Reviews

I could write a review about the actor's performances, the time travel from the late 50's through the 70's, but I'm not going to do that, because in all cases, the evocation of the era and the performances were on point in every way. Including that Marty could cook.

Instead, I'm going to point out this key fact about this movie: it underscores that equal rights still do not exist in the United States.

There are generations of women younger than me who don't know that women couldn't get a credit card in their own name, which is mentioned.

The pivotal case is not about discrimination against a woman, but discrimination against a man - through the US Tax Code - because he had to quit working to become his elderly mother's caregiver. He was doing 'women's work'. I hope in the 21st century people understand that all work is all people's work, and gender is not what qualifies them to do the work that is required of them. Nor can it describe the parameters of their workplace, their work day, how they are treated at work, or what is expected of them when they work. Unfortunately, the laws have not caught up, nor have some corporations or organizations. They only way they know they lag behind is when someone points out their discriminatory behavior, and this is what Ruth Bader Ginsberg did -- because, as this film points out, she was discriminated against solely because of her gender.

Discrimination under the law still exists. Why it exists is because of the hidden assumptions of our culture: that only certain people have certain abilities, and, conversely, that people should always have their abilities given culture's assumptions.

Neither of these statements are true. I can attest to this as I have been discriminated in one way or another, either overtly, covertly, or insidiously, for my entire lifetime. I thought about thirty years ago that those times would end. They haven't. Yet.

This movie needs to be viewed in every high school and college classroom that covers United States History, Women's Studies, Gender Studies, Health, Law, Economics and Business. Discrimination for any reason holds everyone back, puts no one ahead, and does not protect a 'natural order'. Our nature is for all of us to take care of one another according to every person's needs. Neither gender, nor race, nor economic class are reasons to keep a person from being a caring human being contributing to their family or community through whatever means they can.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg and the late Martin Ginsberg did us all a great service when they stepped up to defend a man taking care of his mother against the United States Government's Tax Code.

We owe both of them our attention by watching this film. Everyone who participated in the making of this film did their pioneering legal work proud, to the benefit of us all.

Where do I start? How about that star rating? Not enough stars. I need to add my own rating to the star rating and it is this: When watching an action movie, how many of your hands are up, how many of your feet are up, are you in the fetal position because your feet and hands are up, and are you watching the screen, and for how long are you in this position?

So I have to add two hands, two feet, fetal position, watching the screen, for the majority of the movie so I'll make that an extra seven points (for length of time spent in this position in a movie theatre seat ever in my life) and here's why: I like action movies, depending upon the characters and the story line; I love martial arts movies; I love beautiful cinematography; and as a writer, I go for anything with a story line that really captivates me. JW3 has it all. I had no rest.

If you haven't seen JW1 and JW2, if you want a story line that invests you in the movie, see the first two (or rewatch them) and then definitely see this on the big screen while you can. In JW1 we learn about John Wick's grief over losing his wife Helen to illness (for whom he had been able to leave his assassin's life) and the murder of the puppy she left him so that he would be consoled after her death. In JW2, he re-enters his role as an assassin against his will. At the end, he breaks a major rule in a society that does, indeed, have rules of conduct, engagement, decorum, and retribution for transgressions. Don't conduct business (assassination) in the Continental.

Within the first ten minutes I had one foot facing the screen. JW3, like JW2, goes full throttle out of the gate. Oh - be sure you use the restroom before the movie starts, because you will have absolutely no breaks.

It all begins in the library, after John Wick asks the cabbie to take his dog back to the Continental. Kudos to Chad Stahelski for making the librarian an important part of this sequence, because she does know where the book is. Important keys to the development of John Wick's history are there. Along with an assassin who isn't willing to wait. A really tall assassin. The martial arts sequence in the stacks of the New York Public Library is mind-blowing. The weapon of opportunity: a book. Humor blow Number One.

