JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM (Rated R)

The “John Wick” franchise has provided Keanu Reeves with the perfect opportunity to seamlessly merge his cinematic persona with the taciturn intensity of the titular character letting action speak louder than words.

Reeves’ assassin John Wick, who wanted to be left alone to seek a quiet life in which to remember his wife, re-entered the killing fields in the first film when mob-connected Russian thugs cruelly killed his beloved dog.

Since then, and more so now with “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum,” Wick has seemingly dispatched more bad guys to their deaths than what feels like the cumulative total of the body count in all of the James Bond, Jason Bourne, and “Rambo” films combined.

There is no exaggeration to the analogy that “John Wick 3” is running on adrenaline-fueled action so overheated that the film’s pace moves like a race car redlining to maximum speed.

At the end of the previous film, Wick killed an Italian mobster at the Continental hotel, a sanctuary for assassins where the unbreakable rule of the underworld is that no blood may be shed on the premises.

The third installment picks up with Wick having only an hour before he is declared in the words of Winston (Ian McShane), the Continental’s manager, to be “excommunicado” with a $14 million bounty on his head.

The code of the underworld is governed by the High Table, a council of high-ranking crime lords, who mete out their own brand of justice, sending the Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) as the enigmatic messenger of their decisions.

Desperately running through rainy streets, Wick ends up in the New York Public Library only to be attacked in the stacks by a towering giant (NBA player Boban Marjanovic) in a fight settled by the imaginative use of a classic book.

The streets are so perilous that it almost seems as if every other random person is a contract killer eager for a big payday. In no time, Wick is chased through alleys and subways, ending up in a stable before riding a horse across a bridge pursued by a deadly motorcycle gang.

Not everyone has turned on Wick, though even the doctor who tends to his wounds fears that he cannot hide his transgression from enforcers of the High Table’s dictates.

Less concerned is the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne), who dares to render assistance to the fugitive assassin, convinced, perhaps foolishly, that his turf is safe from any meddling by the cabal of crime lords.

Reverting to his Belarusian roots, Wick calls in a marker with the inscrutable Director (Anjelica Huston), his former mentor who now trains ballerinas and martial artists, so that he can get safe passage to Casablanca.

Once in Morocco, his old colleague Sofia (Halle Berry), who runs the local branch of the Continental, is less than happy to see a wanted man to whom she owes a favor, but she does oblige in a big way.

Wick’s quest is to find the leader of the High Table in order to negotiate his return to the good graces of the ranks of professional killers, for peace of mind and to set foot on the Continental grounds once again.

With the help of Sofia and her pair of vicious German shepherds, Wick visits Berrada (Jerome Flynn), a power broker who can reveal the location of the High Table hideaway of the Elder (Said Taghmaoui).

But before trekking across the Saharan desert to see the Elder, a pitched battle with Berrada’s turban-wearing minions pits Wick, Sofia and the canines in another wild set piece of deadly confrontation.

Meanwhile, back in Manhattan the Adjudicator is delivering punishment to those who dared help Wick to escape New York and enlisting the sushi-chef Zero (Mark Dacascos), a skilled knife fighter, for the climactic bloody skirmish.

Fittingly, the setting of the final showdown is inside the Continental, where first of all Winston and the hotel’s unflappable concierge Charon (Lance Reddick) must choose sides between Wick and the High Table’s army of warriors.

Above all, Wick understands that “parabellum” is part of a Latin adage that translates into “prepare for war,” and he is always ready to employ his lethal skills for the next challenge even when having to cleverly improvise with whatever can be used as weapons.

Keanu Reeves’s John Wick is an unstoppable force of nature, his fight scenes choreographed so brilliantly that “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum” is the most operatic of action films in recent memory, if not ever.

It takes much more than well-orchestrated fighting movements on the part of Keanu Reeves to make the “John Wick” franchise so exciting. The actor inhabits the role so perfectly that he is truly indispensable and irreplaceable to its success.

Fans of the “John Wick” franchise are going to be thrilled with the spectacular stunts and the surfeit of breathless fights with guns, swords, and the martial arts, even when a few scenes are shockingly brutal and gruesome.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Art Center invites the public to join its current art and community project, “Locus.”

As part of “Locus,” artist/nature fiber sculptor, Sherry Harris, will lead a workshop assembling and installing a large sculpture from mulberry branches this Sunday, May 26, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The workshop will take place at Trailside Park in Middletown at 21435 Dry Creek Cutoff, off Highway 175.

Please preregister at www.MiddletownArtCenter.org/Locus .

The workshop is open to adults of all ages and children age 12 and up. The cost is $5. Please bring water, lunch, a hat, sunscreen, work gloves if you have them and good walking shoes.

During the month of May, the MAC has been focused on revitalizing the EcoArts Sculpture Walk. The walk has been closed since the Trailside Park, and sculptures on view at the time, burned in the Valley fire in 2015.

The 2019 Walk called “Locus: A Sense of Place,” will open with a festive reception on Saturday, June 1, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. The public is welcome to join this free celebration.

