Movie - John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) [+]
May 03 2023
John Wick: Chapter 4 is probably the last film of the series. As the naming suggests, the four movies are a continuous story each sequel beginning right after or pretty close to right after the previous one.
Wick (Keanu Reeves) is out for revenge and a way out. He decides he's going to kill all twelve of the High Table but after the first one the High Table strikes back, charging the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård) with ending Wick and giving de Gramont access to all High table resources.
de Gramont punishes Winston Scott (Ian McShane), head of the New York Continental Hotel, and deconsecrates then destroys the hotel (I like that the High Table has all these ancient traditions wrapped with a Catholic mien -- kind of like Vampire the Masquerade without the Vampires). He then brings back retired assassin Caine (Donnie Yen) to hunt down Wick as Caine is a close friend of Wick's but is tied to the High Table because of his daughter.
Wick flees to the Osaka Continental Hotel run by his friend Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada) but de Gramont's men and Caine track him down leading to a battle in the hotel. Wick flees to his old family and manages to convince the new head (by doing an action-packed mission) to take him back in so that he can challenge de Gramont to a duel in Paris. But de Gramont has one last card as he puts a big enough bounty on Wick that every merc in Paris is out to stop him from reaching the dueling site by dawn (which would be a forfeit)...
Chapter 4 doesn't really bring anything new to the series. It's still a lot of gunplay and hand-to-hand combat in stylish European locations with long luxurious fight scenes at each location: the Osaka Hotel museum with lots of glass display cases, an Eastern European night club with dancing crowd and lights and lots of water, a big roundabout in Paris in the dead of night but with lots of cars to dodge, going up the almost-300 steps fighting all the way as Wick tries to reach the dueling site.
There's one fight where the camera moves up then points down so you're looking at a gunfight in a building from directly above watching Wick dodge in and out shooting bad guys with a gun that shoots exploding bullets. It's a bit over-the-top video game violence but looks cool and is only a couple of minutes.
Overall the John Wick formula continues to work and makes for a nice action-packed film even though it's the longest film at 2h 40m. Wouldn't want to watch them back to back but with 2 to 4 years in between each the series managed to do four entertaining movies.
Wick (Keanu Reeves) is out for revenge and a way out. He decides he's going to kill all twelve of the High Table but after the first one the High Table strikes back, charging the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård) with ending Wick and giving de Gramont access to all High table resources.
de Gramont punishes Winston Scott (Ian McShane), head of the New York Continental Hotel, and deconsecrates then destroys the hotel (I like that the High Table has all these ancient traditions wrapped with a Catholic mien -- kind of like Vampire the Masquerade without the Vampires). He then brings back retired assassin Caine (Donnie Yen) to hunt down Wick as Caine is a close friend of Wick's but is tied to the High Table because of his daughter.
Wick flees to the Osaka Continental Hotel run by his friend Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada) but de Gramont's men and Caine track him down leading to a battle in the hotel. Wick flees to his old family and manages to convince the new head (by doing an action-packed mission) to take him back in so that he can challenge de Gramont to a duel in Paris. But de Gramont has one last card as he puts a big enough bounty on Wick that every merc in Paris is out to stop him from reaching the dueling site by dawn (which would be a forfeit)...
Chapter 4 doesn't really bring anything new to the series. It's still a lot of gunplay and hand-to-hand combat in stylish European locations with long luxurious fight scenes at each location: the Osaka Hotel museum with lots of glass display cases, an Eastern European night club with dancing crowd and lights and lots of water, a big roundabout in Paris in the dead of night but with lots of cars to dodge, going up the almost-300 steps fighting all the way as Wick tries to reach the dueling site.
There's one fight where the camera moves up then points down so you're looking at a gunfight in a building from directly above watching Wick dodge in and out shooting bad guys with a gun that shoots exploding bullets. It's a bit over-the-top video game violence but looks cool and is only a couple of minutes.
Overall the John Wick formula continues to work and makes for a nice action-packed film even though it's the longest film at 2h 40m. Wouldn't want to watch them back to back but with 2 to 4 years in between each the series managed to do four entertaining movies.