But wait-there's more! As John Wick runs down the streets through Chinatown, he's followed. Wonderful to see the first of three homages to The Matrix in this sequence - Keanu Reeves (John Wick) and Tiger Chen (the fishmonger) in a non-stop brutal martial arts fight. One foot up.

And then, the horses. No, not just one (maybe you've seen that on social media already, the horse/motorcycle chase?) Before that, there's the fight sequence in the stables with, I couldn't even keep track, four horses? Five horses? One of the horses definitely gets into the fighting thanks to a slap on the hindquarters from John Wick. I definitely had two feet up by then.

As a writer, I appreciated the increased world-building as the back story of who John Wick is, and how he came to be, unfolds. Despite this interlude from the action, my two feet did not come back to rest on the theatre floor.

No, it's not just about a puppy. Passage granted, brand endured, John Wick heads for Morocco, where there is an old friend. There are more dogs. Sofia's (Halle Berry's) dogs. Sofia runs the Casablanca Continental, and she owes John Wick a debt. During an attempt to help him, her dogs show just what they can do. A gun fight to get out starts when another assassin shoots one of Sofia's dogs (who happens to be wearing Kevlar, of course). The dogs have their own biting way of entering combat, and it's not pretty. Her rationale after it's all over? "He shot my dog." John Wick: "Yeah, I get it."

From the trek across the Saharan sands to find someone who can help John Wick get back to New York in his battle against the organization called the High Table so that he may be free of his assassin's life to just mourn his wife's unexpected passing (a request that comes at a high price) to his encounter with the ninjas led by an assassin named Zero (Mark Descascos - another excellent martial artist who delivers humor at the unlikeliest of times), the action continues in amazing sets, stunningly photographed, revealing that all of the principal actors in this movie aren't just acting - they're also athletes. More on that later.

Wick fights ninjas during a motorcycle chase at the start of the movie, only to encounter them again in glass rooms where everything can be seen and yet they disappear, the fight sequences are over the top not only in comparison to JW2 but for anything I've seen - because this is hand-to-hand combat with actors who have trained in martial arts. That in and of itself makes this movie a must-see for anyone who loves martial arts, cinematography, choreography, weapons training...I could go on.

As a writer, I still want a story. Martial arts without a story doesn't really engage me. With a story? It absolutely does. Stahelski and Reeves as self-named graduates of the Wachowski school of world-building (which they learned while working on The Matrix) do this proud. So proud that the first scene with the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) shows him drenched in rain (evocative of his scene in The Matrix where he's rescued - here, he's not). When at the last fight scene John Wick answer's Winston's (Ian McShane) question, "what do you need?" He replies, "Guns. Lots of Guns."

The Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) who has delivered retribution to the Bowery King and the Director (Anjelica Huston) for their assistance to John Wick waits in the Continental for the gunfire of the last battle to be over quicly. It's not. Let's just say...the last bullets fired set up the scenario for John Wick Chapter 4, because I'm not sure he was wearing a tactical suit (he got a new suit in Morocco - was it? Wasn't it?). And who shoots whom? I'm not saying. The thicken plots (to turn a hackneyed phrase into a spoonerism).

My hands and feet? I can't even remember at which action sequence they ended up all up toward the screen. All I know is that I spent about two hours in my theatre seat in the fetal position, and sometimes, yes I did yell though I didn't cover my eyes.

I'm still blown away. You will be too. As I got up to leave, the man in the seat a couple of rows behind me was speaking to the woman he was sitting beside, saying "I got the time of the movie wrong, now we've seen the end, so why stay?" I looked at him and said, "You have to stay - in the first ten minutes you will totally forget what you just saw." Here's why, and it goes to a comment Chad Stahelski made in response to a question about a potential Academy Award for Best Stuntman/woman. His reply, in short, and JW3 demonstrates this, is that excellent action films are a collaborative effort. JW3 relies on stuntmen (which Reeves is ready to admit he is not - he has a stunt double, Reeves just does action); it relies on actors (Reeves, Berry, Reddick, and others) to learn how to fight in whatever milieu is needed for the plot - martial arts, gunplay, a combination thereof; and in order to show what these people actually do, the cinematography itself.

