Taking place between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and John Wick: Chapter 4, Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), a ballerina-assassin, begins to train in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma and sets out to exact revenge for her father’s death.

Ana de Armas takes center stage as Eve Macarro, an assassin raised in the shadowy world of the Ruska Roma; the same back-tattooed ballerina syndicate glimpsed in earlier Wick chapters. Her mission is pure vengeance: to track down the men who killed her family. Classic John Wick territory. But Ballerina opts for a more reflective, melancholic tone. It’s not a wall-to-wall action ride. It’s a slow burn symphony of violence; fewer bullets, more bruises.

De Armas delivers. She’s not just a dancer with a gun, she brings real emotional heft to the role. Eve is quiet, haunted, and determined. You buy her grief, and you buy her rage. She proves she’s more than just a pretty trigger finger. Physically, she’s completely convincing: nimble, deadly, and precise. But the story lets her down. Her arc is compelling in theory, but too thin in the telling.

The action, while more sparing than in the mainline Wick films, is still slick and satisfying. There’s an icy shootout on a snow-draped hillside that plays out like a deadly duet, and a tense hallway gunfight that brings back that beloved, balletic gun-fu energy. Wiseman opts for clarity over chaos, and the choreography, when it hits, feels sharp and purposeful. It’s not wall-to-wall mayhem, but when the film wants to move, it does so with style.

Where Ballerina really impresses is in its atmosphere. Cinematographer Romain Lacourbas paints the world in rich shadows, blood reds, and deep blues. Every frame feels carefully composed, almost theatrical. If the Wick universe has always felt like a stylised, operatic dream of violence, Ballerina leans into that and adds a mournful beauty. It’s a ballet of grief and revenge, and it commits to that aesthetic fully.

The familiar faces offer a welcome tether. Keanu Reeves’ brief return as Wick doesn’t steal the show, but it adds gravitas. He appears like a weary angel of death; his scenes with de Armas are quiet, sombre, and surprisingly tender. Anjelica Huston returns as The Director, the steely ballet matron, dripping menace. Gabriel Byrne brings a sense of dead-eyed creep as cult leader, The Chancellor. While Norman Reedus as the mysterious and tough Daniel Pine appears both charming and cryptic, with his finger on the trigger, he’s able to differentiate himself from Reeves’ Wick in his presence as an assassin.

The film occasionally feels caught between wanting to be a meditative character piece and a revenge thriller. But even in its slower moments, Ballerina remains visually arresting and emotionally sincere. It’s clear this isn’t just a cash-in spin-off. Ballerina tries something different, and while it doesn’t always land every step, it deserves credit for taking the risk. It expands the world of John Wick with elegance and feeling, offering a more intimate look at the kind of character who might otherwise be background cannon fodder in a bigger film.

If you’re expecting non-stop action, this might feel like a change of pace; but it’s one worth embracing. Ballerina dances to its own rhythm, and in doing so, opens up the Wick-verse in bold, unexpected ways.

Image: Roadshow Films

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John Wick (Keanu Reeves) uncovers a path to defeating the High Table, but before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into new foes.

In 2014 stuntman and action performer Chad Stahelski decided to try his hand at directing with a modestly budgeted action film called John Wick. And the very idea of action cinema would change forever. Bringing together a thrilling narrative, compelling and conflicted character, brash action, epic gun-fu combat, dazzling production design and just straight-up cinema cool. John Wick was something else and now 9 years later audiences are primed and ready for John Wick: Chapter 4. And this is a film that delivers everything you could want and more. A nearly three-hour epic of absolute action mayhem, John Wick: Chapter 4 is a globe-trotting adventure packed together with thrilling intensity as super-assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves) sets out to end the High Table’s grip over him, with bullets and bodies quickly piling up.

