Assassin John Wick is referred to as Baba Yaga in this third chapter, suggesting that he is, in fact, a supernatural being; his ability to evade death, appear and disappear like a ninja from a Godfrey Ho film, and move with lightning fast reflexes despite being in his mid-fifties confirms this fact, in my opinion. Unfortunately, Wick's invincibility means that the many action scenes in Parabellum are largely devoid of excitement, the only outcome being that Wick is still alive and all of his enemies are dead.

Chapter 2 set things up for a potentially entertaining part three, ending with John Wick (Keanu Reeves) on the run, hunted by the world's top assassins, all keen to collect the bounty on his head. This film should have been a whole lot of outrageously OTT comic-book fun, with an array of bizarre and unique killers, each with their own distinctive look and style; it certainly starts off on the right foot with a few of fun fight scenes (one against a tall guy in a library, another in a shop full of knives, and one in a stable that makes good use of the horses),but it all goes downhill rapidly after that.

A pack of trained dogs easily outshine their human co-stars in one skirmish, a fight involving samurai swords and motorbikes blatantly borrows from The Villainess (2017),and a battle between Wick and Mark Dacascos in a glass room is frustratingly tedious (despite Dacascos's impressive martial arts skills). I blame director Chad Stahelski, who hasn't progressed as a film-maker since part one, content to simply give fans more of the same. The preposterous ending is the icing on the cake, John Wick surviving falling several stories from the roof of a building. Enough already!

5/10, minus one point for the retro-technology used by the tattooed administrators working for the 'high table': Commodore 64 keyboards, green CRT monitors, rubber stamps, rotary dial phones. Seriously, what is the point?

Undeniably action packed, but my goodness is it pointless! The whole movie is Keanu reeves wandering around New York (then Casablanca, then New York again) while killing people. I enjoy a mindless action thriller, but this is positively brain dead.

The first John Wick film was special because it broke a mold of sorts. It went against certain action film conventions - the hero was not a muscle bound hulk like a Schwarzenegger or Stallone, the action was super fast paced, the plot was basic and straighforward, but introduced some unique elements, and there was something a bit unique and stylish about the film. John Wick was cool.

Then they made a sequel. And while the second film was more ridiculous, less believable, and not as good on any level, it was still John Wick, and still enjoyable.

But this third film is out of ideas and is simply rehashing the same things again for a payday (and hey, people seem to like it, so I can't fault them entirely). The magic is gone and it's just another over the top action film. In their attempt to mine more movies out of what was the barest of bare bones plots to start with, they have had to resort to ever increasing gratuitous violence and fight scene gimmicks. I'm no wilting rose, but even I was a bit unsettled by the casual nature of the violence in this film, which surely has one the highest body counts of any film in recent history. It was so over the top it became a bit cartoonish, like watching a video game. There was even the concept of John fighting a series of progressively more important and more difficult "bosses," just like a video game. John Wick 3 is watchable.... but barely.