This movie is an example of how moviemaking is a team effort, that actors learn not just lines but a whole lot more if they want to do an action picture, and that the eye of the photographer (Dan Rautsen) is as important as the director's ability to frame the scene based upon the vision. When the Academy decides to create an award for such a movie, John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum needs to be the benchmark.

Isabeau Vollhardt author, The Casebook of Elisha Grey scifi/detective e-book series

Spoiler alert: to review a sci-fi movie as sci-fi, can't stop with just one spoiler...

William Foster (Keanu Reeves), obsessed neuroscientist along with friend (or is he really?) Ed (Thomas Middleditch) go from being dutiful employees of a mysterious biotech company (or is it?) to mad scientists cloning a dead family in the basement. Includes stealing billions of dollars' worth of equipment from the employer, and seventeen days of no sleep for obsessed and sometimes grieving Foster, who sleeps with his youngest daughter's stuffed unicorn during the basement vigil (a cute, funny, and subtle homage to Blade Runner, where the unicorn was a key). Oh, that youngest daughter? Not part of the original clone party. Drawing lots hurts even for a brilliant neuroscientist. Three plus one (him) yields four, and the fifth member seems lost.

All the relevant philosophical and ethical questions are brought up in the first part of the movie (so don't skip the opening dialog scenes). A horrible crash on a dark and stormy night renders corpses ready for cloning (though who collected the DNA matter isn't explicitly laid out). The special effects used to transfer neural patterns from a brain donor to a host (first and last, a robot, for a nice plot twist) are well done, an homage and further refinement of those used in Minority Report.

Like any creation, however, beautiful wife Mona in the tradition of her nineteenth-century literary predecessor - Frankenstein's Monster - calls her creator on his crap more than once, providing the noble (or is he) scientist a couple servings of humble pie.

But wait! Before the heavy questions can be addressed, much less answered, the thicken plots (pardon the spoonerism). In sci-fi movie tradition, there's the danger, the chase, the suspense, the unmasking of the boss (John Ortiz) as being a nefarious capitalist who hasn't been honest with his intelligent workers about his business plan.

There are a few details, in addition to the unicorn, that show the kinds of writerly touches sci-fi writers employ, such as the name of the uncloned daughter Zoë (meaning life); symbolic use of numbers, in this case 345 (numbers in divine sequence with implication of the importance of the wholeness of the body); and an homage to Johnny Mnemonic, when William Foster hides in the men's room to transfer his own neural network to its little box so it can be transferred to robot William. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick...but you know the boss is going to walk into the men's room just when a neuroscientist needs to have a steady hand.

Continuity flubs happen, so I wasn't looking for those. Even Casablanca has a major one - no, Ilsa wasn't wearing a blue dress in Paris; she was wearing a suit, which Ted Turner's TNT Classic Film coloring revealed. However, there are a couple of plot lapses that go against the science outlined in Replicas that make you go 'hmmmmmm...'

One: If transferring the brain patterns of a person to a halo that's then going to be put on a clone means the brain needs to be intact (hence the boss giving the order to NOT shoot William in the head - did you really think he wouldn't get duplicated himself?) then you have to ask - after blunt force trauma that would cause a TBI thanks to robot William bashing boss Jones against the tile floor, would transferring his neural network to his clone yield a fully functional Jones? Certainly his reptilian hindbrain is left intact...

Second: if the cloning process algorithm is designed to yield a clone of the original person at their same age if incubated for the seventeen required days no more no less no power interruption in cloning goo, then why would an ailing rich man want his own body to be cloned? Or, was his neural network destined for a different clone (which goes against Foster's discovery that the neural network would only work if transferred to a body that would feel familiar, which he creates for robot William by transferring his physical algorithms to the machine)? Then there's the bullet between the eyes for brownnosing Ed (karma's instant) so does someone else have his cloning skills? Robot William?

