Written by: Shay Hatten & Michael Finch
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada
Rating: [4.5/5]
Running out of gas for any series of films makes sense seeing as keeping a consistency in quality comes with no ease. Especially when centered on action films, one can only dream up and execute so many ways to thrill with set pieces in new and innovative ways. John Wick: Chapter 4 proves the opposite where somehow it displays the stunning consistency on display with the journey of this assassin and with this fourth installment it somehow continues to surpass its predecessors.
Still on the run from the High Table, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) kills the Elder who sits above the Table, which leads Marquis Vincent Bisset de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård) to pull out all the stops in destroying the New York Continental Hotel and commissioning High Table assassin, Caine (Donnie Yen) to kill the Baba Yaga. Now hoping to end this constant fleeing, John looks for a way to end this battle with the High Table.
It continues to boggle my mind how this series of films continue one continuous story all beginning with the tragic killing of John’s dog. Sure, any series of films follows one story, but the John Wick films seemingly pick up right where the previous one left off, which gives credence to the idea of watching all four of these consecutively demonstrating all of this occurs during quite the short period of time. It therefore makes it more impressive the sheer amount of people Wick kills throughout this period of time. This fourth installment seeks to provide final resolution to this whole ordeal, and the journey there makes for another banger in enthralling action.
Ever the globe-trotting killer, John finds himself in various locations once again, starting in a desert killing off the Elder to send the message and then to Osaka, New York, Berlin, and then everything transpiring in Paris. Each location gets utilized to their height in not only presenting different foes to take on but how each environment adds its own flair to the action taking place because of course, some killing will happen in all of them. The locations also allow the cinematographer Dan Laustsen to go absolutely bananas in continuing the trend of these films looking wonderfully slick, and none looks better than the scenes in the Osaka Continental Hotel and the nightclub in Berlin. Stunning work that only makes the action on display all the more enjoyable.
As with each new film we have new and old characters brought into the fray and the firing line of John Wick. We have old reliables like Winston (Ian McShane) and Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) but also some memorable newcomers in Caine, the Marquis, Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada), Mr. Nobody (Shamier Anderson), and Shimazu Akira (Rina Sawayama). Each of these characters make their mark with varied levels of screen time, but Donnie Yen as the blind assassin truly takes the cake in bringing some dynamic and difference in John’s journey. Representing an old friend forced to track down and kill him, their dynamic throughout the film adds a different level and one that makes for the greatest scenes. From their climb up to Sacre Coeur or their face off in Osaka, Yen just brings this mastery in fight choreography that makes for such thrilling moments as he reluctantly tries to kill John Wick. Displaying how he can succeed with this physical disability so effortlessly displays the level of detail these films have displayed and Yen, as always, proves he’s worth the price of admission alone.
After watching John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, I figured there would be no way they could create better action sequences. For goodness’s sake, that film had scenes where Wick kills someone with a book, fights off sword-wielding motorcyclists, rides a horse through New York, and has a knife throwing battle with two assassins. Truly insane stuff and somehow this film gets even better with some truly breathtaking action sequences. The scene alone where the camera shifts into bird’s eye view as John utilizes this explosive ammo felt like watching a video game and it stunned at how Chad Stahelski and his team continue to think up these ideas. From the battle at the Arc de Triomphe, the wonderful use of Hiroyuki Sanada and Rina Sawayama fighting in Osaka, and pretty much everything happening in that Berlin nightclub, I was left in awe of that this film delivered in spellbinding action. This film does not contain much of a thrilling plot, but as expected, it more than delivered with action to make up for it in spades.
Delivering yet another incredible piece of cinema, Chad Stahelski continually proves to be operating in some rarefied air right now in relation to the action genre. Right up there with Christopher McQuarrie, he continues to improve and display he more than has the goods in piecing together excellent action sequences and still managing to tie them back to the narrative consistently. With this feature, Keanu Reeves continues to demonstrate he deserves to be in the conversation as the best action star to ever hit the big screen, where he continues to partake in this insane fight choreography at this age. Every element of this film simply stuns, even down to the mustache-twirling villainous role taken on by Bill Skarsgård. Demonstrating this level of consistent quality does not happen often, especially in the action genre but the John Wick films have always navigated in a league of their own with this fourth installment being no exception.
Films with Josh 
