Bullet Points: John Wick: Chapter 4
2014’s John Wick laid the foundation.
The subsequent John Wick sequels built up the world of John Wick and The High Table.
2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4 takes that world and flips it on its head!
- Consequences: The movie begins with John Wick (Keanu Reeves) preparing to kill The Elder of The High Table in hopes of gaining his freedom. John’s friend the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) is there to make sure John is properly equipped for the task at hand. John Wick accomplishes his goal and thus begins the chaos that is John Wick: Chapter 4. John’s actions have dire consequences and those consequences are first felt by John’s friends from the New York Continental, Winston (Ian McShane) and Charon (the late Lance Reddick).
- Enter the Marquis: The remaining members of The High Table have decreed that the Marquis (Bill Skarsgård) will take care of their John Wick problem. The Marquis has full access to The High Table’s assets and he’ll need all of them to complete his mission of killing John Wick. Bill Skarsgård is probably John Wick’s most arrogant adversary to date and is completely unlikable the moment he appears on screen. The Marquis selects an old friend of John’s to be the one to take John Wick out once and for all, that old friend is Caine (Donnie Yen channeling his inner Zatoichi).
- New Faces and Heels: Bill Skarsgård and Donnie Yen are only two of the new characters introduced in John Wick: Chapter 4… Marko Zaror (Redeemer) plays The Marquis’ right hand man, Chidi, who may be as indestructible as John Wick himself… Clancy Brown (Highlander) plays Harbinger, an official of The High Table… Shamier Anderson plays Tracker, a man with no name and a dog who is looking to cut his own deal to take out John Wick and become a wealthy man… Hiroyuki Sanada (Ninja in the Dragon’s Den) plays another old friend of John Wick, Shimazu. Shimazu is the manager of the Osaka Continental, who goes against the rules and allows John Wick on Continental grounds, which causes him some trouble to put it mildly… And last but not least is Scott Adkins (Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday) as you have never seen him before in what I believe is his most memorable role to date, as the rotund, gold toothed Killa! …When the announcements started coming out about everyone who was set to be a part of John Wick: Chapter 4, I worried that there were too many and it might be a case of overkill. After watching the movie I have to say that they made great use of all the new characters and they all were able to contribute and shine.
- What About the Action?: Conservatively speaking, I would say that at least 2 hours of John Wick: Chapter 4‘s nearly 3 hour runtime (you read that right, it’s a long ass movie) were action sequences… The first big action sequence comes when The Marquis’ men track John Wick down at the Osaka Continental and the bullets, arrows and blades start flying… we even get John Wick with some nunchaku! …Later when John Wick has to confront Killa, we get another balls to the wall fight involving John, Killa, Caine and Tracker with a waterfall themed rave serving as the backdrop… Then just when it appeared the movie was setting up the sunrise showdown that would be John Wick’s shot at freedom, the action kicks into overdrive with the price on John Wick’s head causing what felt like the entire city of Paris to come after him with guns and cars, all to collect the hefty reward and ensure John Wick did not make his sunrise deadline…. All of the action sequences are hyper violent video games come to life, at one point there’s even an aerial view of the action, something we have not seen in previous John Wick films and an element that reinforces the video game analogy.
Director Chad Stahelski and his team along with the star power of Keanu Reeves have really done something special over the last 9 years. They created something for the pure action lovers. An R rated action movie franchise in a world dominated by family friendly superhero fare. An action movie franchise with theatrically released movies and not one relegated to streaming platforms or direct to video. And an action movie franchise that has allowed other action movies to get their shot at box office glory like last year’s Bullet Train and Violent Night and the upcoming Sisu.
John Wick: Chapter 4 continued the trend of the sequels being bigger than the movie that preceded them and serves as a giant exclamation point at the end of the franchise.
These Bonus Bullet Points serve as the end of this review…
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Scott Adkins get shot in the ass, then John Wick: Chapter 4 is the movie for you.
- Soundtraxx: Among the songs on the John Wick: Chapter 4 soundtrack are Lola Colette’s cover of “Nowhere to Run”, a song made famous by Martha and the Vandellas.
- Familiar Weapon: The dreaded pencil makes a return as a weapon in John Wick: Chapter 4.
