Starring Keanu Reeves, Donnie yen, Bill Skarsgard, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Lance Reddick, Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins and Ian McShane. Written by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch and directed by Chad Stahelski. Budget $100 million. Running time 169 minutes.
In this never changing world of unrequested sequels comes this – the third and final sequel of the John Wick franchise, and the second franchise starring Keanu Reeves to reach a number #4 and it's a relief to report that this is vastly better than Matrix 4, although that's not exactly a high bar to beat.
In this never changing world of unrequested sequels comes this – the third and final sequel of the John Wick franchise, and the second franchise starring Keanu Reeves to reach a number #4 and it's a relief to report that this is vastly better than Matrix 4, although that's not exactly a high bar to beat.
So what is John Wick: Chapter Four about? Well, it's about one hour and forty nine minutes long. And it might help if you've watched the last three if you want to make sense of what's occurring? Although I can't imagine anyone going in to watch the fourth of something without having seen at least one of the first three.
The plot! Somehow still alive after being shot off the top of a hotel (see John Wick 3: Parabellum - oops sorry, spoiler alert) John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is back and off to a galloping start as he races across Morocco on a horse to confront the leader of the Table, that mysterious cabal of 12 unseen rulers of a secret society of assassins who seem to exist in a world where fantastically high body count acts of unbelievable violence are completely common place and no one bats an eye, even continuing to dance like banshees in nightclubs while men are literally hacked to death with axes in front of them, but I digress and I've only just started my synopsising of the film. God, if this is what happening after only five paragraphs, I dread to think what's in store for the rest!
It turns out that cos Wick's been excommunicated for his past antics (killing high ranking members of The High Table), he's now being hunted by someone called the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgard), a senior member of the High Table who has full power to do whatever he wants to make John Wick dead dead. And he's not messing about! No siree, within minutes of the film starting he's had the Continental Hotel blown up, he's excommunicated its manager Winston (Ian McShane) and killed its concierge just to prove he means business! Now he's going after anyone who's ever helped Wick since he was hoofed out the club. This puts Wick at his wit's end as he watches many friends getting killed for helping him. And things get ever worser when his bestest friend in the whole wide world, whom we've not only never meet before but haven't even heard about before, old blind buddy Caine (Donnie Yen) is press-ganged back into service to kill Wick, add to that a rising bounty and an ambitious young assassin with a dog who's waiting for Wick's bounty to rise to a high enough level before killing him and you have a overly packed film of exotic killers all vying to stake their claim on it. On the run, Wick is forced to find someone to sponsor him back into the business so that he can demand a duel with the Marquis and hopefully win back his freedom. Thankfully the Bowery King (Laurence Fishbone) is on hand to furnish Wick with new suits and guns whenever needed.
And that's it in a nutshell, seriously I doubt you go to see a John Wick film for it's Shakespearian plotting, no, you go for the unrelenting violence and bloodshed in a hyper stylised world of extreme opulence.
Directed by series director, Chad Stahelski the stunt co-ordinator and actor who once doubled for Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, this is a fantastically beautiful looking film, the relentless action is expertly choreographed and executed, and it's a delight to report that there's no hideous shaky cam editing or jump cuts, the action is shot almost locked down and in full shot and you see everything! It's also astonishing to see the cast doing so much of the action. There is one utterly superb sequence that sees the camera rise above the action and track Wick, top-down, through a building as he slaughters all the assassins inside, it's an inspired move and is deeply effective. And indeed the film is held up by three massively impressive action set pieces that take place in Tokyo, Berlin and Paris, boy that Wicky sure can move around the world with impunity when he wants to. And it's the astounding action sequels that make it all worth while, the fight up the stairs to the Sacre-Coeur is brilliant! Although the gun battle at the Arch De Truimph is just stupid.
It turns out that cos Wick's been excommunicated for his past antics (killing high ranking members of The High Table), he's now being hunted by someone called the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgard), a senior member of the High Table who has full power to do whatever he wants to make John Wick dead dead. And he's not messing about! No siree, within minutes of the film starting he's had the Continental Hotel blown up, he's excommunicated its manager Winston (Ian McShane) and killed its concierge just to prove he means business! Now he's going after anyone who's ever helped Wick since he was hoofed out the club. This puts Wick at his wit's end as he watches many friends getting killed for helping him. And things get ever worser when his bestest friend in the whole wide world, whom we've not only never meet before but haven't even heard about before, old blind buddy Caine (Donnie Yen) is press-ganged back into service to kill Wick, add to that a rising bounty and an ambitious young assassin with a dog who's waiting for Wick's bounty to rise to a high enough level before killing him and you have a overly packed film of exotic killers all vying to stake their claim on it. On the run, Wick is forced to find someone to sponsor him back into the business so that he can demand a duel with the Marquis and hopefully win back his freedom. Thankfully the Bowery King (Laurence Fishbone) is on hand to furnish Wick with new suits and guns whenever needed.
And that's it in a nutshell, seriously I doubt you go to see a John Wick film for it's Shakespearian plotting, no, you go for the unrelenting violence and bloodshed in a hyper stylised world of extreme opulence.
Directed by series director, Chad Stahelski the stunt co-ordinator and actor who once doubled for Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, this is a fantastically beautiful looking film, the relentless action is expertly choreographed and executed, and it's a delight to report that there's no hideous shaky cam editing or jump cuts, the action is shot almost locked down and in full shot and you see everything! It's also astonishing to see the cast doing so much of the action. There is one utterly superb sequence that sees the camera rise above the action and track Wick, top-down, through a building as he slaughters all the assassins inside, it's an inspired move and is deeply effective. And indeed the film is held up by three massively impressive action set pieces that take place in Tokyo, Berlin and Paris, boy that Wicky sure can move around the world with impunity when he wants to. And it's the astounding action sequels that make it all worth while, the fight up the stairs to the Sacre-Coeur is brilliant! Although the gun battle at the Arch De Truimph is just stupid.
Sadly, however, despite all this good, the film does drag, its length doesn't help (Ooh-Eer, missus!) the relentless, lengthy shoot-outs with legions of nameless goons becomes repetitive and somewhat boring, although the choreography of each fight remains deeply impressive. The introduction of bullet proof coats pushes credulity to breaking point, and the weight of the film's own ridiculous mythology threatens to drown the whole thing. Also the kills gets very samey, Wick, or however, fires two or three bullets to the body then one or more to the head and repeat. Add to that the complete impunity in which these hordes of gun-totting assassins operate is breath-taking, despite leaving countless scores of corpses strewn across three continents and major cities, at no time do the authorities or the police ever intervene! But, luckily because there's a serious lack of blood and gore the film avoids an 18 certificate.
And to think all this started because the son of a Russian gangster killed a retired assassin's dead wife's puppy and stole his car! Ah, simpler times.
Tom Cruise might be the King of the Sprint, but Keanu is the King of the Double-Tap!
7/10
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