What audiences witness in John Wick: Chapter 4 is a filmmaker in Chad Stahelski working at the top of his game and every facet of this production comes together. Narrative, character, world-building, costuming, and some of the craziest, most-insane action set pieces that will absolutely take your breath away are all present. Stahelski works with his most lavish canvas yet thanks to JW4 taking audiences from New York to Japan, Berlin to Paris, and it’s utterly explosive. The volume is cranked all the way up on JW4 and as he’s come to do Stahelski continues with his ‘action as narrative’ story mechanism which he has developed through his work with 87Eleven. From the moment this film starts audiences will be utterly flawed and thrown backwards in their seats, and the force of this picture doesn’t let up for a second.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is an utterly astounding visceral experience and much praise must be lauded to acclaimed cinematographer Dan Laustsen. Turning his camera lens to a sepia-focused colourway, John Wick: Chapter 4 is stylistic and slick, and in the darkness of the cinema you’re transported to the high stakes, faced-paced, all-or-nothing world of John Wick. Working in conjunction with production designer Kevin Kavanaugh and costume designer Paco Delgado, Stahelski and Laustsen give each location and set of characters their own identity, and this filters through the work. From the burning sepia oranges of the streets of Paris to the heightened purple neon of Osaka, to the grimy and fierce reds of Berlin, these visual singularities elevate the setting of the film. Production and costume design also have their part to play and JW4 is an extremely lux piece of cinema to behold.

Hollywood veteran Keanu Reeves is once again front and centre as John Wick. Regarded as an unkillable and strikingly deadly assassin who hunts his prey from the shadows, Wick has a bone to chew this time and god help those who want to see him put down. With a partnership that stretches back more than twenty years, Reeves and Stahelski have a fantastic working relationship and it shows through the performance that is delivered on screen. While Reeves has shown that he’s adept when it comes to the run and gun, JW4 delves deeper into his character, and more importantly his purpose as a man. Themes of loyalty, family and legacy run deep in JW4 and we find Wick at his most thoughtful, contemplative and aggressive as he wages an all-out war against the High Table. While he may have started off as a typical noir anti-hero, John Wick has developed into the single most interesting protagonist of modern action cinema and this is all down to Reeves and his layered and stoic performance.

It’s a who’s who of names this time for JW4. Leading the hunt for Wick is Bill Skarsgard as the Marquis de Gramont, the arrogant and caddish leader of the High Table whose sense of grand hubris puts him close to the fire; Donnie Yen makes a complete 360 turn as blind assassin Caine, whose deadly skills rival Wick’s and whose complexities and comedy will win audiences over; Hiroyuki Sanada bring a Samurai sense of gravitas and respect as Yuki Shimazu, and he shares a close bond with Wick; Shamier Anderson is the hot-shot up and comer known as the Tracker who sees Wick as his ticket to the big time; Clancy Brown brings a menacing and intimidating presence as the High Table’s judge, The Harbinger; Natalia Tena turns up the heat as feisty Russian gang lord Katia, the half-sister to Wick; and martial arts legend Scott Adkins is thoroughly unrecognisable and outright crazy in his performance as the maniacal Killa. Add in support from Laurence Fishburne and Ian McShane and you’ve got something very special with JW4.

Be prepared because John Wick: Chapter 4 is a rush. Stahelski and his team of mad-genius stunt performers go all out with this fourth entry in the franchise and it makes for a manic watch. Prepare yourself for more guns, more blades, more explosions, more jujitsu and kickboxing and aikido and straight up smash mouth fight scenes, a scene where Reeves unleashes his inner Bruce Lee in a brutal nunchaku beatdown, gun-fu madness with bullets being sprayed all about, a very pissed off Belgian Malinois with serious bite and a car chase-fight scene shake up through the streets of Paris that makes for one hell of a final act. The action of JW4 is action as art, and this dance of pandemonium will make you sit up and take notice. JW4 is an example of the action genre transcending to high art. And it’s one hell of a watch. And if you manage to catch this one in IMAX, watch out, because it goes big on the BOOM.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is one of the single greatest cinema experiences I’ve ever witnessed. It was an utter event, and from beginning to end I was totally enwrapped in its detail, intensity, passion and just sheer entertainment excellence. The cinema screen exists for a film like John Wick: Chapter 4 and it’s an experience you won’t forget.

