Film Junk Podcast Episode #707: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

Posted by on May 21st, 2019   Filed under: Featured, Film Junk Podcast

podcast707

0:00 – Intro
11:10 – Review: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
46:40 – Headlines: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Trailer #2, Robert Pattinson as The Batman
1:05:50 – Other Stuff We Watched: The Wandering Earth, Urban Legend, Game of Thrones, The Twilight Zone (Spoilers from 1:39:00-1:39:40), Veep, Tokyo Drifter, Borgen
1:54:00 – This Week on DVD and Blu-ray
1:55:25 – Outro
2:01:40 – Spoiler Discussion: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

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  • Lori Cerny

    I have a completely different vibe from watching the trailer for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Everything about it seems smug and glamorizing a horrific period of time is unsettling.

  • Lori Cerny

    Best spoiler discussion ever!?!

  • Reed Farrington

    I’m wondering if Tarantino will rewrite history, but knowing his past, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Manson massacre depicted, but I feel Tarantino has better taste than to go down that path.

  • Reed Farrington

    A spoiler discussion without spoilers! Oops, spoiled it.

  • devolutionary

    45:43 – Frankie’s not-so-subtle “Barking Spider” call. Microphonics in full effect!

  • nate_austin75

    Geez, Mr. Ball Junk Frankie must really be off his game this week by not even mentioning John Wick fights a 7’3 NBA player in the film. Personally, that and the hallway knife-throwing fight were the two best action scenes in the movie.

  • pcch7

    I thought the Got finale was disgraceful, there were som great visuals though. Did Alicia watch the show as well? Would be fun to have her on the pod again

  • Rob M

    There has only been one actor in recent history who’d make a perfect Bruce Wayne/Batman. Ladies and gentlemen…..Mr Michael Fassbender.

  • colin the dude

    Is Frank dying? Between the chronic lid droppage to the wet farts to the lost voice. What the heck is going on?

  • Tommy

    Come for the John Wick spoilers, stay for the interesting glass stories.

  • John Abides

    I was thinking of him too, but he is already Magneto. Can actors be in multiple superhero franchises? If so, Chris Evans is newly available and might be interested in a darker role. I also like Armie Hammer as a physically imposing and intense Batman, and he hasn’t been in any superhero movies. He plays rich and entitled prick well, and can do some action (no, I’m not talking about Call Me By Your Name … or maybe I am!)

  • kent88

    Internet’s very first trailer reaction video:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n77b7HsvM34

  • pcch7

    Frank with the Godfather voice lmao

  • It’s almost summer, I think NuFrank is cracking through the shell again – and it is a painful process.

  • Jake

    I was listening to an older episode this week, believe it was episode 253 but not completely sure as I had been listening to others as well. Funny thing was that there was a news story about Robert Pattinson being in talks to play Spider-Man. It was laughed off by the guys but Greg made a comment that he was actually in talks to play Batman. So the Gas Man predicted this lol.

  • gibson8

    According to
    https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/05/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review-quentin-tarantino-brad-pitt-leonardo-dicaprio the gore is present which can only mean that he couldn’t resist although I think the remaining family of the victims were more affected by the ‘Aquarius’ rendering.

  • Reed Farrington

    Well, I just wasted 2 minutes watching myself.

  • Reed Farrington

    Imagine if the league of assassins had a satellite in space that could emit microwaves. That glass building would have blown up really good!

    BTW, I failed to cap off my story by saying that I didn’t want to waste my sticky rice, so I ate it, glass shards and all.

  • Reed Farrington

    Chris Evans is already Captain America and the Human Blowtorch! And Armie Hammer is already The Lone Ranger!

  • Reed Farrington

    I didn’t know the tall guy was an NBA player. Shades of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Game of Death.

  • Reed Farrington

    Jay brought up Rebecca Gayheart in relation to her being in Urban Legend, which he had watched. Afterwards, I found out she has a role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Also I did not know she had withdrawn from acting because of a car accident in which she caused the death of a boy three years after Urban Legend.

  • Beat_C

    amazing episode. reed was in fine form. made me really laugh when he went on about how only chinese people will enjoy “the wandering earth” after struggling so much with the author’s name. frank’s voice cracking up was a special moment, too.

  • Beat_C

    yes please, special episode about got with alicia!!

    “disgraceful” is the right word btw.

  • SquidHead#1Fan

    Reed – any chance your Dad is into Springsteen deep cuts? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upMNcsPwkuA

  • John Abides

    Lone Ranger isn’t a superhero, is he? Plus, it’s safe to say that franchise is dead, despite Frank’s adoration.

    Have you seen Avengers: Endgame Reed? WOOP WOOP! SPOILERS! He’s not Capt America anymore.

    Does he still count as the Torch? I thought the reboot in 2015 overruled the 2005 one and Michael B Jordan is Johnny Storm now. But I reckon him being in both (Michael B Jordan was also in Black Panther) means actors can play in multiple franchises.

  • Tommy

    Just saw Brightburn. Avoid.

  • Lior

    The coffee cup in GOT is not actually a Starbucks cup, it was labeled that way in social media jokes and Starbucks obviously jumped on the wagon, but it’s just a disposable cup from the production craft services. I admit i did not spot it in real time, nor did I notice the water bottles in the finale, but what’s more amazing than leaving this stuff in plain view without nobody’s noticing, is how the heck this made it through post-production without anyone noticing and removing it.
    Season 8 of GOT has gone progressively worse, with the series simply imploding in the final two episodes with nonsensical character behavior and plot turns.

