JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4
****
Director: Chad Stahelski
Screenplay: Shay Hatten and Michael Finch, based on the characters created by Derek Kolstad.
Principal cast:
Keanu Reeves
Donnie Yen
Bill Skarsgård
Laurence Fishburne
Hiroyuki Sanada
Shamier Anderson
Country: USA
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 169 mins.
Australian release date: 23 March 2023
In what’s becoming a time-worn tradition (the first John Wick movie was released in 2014), John Wick: Chapter 4 picks up the action right where the previous film in the series ended and it begins with a punch… a number of them, in fact. Our hero, the grieving hitman John Wick (Keanu Reeves, again donning the trademark black three-piece suit) is in training, preparing for battle as he continues his ongoing quest to be free once and for all of the clutches of the criminal masterminds who sit at the High Table.
Once again, Wick travels to the desert to confront The Elder (George Georgiou) but his actions there contribute to events leading to the New York Continental being ordered to close down for good, news Winston, the manager (Ian McShane), and Charon, his concierge (the recently deceased Lance Reddick), don’t take well. This demand is delivered by the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), a high-ranking member of the Table who is obsessed with getting rid of Wick and who wants to punish Winston for failing to kill JW in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. The Marquis blackmails Caine (Donnie Yen), a retired blind assassin, into hunting down and despatching Wick, and there’s someone else trying to track him down, too, a mercenary freelance killer called Mr. Nobody (Shamier Anderson), who’s accompanied by his dog. As is the way of the John Wick series, the search for the High Table’s nemesis leads to many, and I mean many - very many - deaths by bullet, blade, arrow and axe in an array of exotic locations that include New York, Osaka, Paris and Berlin. The last of these battles takes place on the 200 or so stairs leading up to the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur in the French capital and it’s a cracker! Wick has to surmount this obstacle in the hope of finally earning his freedom but, as we’ve learnt in the earlier chapters, “No one escapes the Table.”
John Wick: Chapter 4 features all the hallmarks and attributes of the previous films that fans have come to know and love: the weird and freaky characters (like the Bowery King, Laurence Fishburne), the athletic and balletic fight scenes, those close-quarters gunfights that mix martial arts with hand-to-hand combat (the filmmakers call it ‘gun-fu’), the extraordinary number of firearms, strange, other-worldly nightclub scenes, hot cars and motorbikes, and dogs – there’s almost always a dog playing an important role. It’s a graphic novel-type mash-up that the series’ director, ex-stuntman Chad Stahelski, manages well although, this time, he needed to rein in the mayhem a bit more; at well over two-and-a-half hours, it comes close to wearing out its welcome. And, it must be said, if you’re not already a follower of the series, Chapter 4 will be lost on you. Those who are followers, however, will enjoy seeing Reeves’ taciturn, joyless character in action one more time, not to mention all the other oddballs who inhabit this bizarre neo-noir underworld. Plus, the production design, cinematography and score are all exemplary.
When asked how long the Wick franchise would run, Reeves apparently declared, “As far as my legs can take me. As far as the audience wants to go.” The denouement of John Wick: Chapter 4 makes that statement inconclusive but, as Winston says in the last line of the film, “Who knows?” Certainly, there are some spin-off productions planned and one of them, Ballerina, will be released later this year. Stahelski, though, when talking to The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month, said, “In our minds, Keanu and I are done for the moment. We're going to give John Wick a rest. I'm sure the studio has a plan. If everyone loves it and it goes kooky, then we'll take a quiet minute.”
Screenplay: Shay Hatten and Michael Finch, based on the characters created by Derek Kolstad.
Principal cast:
Keanu Reeves
Donnie Yen
Bill Skarsgård
Laurence Fishburne
Hiroyuki Sanada
Shamier Anderson
Country: USA
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 169 mins.
Australian release date: 23 March 2023
In what’s becoming a time-worn tradition (the first John Wick movie was released in 2014), John Wick: Chapter 4 picks up the action right where the previous film in the series ended and it begins with a punch… a number of them, in fact. Our hero, the grieving hitman John Wick (Keanu Reeves, again donning the trademark black three-piece suit) is in training, preparing for battle as he continues his ongoing quest to be free once and for all of the clutches of the criminal masterminds who sit at the High Table.
Once again, Wick travels to the desert to confront The Elder (George Georgiou) but his actions there contribute to events leading to the New York Continental being ordered to close down for good, news Winston, the manager (Ian McShane), and Charon, his concierge (the recently deceased Lance Reddick), don’t take well. This demand is delivered by the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), a high-ranking member of the Table who is obsessed with getting rid of Wick and who wants to punish Winston for failing to kill JW in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. The Marquis blackmails Caine (Donnie Yen), a retired blind assassin, into hunting down and despatching Wick, and there’s someone else trying to track him down, too, a mercenary freelance killer called Mr. Nobody (Shamier Anderson), who’s accompanied by his dog. As is the way of the John Wick series, the search for the High Table’s nemesis leads to many, and I mean many - very many - deaths by bullet, blade, arrow and axe in an array of exotic locations that include New York, Osaka, Paris and Berlin. The last of these battles takes place on the 200 or so stairs leading up to the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur in the French capital and it’s a cracker! Wick has to surmount this obstacle in the hope of finally earning his freedom but, as we’ve learnt in the earlier chapters, “No one escapes the Table.”
John Wick: Chapter 4 features all the hallmarks and attributes of the previous films that fans have come to know and love: the weird and freaky characters (like the Bowery King, Laurence Fishburne), the athletic and balletic fight scenes, those close-quarters gunfights that mix martial arts with hand-to-hand combat (the filmmakers call it ‘gun-fu’), the extraordinary number of firearms, strange, other-worldly nightclub scenes, hot cars and motorbikes, and dogs – there’s almost always a dog playing an important role. It’s a graphic novel-type mash-up that the series’ director, ex-stuntman Chad Stahelski, manages well although, this time, he needed to rein in the mayhem a bit more; at well over two-and-a-half hours, it comes close to wearing out its welcome. And, it must be said, if you’re not already a follower of the series, Chapter 4 will be lost on you. Those who are followers, however, will enjoy seeing Reeves’ taciturn, joyless character in action one more time, not to mention all the other oddballs who inhabit this bizarre neo-noir underworld. Plus, the production design, cinematography and score are all exemplary.
When asked how long the Wick franchise would run, Reeves apparently declared, “As far as my legs can take me. As far as the audience wants to go.” The denouement of John Wick: Chapter 4 makes that statement inconclusive but, as Winston says in the last line of the film, “Who knows?” Certainly, there are some spin-off productions planned and one of them, Ballerina, will be released later this year. Stahelski, though, when talking to The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month, said, “In our minds, Keanu and I are done for the moment. We're going to give John Wick a rest. I'm sure the studio has a plan. If everyone loves it and it goes kooky, then we'll take a quiet minute.”