Image: StudioCanal

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Well, it’s now official, and as reported by Deadline, Reeves will return with collaborators Francis Lawrence and Akiva Goldsman for the long-awaited sequel.

Reeves will reprise as supernatural exorcist and demonologist John Constantine, who in the original is dying but stays around to save his soul by keeping demons from hell from breaching earth. He also gets between a battle between the archangel Gabriel and Lucifer.

While there are no other details currently about the project or what kind of direction it might take, a couple of years ago Reeves, Lawrence and Goldsman were able to reflect on the project in a special panel for Dan Diego Comic Con which revealed some very interesting ideas as to where the story would take Constantine.

We’ve got our fingers cross that this much longed for sequel will make it into active development and are very curious to see where this Constantine sequel moves to from here.

Source: Deadline

Image: Warner Brothers Pictures

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The Matrix Resurrections is a continuation of the story established in the first Matrix film. It reunites Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss as cinematic icons Neo and Trinity in an expansion of their story that ventures back into the Matrix and even deeper down the rabbit hole. A mind-bending new adventure with action and epic scale, it’s set in a familiar yet even more provocative world where reality is more subjective than ever and all that’s required to see the truth is to free your mind.

When it comes to films that literally changed the landscape of cinema and which have had an indelible impact on pop culture no film stands greater than The Matrix. This original, innovative and highly imagined 1999 science-fiction masterpiece forever changed how audiences would view cinema and what they would expect from it. Following the completion of its original saga with 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions, many fans thought that the narrative was now complete and there were no further stories to tell. But this is not so when it comes to the endless possibilities that exist in The Matrix and now in 2021, more than 22 years after the release of the original film, writer and director Lana Wachowski returns to answer the questions that have passed through the mind of many viewers. And prepare yourself for something totally different and new with The Matrix Resurrections.

Just as the original films were seen as undeniably fresh and entertaining so too is The Matrix Resurrections. Shot in crystal clear high-definition cinema, Matrix Resurrections is a beautiful film to look upon and as a viewer, you are instantly swept up in the action and narrative that is brought to the big screen courtesy of Wachowski’s vision. While I won’t go into specific narrative points as I believe The Matrix Resurrections benefits from its story being witnessed in one serving up upon the big screen, I will say that Wachowski approaches it with a very unique eye and audiences certainly won’t expect what she gives to us with its narrative. There’s a terrific meta sense to the film, and an interesting awareness of the story as a whole, and audiences are sure to get swept up as the narrative moves forward at pace.

As she did with the 1999 original Wachowski and her team truly pushed the envelope of action cinema and digital effects with The Matrix Resurrections and this is a true action spectacular. The pace moves quickly and there’s a stable level of intensity in this new rendition of The Matrix, and those audience members with a penchant for the explosive will really like what Wachowski throws at them this time. I will also say that I was also very impressed with how Wachowski utilises and re-interprets the film’s unique use of wirework within its combat scenes and the result is an action presentation that is the Level 2.0 of what we originally saw in the first films. Punches and kicks fly and with the use of dynamic, twisting camera-work and fast-moving scene changes, the action of The Matrix Resurrections is a storytelling feature in its own right and an example of what I’ve long-termed ‘action as narrative’.

Plugging back into the simulation and throwing on his black duster once more is the one and only Keanu Reeves as Neo. And he’s not the hero we once knew. Much has changed for Neo, or Thomas Anderson as he is now better known as and The Matrix Resurrections feels like this is very much Reeves re-discovering what it means to be Neo again. And this makes the ride a whole lot more fun. Contemplation and questioning take up a big part of his role and Reeves injects his own philosophical performance into the character as Neo begins to question the difference between real and illusion. Reeves also puts his ‘action man’ abilities to work and he’s lost none of his abilities as a lethal weapon and it’s damn fun to watch him go to work against a literal horde of enemy machines.