As a sci-fi writer, I do the best I can to make sure that the science part of my plot lines is consistent and makes sense within its context, even though fiction by its very definition requires a suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader/viewer. It's hard work and yes there can be flaws despite a writer's caution to avoid them. Despite these two gaffes, this movie is good cheesy fun with a few holes like a slice of Emmenthaler, paired with some dialog that gives a yummy and salty taste of ham. Put them between two slices of French Toast and you've got a Monte Cristo sandwich for brunch.

The happy ending gives the impression that all the loose ends have been tied up, but have they? The philosophical questions remain, the ethics still debatable. Beautiful clone Mona questions William's wisdom, recalling Mary Shelley's premise: just because you can doesn't mean you should. As Thomas Brophy Ph.D. said, "the mechanism demands a mysticism" and William Foster, like Victor Frankenstein, in a moment of grief turns to desperate anger and fails to see the truth, found in quantum physics not bioscience, that what makes us human is our soul, not our brain. The ghost in the machine defies the 17th century Cartesian logic upon which the biosciences with their mind/body concepts rely, much to the chagrin of Schrödinger's cat, who walked into a bar and didn't.

Isabeau Vollhardt Author, sci-fi/detective e-book series The Casebook of Elisha Grey

Spoiler alert -- for those old enough to remember when this story, and the story the Washington Post would break soon after, it's not a spoiler. For those of you who weren't born yet, it is.

Spielberg ends the movie with an allusion to the Watergate Hotel break-in. I remember Watergate. I barely remember the Pentagon Papers except that their publication was mentioned on the evening news.

The attention to period detail is impeccable. As a former typesetter (offset/phototypesetting) I was amazed that the linotype machines got to play a significant part. Yes, I did see them in action when I went to a job interview, and learned the typesetter needed to be able to proofread on the fly reading something upside down and backwards (like Snell shorthand, a job skill that isn't appreciated anymore).

Hanks, Streep, Rhys, Paulson, Whitford and a cast too long for me to name were all spot on. The juxtaposition of Kay Graham's battle for her newspaper and Daniel Ellsberg's battle to get the truth out about the Vietnam War being a failed cause (I had no idea Ellsberg was actually in combat in Vietnam), along with the legal machinations preventing publication are riveting.

If you think what we see on televised/cable news, or on the internet news, is true reportage, think again.

This film portrays what the Fourth Estate is all about, and it's so timely to watch it now.

And for those born after these times? After you watch this, watch "All The President's Men" with Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, and Hal Holbrook among others.

Both of these films are required viewing for anyone who is a journalism student, teacher -- or a journalist who is below the age of 50.

Isabeau Vollhardt author, The Casebook of Elisha Grey scifi/detective ebook series

For those who haven't experienced sexual abuse in the home from family members, this subplot may seem sensational. For those who have (and don't yet remember it consciously) it may be disturbing. For those of us who do remember, it is a cathartic story that lets us know we are not alone, and it's a brave subtext for Nicholas Kazan to tackle, Courtney Hunt to direct, and the actors to portray.

Jim Belushi's portrayal of Boone Lassiter, the gregarious, happy guy in company but the dominating, abusing husband and father in private, using sex as power, is disgustingly true to life. It's easy to not sympathize with the fact that he was murdered; however, murder is a crime that leaves evidence – the body. Rape within the family leaves no evidence as long as the victims are continually bullied and fearful of getting help.

Through flashbacks and narration, the relationships between the Lassiter family as well as defense attorney Richard Ramsay (Keanu Reeves) are revealed. Granted, Ramsay says he knows the family well, that he's an old friend – he used to work with Boone Lassiter. As the film progresses, it becomes clear that he was more than just a friend. Loretta Lassiter (Reneé Zellweger) shows the tension, reserve and hesitation that hallmarks many abused women, however, one scene reveals that her relationship with Ramsay is more than just as a family friend.

