Opening to $53 million dollars, this third installment of the John Wick franchise knocked Avengers: Endgame off the top of the mountain on its release this weekend. Picking up mere minutes after the end of the after the fact renamed John Wick: Chapter 2, Parabellum follows Wick, played masterfully deadpan by Keanu Reeves, as he flees assassins of the criminal organization The High Table after murdering one of their leaders, while another Table agent comes to New York City to punish all those who aided him. It’s a wild ride of nearly non-stop action, neon noir scenes, and nearly comedic levels of violence. If you aren’t a fan of that sort of thing, this film isn’t for you, but if you love this series, this third film is more of the same.

While Parabellum demands that you have seen the first two films to follow the events of what’s going on within it, it does so in such a way that isn’t abrasive but instead feels natural. It’s almost as if they were filmed back to back. In that way, they would almost be better served in a marathon, watching all three in succession to get the full scope of the tale. While you never have to ever really watch anything in a certain order, and a movie being good should rest on how good it is on its own, it is made better when the other two are fresh in mind.

Reeves, once again, is perfect in his distant and often times deadpan delivery of lines and his kinetic portrayal of action. As all three films take place in the span of a few weeks, you can see the toil his new set of Herculean trials takes from him, and his determination to push on through the weariness and pain. Somehow, through being more reserved in the acting of the part, the depiction is that of the strong and silent, rather than underacted or boring.

The rest of the cast is amazing as well. Halle Berry’s Sofia plays as hot as Reeves’ Wick is cool, all emotion and read more…

Right out of the gate one must remind would be viewers of this movie that Detective Pikachu is PG-rated, and that it, like the games it is based from, is meant for children first and foremost. Now, that doesn’t mean that a large fraction of its viewership won’t be millennial adults who remember playing Pokémon, but one has to remember that just like those games, they aren’t meant for us. Taking that into account, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is a wild ride that left me smiling in joy for hours after viewing it.

The story follows Tim Goodman, played by Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Get Down), who despite living in a world surrounded by Pokémon, does not want to take one as a partner. This sets him out as strange, as everyone else seems to have a Pokémon companion of their own, even if they aren’t a full-on trainer who takes on the gym system. After the death of his father, who is a detective for the police department of the metropolis Ryme City, where pokémon and humans live side by side. When he comes to deal with the death, he encounters his father’s pokémon companion, a Pikachu who, unlike any other pokémon, can talk to him, voiced by Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool, The Hitman’s Bodyguard). This is not the only mystery the pair discover, and together, with the help of intrepid would-be reporter Lucy, played by Kathryn Newton (Blockers, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and her psyduck, they figure it all out and save the day.

The film plays out like not unlike one of the mainline games, with a young man, though much older than anyone in the games, in a world read more…