Playing off of Reeves and herself returning to the world of The Matrix is Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity. Although she’s not the Trinity we once knew. Now known as Tiffany inside of The Matrix, she has her own role to play in Neo’s resurrection as The One, and their unique chemistry is explored even deeper this time. While action and explosions are aplenty in Matrix Resurrections, Moss’ involvement leads to a major focus on a strong and central love theme that is present in the narrative and makes it that much more impactful for viewers. Moss also gets to show off her motorcycle skills, and the film’s key action scene has her and Reeves riding a Ducati Scrambler 1100 Sport PRO together and it’s so freaking cool to watch.

Of particular note in The Matrix Resurrections is Neil Patrick Harris who is an absolute scene-stealer here as The Analyst. While the less that is said about his character the better, I will say that he’s very two-faced in his performance and he gives The Analyst a slyness and cat-like quality that will keep audiences on their feet. Praise must also be directed towards Jonathan Groff who appears as an infamous Matrix character who has been given an extensive upgrade and he showcases a calculating and dangerous Machiavellian temperament that marks him out as a very adversarial character and only adds to the surprise of The Matrix Resurrections.

The Matrix Resurrections is a thoroughly unique and engaging watch and is very much worthy of the big screen. Taking the idea of science fiction cinema and the technology that produces it to a brand new level this is filmmaking that truly revs up its engine and it’s one of the most fun experiences you’ll have in a cinema all year long!

Image: Universal Pictures

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Now enduring the monotony of middle-aged life, William “Bill” S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter) and Theodore “Ted” Logan (Keanu Reeves) are warned by a visitor from the future of the need for them to create a song in 78 minutes that will save all life on Earth and the entire universe. The pair work with their families, old friends, famous musicians, and each other to complete the task.

Director Dean Parisot picks up where Bill and Ted left off over 29 years later and answers the question? What the hell happened to these two guys! In short, not a lot really, and now facing middle age and considerable burnout, along with the inevitable family problems that come with it, Bill and Ted find themselves pretty stuck. Until destiny comes calling for them, and they finally have to wake up to their responsibilities to save time and space itself. Parisot keeps things light and fresh and the film’s innovative narrative and plot framing allows him to tell this crazy, fun story and keep things moving. There’s a natural exposition to the film, and whether you’re new to Bill & Ted or returning to catch up with the Wyld Stallyns you’ll enjoy what comes next.

As for Bill and Ted themselves, Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves pick up right where they left off and the two of them sure are having a blast. Both easily step back into their characters and have the same fantastic sense of dynamic energy that they first showed off back in 1989, but here it gets extended out to middle age and you get a new sense for who these characters have become. As Bill and Ted, Winter and Reeves go through a range of emotions and considerable transformation due to the film’s time-travelling plot devices and it’s obvious that the two of them were having fun with this one. While they still have a long way to go to become the heroes they were supposed to be, Winter and Reeves do get there in the end, and there are some hilarious surprises along the away.

Adding to the fun of Bill & Ted: Face The Music, and bringing a fantastic sense of millennial energy to the narrative is the duo’s daughter’s Theadora “Thea” Preston (Samara Weaving) and Wilhelmina “Billie” Logan (Brigette Lundy-Paine). The characters of Thea and Billie are a hilarious addition to the film and ate almost the carbon copies of their dads’ thanks to their obsession for music and their track remixing genius. Both Weaving and Lundy-Paine brilliantly play off of each other, along with Reeves and Winter, and they keep things interesting and entertaining while taking this story in a brand new direction.

In terms of the viewing experience, Bill & Ted: Face The Music is a sheer celebration of creativity and the power of music to bring people together. The film’s narrative, which is devoted to saving not only the world but the entire universe along with all of time and space, runs fast and keeps you amped at every turn thanks to some surprise character appearances and plenty of laugh-out-loud comedy. In watching this movie you truly feel that everyone who was involved with it was having the time of their lives making it, and this energy and enthusiasm shines through in the final print.

From beginning to end, Bill & Ted: Face The Music is just a fun time out at the movies, and anyone lucky enough to see it in cinemas will be in for a real treat. Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves truly give it there all with this one, and completely party on here. 

Image: MadMan Films

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Now Lionsgate have confirmed that they are going ahead with a John Wick 4 and John Wick 5, and that both sequels will be shot back-to-back.

