The newest installment of the John Wick sequence dropped final weekend, crushing its franchise file opening weekend with an enormous $73.5 million. We’ve been watching Baba Yaga shoot, stab, run over, and blow up dozens of chuds each few years now since 2014, however that didn’t cease me from being tremendous excited to observe him throw a kotegaeshi on a dude straight right into a rushing automobile in entrance of the Arc de Triomphe.
I used to be prepared for wonderful martial arts and gun fu, however what I wasn’t prepared for was a single overhead shot sequence pulled straight out of a videogame.
The shot was impressed by 2019’s Hong Kong Bloodbath, in keeping with director Chad Stahelski. In a film that already ran indulgently shut to 3 hours, he wished to interrupt up the sequences and check out new issues. With incendiary rounds throwing superheated particles throughout the display screen, precise stuntmen lit on fireplace in all places, and Keanu Reeves himself doing the whole sequence in a single steady ballet of violence, the result’s extraordinary.
Hong Kong Bloodbath was itself impressed by a rare movie. Sporting its influences completely on its sleeve, Bloodbath has all of the hallmarks of a traditional John Woo shooter. With a paper-thin plot and stylishly imprecise cutscenes offering the backdrop, the sport is principally Hotline Miami on the set of Onerous Boiled. Weapons akimbo, laborious rain over neon indicators, and tea homes (opens in new tab) filled with dudes attempting to shoot you, the sport (opens in new tab) is a straightforward however satisfying top-down shooter.
As for the film, it doesn’t disappoint. Donnie Yen is unbelievable as blind martial artist Caine, and Scott Adkins performs Killa, who I think is a loving hat-tip to Frank Miller’s Kingpin (it’s simply too unhealthy the 2 couldn’t rehash their battle from Ip Man 4!). Reeves continues to impress together with his dedication (opens in new tab) to the craft, and producer Erica Lee has confirmed (opens in new tab) {that a} online game is within the works.
