Open Season on his head with a hefty payout to follow for any
killer thinking they can take him down. In the meantime, Wick desperately works
through what few allies he has left to get to Casablanca, home of the “Elder
Above the High Table”, so he can plead his case and hopefully get the High
Table off his back.
While John is off trying to get his affairs back in line,
an officer of the High Table called The Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) is going
around making threats with her own army to anybody that has assisted John Wick
during is “crimes”, including Winston (Ian McShane), The Director (Angelica
Huston), and the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne). Suffice it to say, Wick
& Co. will need to accumulate their highest body count yet in order to
survive.
That’s pretty much it. Now, that doesn’t sound like it
could even fill an hour of movie, and conventionally speaking it probably
wouldn’t, but considering that Wick has to punch, kick, slice, and shoot
through horde after horde of henchmen like a video game on crack, the film pads
out the two hours pretty smoothly. As expected by now, the fight scenes
continue to be awe-inspiring for a man that is well into his fifties and still
does all his own damn stunts. Of course, Director Chad Stahelski can’t be
having John kill people the same way all the time, so there are some new
additives of killing on horseback, killing on motorcycles, killing martial
artists in a room made of practically nothing other than glass, and killing
alongside Halle Berry at one point so she and her two fearless canines can mess
the shit out of people, too.
There’s really no room for error in any of these “John
Wick” movies. The plot(s) are kept functionally simple so Keanu can do what he
does best, and I imagine fans of this series could not care less about much
else. As much as I do enjoy them in the moment, the first two, and now the
third, are mainly just that – fun in the moment. I like them, and I respect the
Hell out of them, although they have always been and always will be one-time
watches for me. That being said, I will keep on watching the new ones for as
long as they keep on making them, even if they are really starting to bleed
together to the degree of only being memorable for the best deaths.
“John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum”: 7/10
“The Dead Don’t
Die” (2019)
Huh. Hmmm.
Well, damn, this one was kind of a disappointment.
Stylistically-speaking, “The Dead Don’t Die” has all the
Jarmusch-isms that have made Jim Jarmusch great throughout the years: A solid
cast, minimal plot mechanics, dead-pan comedic delivery, and an ingenious
pacing method to mirror the tone and narration of the film. Unfortunately, between a social commentary
that is so dead-on-the-nose that it is almost cringe-worthy, and the not great
comedy used to drive that commentary, the whole thing felt depressingly empty
and nothing more than a finger-wag to humanity. Then again, maybe that was the
point, but one would hope that Jarmusch hasn’t reached the level of Lars Von
Trier narcissism. That guy has enough of it to cause cancer through the TV
waves.
In the rural town of Centerville, the normal routine of
Police Chief Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray), and Officer Ronnie Peterson (Adam
Driver) gets turned upside down when the Earth suddenly shifts its axis due to
world governments fracking excessively at both poles, causing daylight hours to
get completely out of whack, wildlife to behave strangely, and, because reasons,
reanimate the dead. Like most zombies, these creatures crave the flesh of the
living, but also the things they loved most when they were alive – chardonnay,
coffee, baseball, toys, comics, wifi, etc. Being a simplistic small town
setting, none of the residents fully know how to react to the invasion despite
some of their clear knowledge of needing to “kill the head”, so the infection
begins to rapidly spread, with remaining survivors becoming increasingly
stranded.
I don’t want to say that, even though I felt mostly let
down, that there were no redeeming qualities to “The Dead Don’t Die”. Having
Bill Murray as the star is already a plus seeing that deadpan is his bread and
butter, and Adam Driver is becoming one of my favorite newer A-list actors. The
two don’t have amazing chemistry, but that looked to be by design to showcase a
generation separated by technology and popular culture. Driver’s character is
also the only one that is “in” on the entire plot from the start, which is
supposed to be one of the long-running jokes of the whole thing, but sadly one
of the many that fell flat. Nonetheless, I did at least get some grins and
chuckles out of it, if nothing else, thanks to the banter between the two leads.
Giving credit where it’s due, I’m always glad to see Jim
Jarmusch attempt new things and different genres whilst still staying true to
his craft. Sometimes, though, there are going to misfires, and this one was a
straight wash.
“The Dead Don’t Die”: 5/10
“Being Frank”
(2019)
Once, just once, I would love to see a screenwriter
and/or director take one of these “person living a double life” stories and go
completely left field with it. Whether it’s uproariously funny, risqué,
off-the-wall-bizarre, or whatever else one can possibly conjure up, I don’t
care, just be something different. Leave my jaw on the floor, that’s what I
would like to have happen.
To my experience, that hasn’t happened yet, and with “Being
Frank”, the dream is still only a dream.
***
If there’s one thing I really respect about Jim Gaffigan
outside of his standup – I do really love his standup – is that he hardly ever
brings that persona onto the big screen. I certainly do not see him as some
transcendent actor, and I have a feeling he agrees with that if you have ever
listened to his standup routines before, though he’s never been afraid to test
his acting abilities with dramatic roles. “Being Frank” is yet another one of
those.
Even though I was armed with this information in the back
of my mind, I sat down to “Being Frank” fully expecting a mostly silly comedy
based off of the trailers, and that is not the case at all. There are certainly
funny, silly, and outright hilarious moments, maybe even enough to call it a
dramedy, but with Gaffigan especially, there was more seriousness in the actual
core of this than I initially expected.
Taking a closer look, Frank is a middle-aged man that
inherited a successful ketchup business and has a lovely family with his wife Laura
(Anna Gunn), his son Philip (Logan Miller), and daughter Lib (Emerson Tate
Alexander). Due to being atop the family business, Frank must frequently leave
home for weeks at a time so he can go to Japan for business purposes. What is
family doesn’t know is that when Frank means he’s going to Japan, he really
means he’s going to be with his secret second family, consisting of his other wife
Bonnie (Samantha Mathis), his other son Eddie (Gage Polchlopek), and other
daughter Kelly (Isabelle Phillips). What sends Frank’s secret into a tailspin
is when Philip goes against his parents’ wishes and sneaks off to Florida for
Spring Break and happens to catch Frank in the act of being with his second
family.
Philip is able to infiltrate this other home by
pretending to be the son of Frank’s closest friend that nobody mysteriously has
ever met, and uses the situation as black mail so Frank will let Philip go to
the university that he really wants to go to that Frank opposes. Soon
thereafter, Laura discovers Philip has disobeyed her, and she shows up in
Florida as well by surprise, making Frank’s situation all the direr and
humorously chaotic.
I don’t intend to spoil the ending or anything like that,
but if you’ve stuck with me this far, you know exactly where this is going,
because this type of film always goes that way. The path to getting to t
hat point is hit-and-miss, however there are some fruits along the way. Easily the most entertaining side-plot of the whole film is when Kelly starts falling in love with Philip, seeing that she has no clue whom he really is in relation to her life. Speaking of, Miller is really the big star of the whole show. He has to go through multiple different cycles of vengeful, hurt, playful, funny, and heartfelt, and I would say he carries the load nicely. Gaffigan is certainly fine too in the old “guy running around in circles trying to save his ass” routine. In fairness, it’s pretty hard to screw that up.
In the end, this is a film that could have easily been
twenty minutes shorter for what it was trying to sell, and while it’s
completely predictable and unoriginal, there’s enough starpower and good notes
to get it where it is going without too much fatigue.
I can’t exactly say I recommend it, but if you get a free
rental or something and there’s nothing else, go for it.
“Being Frank”: 6/10
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