Community members who enjoy working outdoors, and have an interest in revitalizing the park, in preparation, installation or maintenance of outdoor exhibits are encouraged to contact the MAC via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or to call 707-809-8118.

The Locus project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and local organizations, agencies and individuals. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov .

Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29.

The MAC Gallery currently features “Community Works,” an exhibit of work from Woodland Community College Lake County Campus Art students, from Restore project participants, and from ArtVentures Homeschool students. The exhibit is on view through June 9.

The gallery is open Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Fridays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information and to stay up to date on all classes, calls for work, and events, or to become a member and support this valuable Lake County arts and culture resource visit www.middletownartcenter.org .

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Universally regarded as the Bay Area’s premier New Orleans R&B/boogie band, Macy Blackman and The Mighty Fines heat up the stage at the Soper Reese Theatre at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 8.

Tickets are $25, $20 and $18, with reserved seating.

Made up of musicians who have all appeared with internationally known performers, this highly accomplished band will be playing several numbers from their latest CD release, “Shoorah Shoorah,” a tribute to the genius of the Soul Queen and King of New Orleans, Irma Thomas and Allen Toussaint.

This marks the sixth CD release for Blackman, who has accompanied Mac Rebennack (aka Dr. John) and backed up such national acts as The Coasters and The Drifters.

Joining Blackman is saxophonist Nancy Wright (John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Elvin Bishop), Ken “Snakebite” Jacobs (Neville Brothers, The Band, Temptations, Gatemouth Brown), bassist Bing Nathan (Lavay Smith’s Red Hot Skillet Lickers), and drummer Larry Vann (Martha Reeves, Elvin Bishop, Charles Brown, Buffy Saint-Marie).

Tickets are available at www.soperreesetheatre.com ; at the theater’s Box Office, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, two hours before show time; and at The Travel Center, 825 S. Main St., Lakeport, Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The theater telephone is 707-263-0577; Travel Center phone is 707-263-3095.

Ibbetson Street is a journal that comes out twice a year and does a fine job selecting its poems.

I like this one by Kenneth Lee, a gynecological pathologist in Boston, whose most recent book is Gravity Waves.

TV commercial producers have learned that it's effective to put a dog in with the people, and here we have dogs and their friends in a poem. And this week you get a new word, "aliquot," to go with your coffee.

Symbiosis

I sit with my thermos of coffee on the mall:
a mile-long promenade, arcades of elms
flanking a generous aliquot of benches.

But at this early hour it starts to dawn:
I am the only one without a dog.
So, a witness to an ancient symbiosis,
as it's evolved within a modern city:

The dogs, I note, are smaller, the owners
less ferocious. The former sniff then poop,
the latter, like potty-training parents, pat their heads,
gather it in plastic doggy-bags.

It's no longer for the hunt or for protection;
both species have adapted to survive
hard loneliness inside a small apartment.


American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2017 by Kenneth Lee, "Symbiosis," from Ibbetson Street, (No. 42, 2017). Poem reprinted by permission of Kenneth Lee and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2019 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.

THE HUSTLE (Rated PG-13)

Three decades ago, in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” Michael Caine was the debonair con artist who was challenged by the lowbrow Steve Martin in a competition to claim the turf of a swank French Riviera resort.

“The Hustle” is a gender-swap of the same premise, with Anne Hathaway’s Josephine Chesterfield, a seemingly aristocratic Brit who works cons at a glitzy casino in the south of France town of Beaumont-sur-Mer.

A master criminal, Josephine lives in a glamorous seaside mansion with snooty butler Albert (Nicolas Woodeson) as an accomplice. She’s also assisted by corrupt local police captain Brigitte Desjardins (Ingrid Oliver).

Meanwhile, in New York City, Rebel Wilson’s low-rent Penny Rust is running small-time online scams to sucker gullible men into helping her fictitious sister, who looks like a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model.

Running into trouble with the law, Penny takes her con artist talents to Europe, where she meets Josephine on a train, and then ends up in the same French coastal town to horn in on Josephine’s action, just like Steve Martin did to Michael Caine.

Josephine’s well-ordered world is upended by the brash Penny, an Aussie who is as free-form and fun-loving as the seductive Josephine is calculated and cunning in targeting wealthy men.

Where Penny plied her trade ripping off her marks in neighborhood bars, Josephine fills her safe with massive diamonds after ensnaring her prey at an upscale resort. Despite their different methods, they are masters of the art of the fleece, albeit on dissimilar scales.

The stakes get considerably higher when young tech billionaire Thomas Westerburg (Alex Sharp), seemingly naïve and kind-hearted, comes into play as the next target for the grafters.

But just like the movie that inspired “The Hustle,” Penny and Josephine up the ante with a bet that the first one to scam Thomas out of $500,000 wins, and the loser has to leave town.

Penny resorts to faking blindness to gain the upper-hand, but Josephine poses as a renowned German psychologist who would be able to cure what is perceived to be a medical condition that Thomas describes as hysterical blindness.

