Sean’s movie thoughts

 The John Wick spin-off The Ballerina is called, at least on the trailer, From the World of John Wick the Ballerina. That just seems tacky. If I go to see it at a theater I am not saying “From the World of John Wick” when asking for the ticket. I will buy the ticket at a self-service machine if need be to avoid saying that. There is a movie called Master Z Ip Man Legacy. That title feels a bit better. Maybe it is because the actor and his character appeared in Ip Man 3. The title does not seem tacky. Master Z is a good film. I hope the Ballerina is good. Maybe it will be good but it will at least have Ian McShane to bring class/gravitas to the project. The trailer looked decent at least. How large a role Keanu Reeves has in this is unknown at this time. This takes place between John Wick chapters 3 and 4. It was nice to see Lance Riddick even briefly in the trailer. I still don’t know if John Wick  chapter four needed more of Riddick. Maybe he was in it was much as he was in t...

There are rumors of a fifth John Wick movie. Without spoiling the last movie, I am not sure where the fifth film would go. I guess something could be figured out. It can be hard to walk away from a successful franchise. If the audience is increasing from movie to movie, it can be hard to stop making films. John Wick's audience does seem to be increasing.  I would like the people behind these films to do something else. I think that could be interesting. I don't think a fifth John Wick film has to be terrible but there seems to be a risk that it could be bad. Maybe going out on top would be good. More about this as it develops.

John Wick Chapter 3 Parabellum is good. The fight scenes are good, you can actually see what the heck is happening, it is not a bunch of quick cuts. Keanu Reeves returns as John Wick and the movie opens right where the last movie ended. The story holding all the action sequences together could have been better. At a certain point some of this mythology or world building borders on ridiculous. Where is the money for all these killers coming from? There are a lot of professional killers and then there is the High Table and it’s clerical staff. Are there enough people hiring assassins to support all this? I think William Bibbanni said something similar after Chapter Two, so I am not claiming this as an original thought. I guess we are supposed to just go with it. It was nice to see Mark Dacascos as a villain. (It might be time to re-watch American Samurai again.) It was also nice to see Halle Berry and Anjelica Huston in supporting roles.  Berry’s role is not as big as trailers mi...

I liked the two John Wick movies but sometimes I feel like I am supposed to love them. They are good and I am probably going to the third one. Other people seem to love the films and there are articles like “John Wick redefined the action movie” or “new movie in the John Wick style...” like the movies are more than just good. I saw a review/retrospective of Quantum of Solace and it might be the worst James Bond of the Daniel Craig era. However it is not terrible. In the overall franchise I am sure there are three or four worse movies. The trailer from the Fast and Furrious spin-off Hobbs and Shaw came out. It looks okay but not great. Maybe I have seen a lot of movies with Dwayne Johnson lately but I just don’t feel that interested in this movie. Could I have Dwayne Johnson fatigue? (Heh.)