    David Nutter’s name btw will be familiar to any X-Files fan, he directed multiple episodes of that series.

    Sean’s description of The Wandering Earth sounds about right even without seeing the film. These high-budget Asian and/or European productions trying to emulate American blockbuster filmmaking usually follow the same track: they end up as artistic disasters but are financially successful in their home countries, perhaps for some misguided local adoration? The Russian Day Watch/Night Watch movies (all the mumbo-jumbo of fantasy films without the heart) the borderline unwatchable South-Korean film The Thieves, which is trying to ape the Ocean 11 films… there are many more.

    Foreign films work best when they utilize local idiosyncrasies, culture, history, anything that makes them unique and different than US films. Or, they need to have a really talented director behind the camera (that’s why The Host works). but just trying to be the Chinese/French/Russian version of THAT blockbuster… no. The result is usually bloated and cliched.

  • Daniel Lindquist

    I honestly do not understand the hate at all, I thought it ended perfectly. I’d like to hear specifically what people thought was bad, most of what I’ve heard is very vague.

  • Reed Farrington

    Nice. This is rather obscure. I can imagine Jay singing this. Who’s the Johnny to whom Springsteen is referring in the lyric? (And no, my dad doesn’t listen to Springsteen.)

  • samb

    Yes, I’m certainly glad I waited until seeing the movie before listening to the spoiler discussion!

  • Reed Farrington

    Bong Joon Ho thinks his latest, Parasite, might be too Korean for Western audiences, but the Cannes critics are loving it.

    Personally, I think The Wandering Earth is too Chinese for Western audiences.

  • Nobody

    When I read articles about Wandering Earth being released on Netflix, there were a lot of comments from people stating it was among the worst movies they’ve seen, they turned it off well before it ended, or it was a typical Chinese rip-off. I would’ve characterized it as a pretty accessible blockbuster but maybe you’re right.

    The effects for the ground vehicles looked dodgy, but I thought there were some great visual effect elsewhere. I loved some of the Jupiter imagery, both from space and Earth, including that shot of the frozen whale. I agree that Wu Jing was quite good and the last scene he was in was well-executed. I read that he played an instrumental part in getting the movie made, which is why I believe there’s a specific “thank you” for him in the credits.

    In addition to Bong’s latest, another Cannes entry to look out for is Diao Yinan’s latest noir The Wild Goose Lake from China. I’ve been waiting to see more from him after Black Coal, Thin Ice.

    And regarding The Villainess, there’s a featurette in which Keanu and Stahelski talk about their admiration for the movie and how the John Wick motorcycle scene was intended as an homage.

  • Beat_C

    good call, reed ????????

  • Reed Farrington

    Thx for the info, Nobody!

    I don’t think I’ve heard of Diao Yinan before. I need to check his filmography to see if I have any older films of his.

    Actually, I can understand people’s criticisms of The Wandering Earth, even Sean’s. But I don’t think it’s accurate that the film is a Chinese rip-off of American films even though Netflix in its advertising for the film mentions the many similarities to American sci-fi films. The film is based on a novel by a Hugo and Nebula award-winning Chinese author. Perhaps the filmmakers were inspired or paying homage in its implementation of various elements such as the HAL-like interface on the space station.

    For me, I can’t recall being bored at any point in the film. The film moves along at a brusque pace. One enjoyable scene, which perhaps reflects Chinese society, occurs when a group of workers is vainly using manpower to push a piece of machinery into place and finally succeed when people return en masse to lend a hand. It’s moments like this that make me a fan of this film more than a film like Sunshine.

  • Reed Farrington

    I googled if Lone Ranger is a superhero and I guess it depends on who you ask. I consider any heroic figure who wears a costume or mask and who villains cannot beat to be a superhero. So the Shadow, Zorro, and Robin Hood are all superheroes to me. Even though James Bond wears a costume of sorts (a tux), I’m not sure if I would call him a superhero. Now I’m wondering about Sherlock Holmes…

  • MattTO

    Great stuff as usual! Would be very curious though, for next time, to hear Reed attempt to give criticism of a film without reading anything that a critic has written. Reed, don’t you trust your own gut? Why let Armond White’s opinions taint your views?

  • Reed Farrington

    In the past, I did try to read reviews to gain a broader perspective and to find ideas for discussion in our Film Junk reviews. Nowadays I tend to avoid having my initial impressions tainted, but I admit I looked at reviews of Parabellum because I couldn’t think of much to say about the film. I guess that’s why I ended up talking about microwaving glass.

    I do think film critics should read and listen to other people in order to gain a broader perspective.

  • Nobody

    I agree about that scene, which also gives a nice payoff to those prior glimpses of people from different countries around the world. I watched it in a packed theatre of mostly Chinese college students, which is always interesting to see as the popularity of the big Chinese blockbusters does seem to carry over to Chinese living abroad.

    I remember reading that Amazon was planning on adapting Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem, but there doesn’t seem to be anything current on that. It sounds like very difficult material to adapt, though. Apparently there was a Chinese movie version that was shot in 2015 that never got released.

  • Hal Kastille

    The problem with the new Twilight Zone is that it’s made to preach political-“correctness” issues like “toxic masculinity”, racism like in “all blacks should unite and attack whites (because all whites are cops and racist cops at that) and not one white person should take part in it, guns are bad, Trump must be exposed like the child that he is, gays are better than straight people, etc. I could go on and on. Just read the reviews at IMDb and you’ll get it.

    It’s a horrible show. It fails at paying homage to the original one.