As reported Deadline, on a recent earnings call Lionsgate CEO John Feltheimer said, “We’re also busy preparing scripts for the next two installments of our John Wick action franchise, with John Wick 4 slated to hit theatres Memorial Day weekend 2022. We hope to shoot both John Wick 4 & 5 back to back when Keanu becomes available early next year.”

He also confirmed that John Wick 4 will arrive in cinemas on May 27, 2022.

It’s an incredibly exciting prospect that we’ll be seeing more of Keanu Reeves elite assassin tearing up the big screen and (SPOILERS AHEAD) will see him teaming up with Laurence Fishburne’s underground crime lord, The Bowery King, who was left thoroughly pissed off at the end of the last film which saw him cut up by the High Table, and I would bet that these two might very well end up burning down all of New York in their mission to destroy the High Table.

In terms of the sheer economics of it all, John Wick 4 and it makes perfect sense as its a franchise that has shown considerable growth over the long term in terms of its profitability. Just looking at the math, 2014’s John Wick cost $20 million dollars and made $86 million at the box office, 2017’s John Wick: Chapter 2 cost $30 million dollars and made $171 million at the box office, and 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum cost $56 million dollars and made $326 million at the box office. It’s a franchise that with it’s star power, action flair and very distinctive style that can continually pull in the crowds and we can’t wait to see what comes next.

It’s still remains to be seen when cameras will roll on John Wick 4 and John Wick 5 but it’s very likely that we’ll see them in production sometime next year.

Source: Deadline

Image: Studio Canal

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In a special panel discussion, director Francis Lawrence, star Keanu Reeves and producer Akiva Goldsman discussed the making of the film, and how they brought the Hellblazer to life.

This panel is a fascinating watch into the behind-the-scenes work that went into Constantine and you can check it out below:

Kicking off early the panel, Goldsman describes how the film was originally a star vehicle for actor Nicolas Cage with visionary director Tarsem Singh attached as the director, before the project fell through back in the late 1990s. It was then revitalized with Goldsman, who brought on Reeves and Lawrence and the three collaborators went to work.

Filmed in 2004, Lawrence states that he didn’t look to comic book movies at all when working on the film, and instead focused in on a tone inspired both my horror cinema, but more so by the visual language of film noir. The director cited films such as Blade Runner, The Maltese Falcon and The Third Man playing an integral part in the construction of the film and these influences definitely show through in the finished product.

Reeves was espeicially fond of the production and dished out plenty of respect to both his co-stars and the film’s crew and was integral to the film being shot in Los Angeles. This was a stipulation of his contract and anyone who watches the film, can feel the grainy, gritty Los Angeles vibe of the film which makes it such a compelling watch.

The panel also discussed the idea of a sequel, and while some pretty crazy ideas where kicked about, including Constantine having to investigate the death of a newly resurrected Christ figure, ultimately they couldn’t get a sequel going. However, recent talk of a Constantine film for HBO MAX has got people talking and Reeves himself has said that he’d be more than happy to return as the occult detective, so here’s hoping we see this come to pass.

Constantine remains one of those classic comic book cult films that I think everyone should watch and 15 years on it still holds true as one of the most visually striking and unique comic book cinematic experiences.

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Now comes brand new news that HBO Max is developing a new Constantine film specifically for the platform, and that Reeves is being looked at to return as the infamous sorcerer.

MovieWeb discussed how blockbuster filmmaker J.J. Abrams will be shepherding the project and that more news of this will be made available at DC’s upcoming all-digital FanDome event.

While it’s all just rumours right now, what is being speculated is that this proposed new Constantine film could be the set-up for a base of individual occult character films from within the DC Comics universe and that it could lead to a potential Justice League Dark film which has long been and on-again/off-again project, but which fans have eagerly wanted to see come to light.

While Constantine has recently been played on the small-screen in a wonderful performance by Matt Ryan, Reeves is potentially being tapped to return to the role, with the actor confirming in 2019 that he’d be very keen to return to the role.