Rebel Wilson tries to liven up things with her physical slapstick routines. A few one-liners land with a punch, but other than that there is little humor in “The Hustle.”

The result is that this so-called comedy tries to con the audience out of its money. Don’t fall for the scam. If anything, just watch “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” instead.

THE NBC FALL SEASON

This is the time of the year that the major television networks conduct the upfront sessions to pitch advertisers for their upcoming series premieres for the fall season.

Greater press interest kicks in during the summer press tour in July and August, but for now we can get a peek at the early information that networks release.

NBC has its sights set on one new drama series and two comedies, all of three of which feature lead actors already known for their television experience.

The one-hour drama series “Bluff City Law” stars Jimmy Smits as lawyer Elijah Strait at a celebrated Memphis firm. Smits is best known for playing an attorney on NBC’s “L.A. Law” and “The West Wing,” and ABC’s “NYPD Blue.”

Caitlin McGee, in the role of Strait’s daughter Sydney, used to work at her father’s firm until their tumultuous relationship got in the way.

After barely speaking to him for years, Sydney is suddenly thrust back into the family fold when her mother passes away, and then, hoping to reconnect with the daughter he loves, Elijah asks Sydney to rejoin the firm.

She agrees despite her lingering resentment and distrust because working alongside her father is her best hope at changing the world, if they can ever get along.

Though he has been in many TV series, Kal Penn made his mark in the “Harold & Kumar” movies. In the half-hour comedy “Sunnyside,” Penn’s Garrett Modi had been living the American Dream as the youngest New York City Councilman ever.

As a politician, he was rubbing elbows with the elite and attending star-studded parties. His focus on the glamour of the office, instead of doing the job, put him on a downward spiral when he’s busted for public intoxication.

Naturally, his stupidity was caught on tape and ended his career. Now, Garrett’s crashing with his sister and wondering where it all went wrong, until he starts working with a diverse group of idealists.

Bradley Whitford, best known for “The West Wing,” stara as former Princeton music professor Arthur Cochran in “Perfect Harmony,” a half-hour comedy about finding inspiration in the most unlikely places.

Stumbling into choir practice at a rural small-town church, the professor finds a group of singers who are out of tune in more ways than one.

Despite the ultimate clash of sensibilities, Arthur and his newfound cohorts may just be the perfect mix of individuals to help each other reinvent and rediscover a little happiness, just when they all need it most.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Art Center is bustling with activity as class participants and teachers prepare for the opening reception of “Community Works” on Saturday, May 18, from 5 to 7 p.m.

The exhibit is comprised of work created in three different programs that took place at MAC this past year: Woodland Community College Lake County Campus Art 4A and the exhibit “Emerging”, the Restore project, and ArtVentures for Homeschoolers, each taught by MAC artists.

“It’s the diversity of work and artists that makes the show!” said Susan Littlefield who participated in the Art 4A class.

“We worked together to choose and hang our best works, and the arrangement created a new piece of art in and of itself. It reflects the collaborative and supportive spirit of our class,” added Ava Kennedy.

The 2018 spring semester was the first time Woodland Community College, or WCC, offered art classes at the MAC.

“I am so pleased that we are able to offer affordable access to quality semester-long art courses for WCC,” said course instructor and MAC Programs Director Lisa Kaplan. “This class was very similar to a Foundation Drawing class I taught at the Art Institute of California, San Francisco in the late 1990s, except that WCC students are not necessarily preparing for a career in the arts. But they were receptive to the rigor and quality of instruction and learning and it shows up in their work, and in the exhibit.”

Woodland Community College will continue to offer classes at MAC during the 2019-20 academic year beginning with Art 4B in the fall.

Those interested in developing skills drawing the human figure, landscapes, and architecture should sign up for class at https://wcc.yccd.edu/admissions/apply-today/ . A prerequisite of a basic drawing class, or commensurate experience or course work is required. Contact the WCC or the MAC to learn more.

Mixed media, woodworking and prints from the Restore project have also been carefully placed in the MAC gallery’s attractive spaces. The Restore project now drawing to a close provided Lake County residents with low-cost art classes on weekends from July 2018 through May 2019, and the opportunity to learn or refine skills in a variety of materials and techniques.

Classes were open to adults of all ages and teens and included monthly writers workshop, printmaking, sculpture and mixed-media.

Participants engaged in both personal and in collaborative projects like Vertical Pathways at Rabbit Hill, which opens Friday, May 17, from 5 to 7 p.m.

The collection of work on view in the gallery now is inclusive and compelling. Come to the reception this Saturday and see for yourself.

The Restore project was made possible with support from the California Arts Council, a state agency. Visit www.ca.arts.gov to learn more.

View “Community Works” and see what kind of art our community is up to. Be a part of enjoying and sustaining the arts and culture in Lake County by becoming a MAC member, by participating in classes, or by attending one of the many events at MAC.

Visit www.middletownartcenter.org or “Like” Middletown Art Center on Facebook to stay up-to-date with what’s happening.

MAC is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29.