Mike Lassiter's silence is the problem around which Ramsay has to navigate, and as the story is unraveled it's not until the end it becomes clear why the son refuses to speak to his own lawyer and friend of the family. It's not as simple as teenage brooding. Gabriel Basso gives a nuanced performance – without speaking. The courtroom scenes are well played and riveting, with each redirection of questioning from Ramsay's defense revealing what has actually been happening in this family, through people's lies.

This film shows that when it comes to violence within a family, the whole truth often isn't revealed in court. Despite merciful justice in the courtroom, in life, redemption isn't so simple, and people take great risks – and commit crime – in order to protect someone they love. Despite the disturbing subject matter, I highly recommend it – precisely for the subject matter.

Isabeau Vollhardt Author, The Casebook of Elisha Grey mystery/detective/SF series

Okay. here's the spoiler. Just scroll past it if you don't want to read it.

The dog lives. The absolutely cherry vintage Mustang pretty much dies.

And then, there's all the people who die, but that's not a spoiler, that's the world of assassins.

Beautifully filmed, editing to telescope two story scenes into one (the tailor and the sommelier, well, he's not selling wine, right?) and to meld fight scenes closer, let me just say this:

Once you're in your seat, you can't leave the theater until it's done. So use the restroom first.

Out of the gate the action is gripping. The story line: okay, how do you sympathize with an assassin? Well, that's what this story is all about. If you've ever been in a no win situation, this story is that times a thousand. Especially when dealing with (spoiler alert) an ex- assassin who is now given even MORE to grieve than after the seminal episode in this series (yes it is!)

Training of all the actors including Keanu Reeves for their fight sequences paid off. Yes, it's bloody. And yes, another spoiler alert: there are assassins EVERYWHERE. All hail the mighty smart phone.

Laurence Fishburne's turn as the Bowery King is a humorous yet suspenseful pause in the relentless fighting. Ian McShane and Franco Nero are both elegant and understated in their respective roles as the hotel managers of the Continental and the Continentale. Ruby Rose is the most intriguing of assassins, Common -- the man who gives, and then is given, professional courtesy. The setting among the catacombs in Rome? Amazing!

And the dog is precious.

See it on the big screen. Then rent it, or buy it. Some of the best martial arts I've seen in movies in years. Kudos to everyone, including Chad for his kick ass directing and editing.

Damn.

Spoiler Alert!

Henry's Crime seems to be a thespian's contrivance once Chekhov gets woven into the plot. But it bears fruit in time. Reeves' Henry gets hijacked by Eddie Vibes (Fisher Stevens), the kind of friend who writes smarmy stuff in yearbooks. Henry's toll booth drudgery becomes prison purgatory. He becomes friends with cellmate Max Saltzman, played with gruff sweetness by James Caan. With Saltzman's bizarre joke of "if you did the time, you might as well do the crime" still on Henry's mind after seeing an old newspaper clipping about a bank heist -- from the same bank – he starts thinking.

But not enough to avoid getting hit by a car while crossing the street. Who hits him? The leading lady in a local production of "The Cherry Orchard" – Julie Ivanova (Vera Farmiga) brings crafty smarts to the role.

Saltzman gets released on parole, the newly inspired Henry tells him about the bank plan. Con man Saltzman insinuates them into the theater company by thrusting Henry into a suddenly open role. Novice actor Henry falls for Julia, and tells her about the plan. Rehearsals evolve while the tunnel is dug. The Chekhovian romance plays out in real life.

Heist night is opening night. Henry has to leave. Julie is furious. Henry lets love sway his plan, runs back to the theater, and stops the play. What transpires is a funny Chekhovian improv as Henry declares his love. The audience supports him. Julie gives in and gets the last word - - brassy, sassy, juicy and foul.

Isabeau Vollhardt, author, The Casebook of Elisha Grey series