I’d be very keen to see Reeves return as Constantine and have my fingers crossed that this announcement will be made true at DC Fandome on August 22.

Source: MovieWeb

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Legendary hitman John Wick (Keanu Reeves) must fight his way out of New York when a $14 million contract on his life makes him the target of the world’s top assassins. Being declared as excommunicado after killing D’Antonio on Continental grounds, the chances of survival have never been thinner for Wick. With the aid of old allies, John seeks to turn the tide.

In John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum we once again see the return of Hollywood legend Keanu Reeves and his director Chad Stahelski, and the result is pure genius. Ever since 2014’s John Wick, Stahelski has raised the bar for what is capable in action cinema and here in John Wick: Chapter 3 he pushes his craft even further with some of the most awe-inspiring action set pieces ever committed to film. Balancing both a growing scope of epic proportions with a film that is still uniquely intimate, and the result is a mind-expanding cinematic feat that really opens your eyes.

Continuing with his ‘action as narrative’ philosophy, Stahelski and his team at 87Eleven elevate the action of John Wick: Chapter 3 to a whole new level, while again using it as a way to explore the narrative and character of their lead character. Broken, bloody and with the reality of excammunicado knocking at his door, Keannu Reeves’s legendary assassin John Wick is very much in survival mode and the audience gets to see him in a different light. While in the first two films the character was very much in a proactive state of mind, here he finds himself in a reactive persona as he is doing everything he can to simply survive. Stahelski understands the thriller genre intimately and he uses a tight time setting and ticking clock to really push his lead character to the very edges of his limits and this allows the director’s action orientated mind plenty of creative freedom to dream up some awe-inspiring action sequences.

Once again Keanu Reeves pulls on his jacket, notches his tie and lock and loads as legendary assassin John Wick and he’s really up against the wall this time. With increasing enemies all around him, the Baba Yaga is forced into some very compromising situations and it allows us to see a new side to the character. In this film, we see the conflict around him tearing at his internal character, especially at the love he shares for his deceased wife Helen (Bridget Monahan), the one true person who ever allowed him any chance of freedom and this really creates some intense conflict for the character. Again Reeves is just a consummate professional on-screen and he really throws himself into the craziness of the action that explodes around him, and his actions will literally make audiences jump out of their seats.

Joining Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 3 is Halle Berry, and damn does she make one hell of an impression on audiences here. Her character of Sofia, a dangerous and capable assassin is pulled into Wick’s journey of mayhem and she is absolutely none-so pleased as having to put her life on the line to help Wick. This of-course sets the stage for a very interesting character dynamic between the two of them and Berry absolutely proves herself as Reeves equal when she gets on the trigger. Double-tapping adversaries at an alarming rate, Berry’s Sofia is possessed of cat-like agility as she does close-quarter battle alongside Wick in what I must say is the film’s most exciting sequence. And like Reeve’s Wick she’s also an animal lover and is joined by a pair of ferocious Belgian Malinois attack dogs whom see unleashes for lethal effect. You couldn’t find an actress more fitting to fight alongside Reeves, and Belle really goes for it in every way possible.

Also returning to the fold for a third appearance is the quintessentially charismatic Ian McShane as Winston, the head of the New York Continental, and one of Wick’s last true friends, and he will have to pay for his friendship this time. McShane’s elegant performance has long been one of the best parts of the John Wick franchise and his position as Wick’s confident and advisor takes an all the more interesting turn this time around. With each new installment the John Wick franchise finds new ways to develop its characters further, and in John Wick: Chapter 3 it’s interesting to see how John’s friendship with Winston effects both men in this very dangerous and unpredictable world that they both operate in.

John Wick: Chapter 3 also gets some great new blood this time around in the form of both Mark Dacascos and Asia Kate Dillon. Dacascos, a martial arts cinema icon stars as Zero, a lethal Japanese assassin whose Ninja ferocity and skill with a katana makes for seriously good cinema. Brutally efficient and lethally focused, Zero makes for a great test of John Wick’s skills and watching Dacascos and Reeves go up against one another is an absolute treat for action fans. Then there’s Asia Kate Dillon who stars as The Adjudicator, a corporate and clinical box ticker whose managerial agenda and haughty arrogance makes for a despicable villain and Dillon really gets under your skin.

