John Wick: Chapter 4

My love letter to M&S, I am ready for your Spring collection of suits and I’m willing to pay any price as long as they deflect bullets. Thank you, From KenKen.

A top level display of epic non stop action. With a 3 hour runtime which you don’t even feel, that should explain all you need to know here!!

We have hardly had motion pics that deliver on all fronts… pacing, characters, story, setting, action and engagement. A fun fact about this quadriology is all the events of the 4 films actually all take place within one year. If you thought covid year was bad try being John Wick LOL. Just like all of them it’s a smooth opening scene, kicking off exactly where the last left off. The Table who are the highest order of authority have ordered the death of John and anyone that assists him in any way. For that reason The Continental is destroyed and Winston is stripped off his authority. Donnie is a skilled, feared, retired assassin who is blackmailed by The Table into taking the job to kill John. Donnie is a legend in the action genre and he could just jump in any movie with no sense at all and be misused and wasted (I’m looking at you Blade 2) but he was integrated here with grace and elegance. He was given a full story arc which had us engaged and wanting to know more. It had real sentiment and motive and it fitted into this universe and even gives it a branch for expansion if need be. We get a broader view of the “Wickverse”, including the Asian counterpart to The Continental which made for a good action setting. The whole movie is based on John being hunted by his friend/ex colleagues and looking for ways to clear his name. Sounds like a simple story doesn’t it? It is…. And it works! You don’t need an over complicated script and this movie proves it. 

We are blessed with martial arts royalty in the casting. Keanu is his dull, stale, I live in a morgue and I’m part of the Addams family self… which we all know and love very much. If you can bag a Skarsgard as a villain in any of your projects you’ve bagged a winner. To top it off they got the best one out of the lot. His calm, relaxed demeanour coupled with his villainy and sinister exterior (all I see is Pennywise)… brilliant performance. Not to mention his range of tuxedos through the whole film, he had some tailcoats on display that I’d wear casually on the block, mind your business! My only frustration with his showcase was we didn’t get to see him fight at all, nitpicking I know. It was a simple send off for Lance Reddick, wasn’t made into a whole huge dynamic spectacle. It was sophisticated and tasteful which made it even more impactful.

Charon will be missed.

Franchise veterans Laurence Fishburne and Ian McShane return to their roles and they bring along martial arts legends, the already mentioned Donnie Yen, Hiroyuki Sanada and Scott Adkins. Scott can easily be missed, I warn you from now but he was a highlight of the film. There was an interesting character introduced which was a weird choice in my opinion. Mr Nobody played by Shamier Anderson and his dog. Now he contributed heavy to the action but close to nothing to the story which bothered me a bit. He had a lot of screen time but it lacked substance. All it needed was some form of connection to the history of the Wickverse which isn’t too late to be fair. So let me put my script writer cap on for a sec and hear me out… he is Halle Berry’s son and she’s gone missing with the other dog so he was tracking John to see if he knows anything… BOOM! NUTS! My email is in my bio Chad, sign me up to your team!

The action was glorious, heavenly, divine, celestial, cosmic… someone help me out here with more words. Don’t let the runtime scare you. The last hour of the film is literally just non stop battles and action. The bulletproof blazers and turbans were just an excellent addition to the emphasise the struggles of this world. Action wise this movie had everything! Car chases, blind men using ring go doorbells to their advantage, axe throwing, arrow hits that felt like Legolas was in the shadows somewhere. There is a nunchuck scene in which bro is swinging it like he grew up outside the Morleys in Brixton. Zero finesse, just fighting for his life. The blood, gore, sound, top level quality. In the midst of all this you got the dog putting in hella work with some gruesome kills. One fundamental feature that added to these awesome scenes that a lot of people overlook are the locations. There is an epic scene around the Arc de Triomphe roundabout and it’s outstanding. Camera angles played a huge part and I’m referencing the scene in the abandoned building where the movie turns into a top down shooter and follows our characters through from the ceiling view. Then a stairs scene which is all types of amazing and they gift us with the team up we were all waiting for all movie. Now get this, all this action is coupled with an wicked soundtrack and the radio presenter from hell just narrating Johns locations to the world adding an extra layer of tension. All of this ends in a grand Herculean finale and it’s all worth the wait.  These are just a few scenes I’ve mentioned. This is an action movie in all of its excellence.

What John Wick 4 does which separates it from a lot of action movies is its story telling through action. With each weapon, each punch, grapple there’s a sense of history. You have a quick view into Johns journey through his assassination life and where he’s been and what he’s learnt. In essence this movie is just him encompassing all his experience to survive, basically what he’s been training for his whole life you could say, only to end in a place of peace. It’s so well put together you can only appreciate it. Some will say the movie should be labelled a superhero movie as John is basically invincible but he’s not. He takes some heavy hits and I believe the underlying message here is he just keeps getting back up to fight for what he believes in. That’s the beauty of this film you can go in just to see a bang, bang, pew, pew display or feel the sentimental deep story told here. We can only pray and hope for more. Spin offs, animes, sequels etc. there are so many characters we would be happy to follow. Cinema worthy recommended watch.

RIEP Lance Reddick

What did you like the most? Who was your favourite character? Do you sign off for a chapter 5? Bring back Halle Berry? React and comment below…