Movie Review: ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’

Director: Chad Stahelski

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Lance Reddick, Rina Sawayama, Marko Zaror, Scott Adkins, Clancy Brown, Ian McShane

Plot: John Wick continues his quest of vengeance, with the ultimate goal of being released from the underworld seeming as far away as ever.

Review: John Wick has evolved from a one-off action romp into one of the most beloved franchises in modern cinema. Having been a somewhat stylised noir-ish story of revenge, the film-makers started leaning further into the bizarre criminal underworld and this fourth chapter feels completely removed from reality. The neon colour palette, spectacular settings and insane levels of action have found a great balance. They’ve worked out what people like about this series and they’re delivering it in spades. This doesn’t leave much space for character development, but it appears that they have a different solution in mind for this issue.

At the end of the third film, unstoppable killing machine John Wick (Reeves) was still on the run from The Table, the 12 powerful figures who seemingly run the world from the shadows. First and foremost is the Marquis (Skarsgård), who is wrecking havoc in his efforts to flush out Wick, including the destruction of the Continental Hotel and the killing of Charon (Reddick) to prevent Wick from seeking refuge in other Continentals worldwide. Wick calls upon allies and enemies in Osaka, Berlin and Paris and must face an old friend, the blind assassin Caine (Yen).

These movies are a pain in the arse to review, because you already know if you’re one of the many, many people who love the series and keep coming back for more. Rather than finding ways to reinvigorate the series and keep the meagre premise afloat is by expanding on the world and giving Wick new weapons, settings and colourful opponents to play with. Nunchucks get some good play, and the Japanese Continental workers armed with bows is fun. Wick getting pin-balled between cars when a fight breaks out around the Arc de triomphe is a madcap sequence that stood out as a real treat.

The expanding cast of enemies are not limited to Donnie Yen. Shamier Anderson as Mr. Nobody operates in a grey area where he’ll provide Wick with assistance until they pay him enough to take him down. Hiroyuki Sanada and Rina Sawayama are the operators of the Osaka Continental who take Wick in. Most fun is Scott Adkins in a massive fat suit that does not impede his ability to deliver roundhouse kicks, a side-quest that doesn’t add much to the story but is immense fun. The lesser known Marko Zaror plays henchmen to the Marquis and makes a strong impression as an immense recurring opponent.

Being the fourth and longest of the series there is a sense that the steam is eventually going to run down. Plans to expand the series into TV shows and movies focused on other characters may dilute the experience, but we’re staying with this one until the end. Just when you think they’re stretching things out longer than necessary, they break it up with one of the most effective and unexpected moments of physical comedy in recent cinema. It’s the little details that make us love it.

Rating: EIGHT out of TEN