You wanted action. You got it. And man oh man is it something out of this world. With each successive addition to the John Wick franchise, Stahelski and his team have elevated the bar, and here they reach a whole new level. You’ve got gun fights, knife fights, tomahawk fights, dog attacks, a lethal cocktail of jiu jitsu, judo, karate, kick boxing, pencat silat, arnis, and mixed martial arts, a stunning motorcycle chase scene that dials up the word EPIC to a 1000 and a horse chase-fight combination scene that destroys all expectations. In short, Stahelski packs his film with everything and more and you’ll be salivating with the action that explodes on screen before you. With so much action to choose from there’s something for everyone and as for the sequence that really got me going I have to choose Reeves/Berry’s double-team close quarter battle scene as my favourite. It was just out of this world! Action fans, you will not be disappointed with John Wick: Chapter 3.

Along with elevating the action of John Wick: Chapter 3, the setting also gets a major upgrade and we find ourselves leaving New York for the fair shores of Casablanca. It’s a location and a setting that completely lit my heart on fire, first for it’s homage to Bogart’s classic role in the eponymous 1942 film, a hallmark of the film noir genre, but also for the new environment that we find Wick in. This new cultural setting is packed full of colour and atmosphere, and the Casablanca Continental is a mythical location that you’d definitely want to spend the night at. Alongside Casablanca, there’s also the grandeur of New York City and as always Stahelski and his team turn it into one hell of a playground for their bogeyman hero.

If you’re searching for some beauty amongst the carnage then you’ll most definitely find it here, because as an execution of the cinematic art form John Wick: Chapter 3 is gorgeous. Bathed in neon light and shot with a eye for high sheen, cinematographer Dan Laustsen crafts a beautifully rendered piece of cinema. His evocative use of light and shadow, and strongly defined compositions really keep you in the centre of the action and the resulting images have tremendous power. Laustsen also defines his style for each location with New York again taking on his hyper-masculine neon edge, while his focus on Casablanca results in a more earthy and rustic pallette. The costuming and props are again out of this world, and Reeves has quite the arsenal to play with this time and the use of Vivaldi’s ‘Winter’ is the perfect final touch.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is an opus of action cinema and is one of the most fun times you’re ever likely to have in the cinema. Your adrenaline will really get dialed up with this one and Keanu Reeves turns in one hell of a performance. Action cinema simply doesn’t get much better than this.

Image: Studio Canal

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The all-new trailer has arrived and it is out of this world cool. Check it out IMMEDIATELY:

Here’s the full synopsis.

Still on the run following his assassination of a member of the High Table in The Continental, and with a $14 million global contract on him, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is excommunicated from every Continental service, which forces him to fight his way out of New York City with the help of a hitwoman named Sofia (Halle Berry) who still believes in his trust.

Kicking off with a lightning pace, the trailer throws audiences right into the action of John Wick 3, as Wick is forced into a desperate fight to escape New York City and the reaches of the vindictive High Table whom he has incurred the wrath of. Armed only with his wits and any type of weapon he can lay his hands on, you can bet that the action is gonna run fast here.

Building on the previous trailer, this new trailer adds to the extensive worldbuilding that we’ve come to expect from director Chad Stahelski, and fans of the franchise get a look into the film’s new characters who include Halle Berry as Sofia, a dangerous hitwoman who makes for an uneasy ally with Wick, Mark Dascascos as Wick’s ruthless pursuer and the High Tables chief enforcer Zero, along with Angelica Houston’s scheming overseer The Director, who shares a long history with Wick.

Along with the burgeoning world of The Continental and the High Table, Josh Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum also packs a considerable punch when it comes to action with a mountain of uncontrollable action scenes that is going to send your adrenal gland into overdrive and deliver you one hell of a rush!

Get ready for something extraordinary when John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives in cinemas on May 16.

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