John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum See's The John Wick Series Continuing To Slay

What a wonderfully out-of-nowhere creation this John Wick series has become.  Not based on any pre-existing source material, the first movie was quietly filmed in 2013 and didn't start its marketing campaign until two months before its October 2014 debut. It was flying so far under the radar yet it ended up becoming a sleeper hit and deservedly so, it was a blast of an action movie that made good use of both Keanu Reeves and well-shot action sequences. Nearly five years later, John Wick has turned into a full-blown saga that continues onward with John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum (that title is the worst thing to emerge from this series) and manages to maintain the level of quality that made the first two movies such joys.

Mandy Is The Best Kind of Cinematic Madness

SPOILERS FOR MANDY FOLLOW

I feel like Scrat from Ice Age would love Mandy because this movie is absolutely nuts. The newest directorial effort from filmmaker Panos Cosmatos, Mandy can be best summed up as being the demented spawn of Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall Past Lives and John Wick. Though it may echo two other recent features, and its editing and atmosphere certainly evoke past auteurs of dream-like motion pictures like David Lynch, make no mistake about it, Mandy is very much a one-of-a-kind creation that constantly had me either questioning what the hell I was even watching or cheering on the mayhem transpiring on-screen. It's two hours of the most excellent kind of madness, the kind that was tailor-made for Nicolas Cage's gifts as an actor.

Atomic Blonde Is Frequently Entertaining But It Gets Too Bogged Down In Its Own Plot

In order to make the new action/thriller Atomic Blonde as awesome as potentially possible, it looks like the producers of this project swung for the fences and got two of the most influential figures of the mid-2010's American cinema action scene. David Leitch, one of the two directors of John Wick and one of the fight choreographers for the Captain America sequels (Chad Stahleski joined him on both of those duties), whose helped create a fresh modern-day style of cogently filmed and intense hand-to-hand combat, is helming this motion picture while his leading actor of the piece is Charlize Theron, star of one of the most iconic films of this decade in any genre, Mad Max: Fury Road. Alas, them working together doesn't result in a movie anywhere near as good as their best movies, though that doesn't mean Atomic Blonde doesn't have its own action-packed pleasures.

In Laman's Terms: Let The Men (And Raccoons!) Cry

In Laman's Terms is a new weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about it In Laman's Terms!

SPOILERS FOR GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 AHEAD!!

When the original Guardians Of The Galaxy motion picture came out, multiple articles on The Dissolve surrounding the movie had comment sections that quickly turned into extended discussions on the film's virtues and what specific elements of the film really stood out to people. Plenty of memorable lines ('That was my favorite knife!") got brought up of course but one notable compliment has stuck out to me regarding the film in three years since its release. Disqus user Persia mentioned how Guardians Of The Galaxy really went all out in depicting the individuals characters vulnerabilities, particularly in a final scene depicting Rocket mourning the loss of his buddy Groot by sobbing over such an event. As Persia rightly pointed out, how many recent blockbusters depicted male protagonists outright bawling over tragic events?

Looking For An Action Movie Sequel With Fun To Spare? John Wick: Chapter 2 Is Just What You've Been Looking For!

There are a couple things you need in an action movie to succeed. A good grasp of the language of how to shoot action sequences is vital, since a cohesive visual style is crucial for the audience to even get anything out of the extended shoot-outs or fistfights. Understanding how to keep bringing new elements to the table in each of your action sequences so they don't get repetitive is a great choice, ditto for getting editors who know how to make all of these scenes flow naturally. John Wick: Chapter 2 understands all these crucial rules as well as one other truism of life: it never hurts to have an adorable pit bull around.

Film On The Television (9/18/2015): John Wick on HBO2

Stinging from the epic failure of 47 Ronin, Keanu Reeves needed a comeback and fast. Luckily, he got one in John Wick, a fast-paced, excellently filmed and light on its feet action film that was one of last years most enjoyable surprises. Mixing a bombastic approach to everything from the action to even the subtitles with the emotional connection between the titular characters deceased wife and a beagle puppy and you've got yourself one helluva potent combo.

Box Office Analysis: The Biggest October Of All-Time Draws To A Close

Box Office Analysis is trying a new format where I take more of a larger look at a number of films at the box office instead of just one particular movie or topic. 

John Wick Review

A Shot In The Dark Becomes A Bullseye

There's one indisputable fact on this planet; puppies are adorable. I'm pretty partial to pugs myself, but all kinds of adorable puppies grace this Earth and make the world a better to place to be. The awesomeness of puppies was proved with Tom Hardy in The Drop last month, and now Keanu Reeves gets to pile on more evidence to this fact with John Wick. Reeves play the titular character, a widower whose sole solace from the pain he feels from his wife's passing is a puppy named Daisy his deceased wife gave him just before her passing.

Box Office Analysis: What Will Be Huge In October 2014?

Well, Gone Girl just became the biggest opener of David Finchers career, and Annabelle furthered The Conjuring franchise in a significant manner. But we still have four more weeks of October to week, and tons of new releases to look at it. And while I'll be analyzing these features in more detail in my weekly Box Office Predictions column, let's take a quick peek at the rest of this month as a whole, shall we?