Movie Review John Wick Chapter 4

John Wick Chapter 4 (2023) 

Directed by Chad Stahelski 

Written by Shay Hatten, Michael Finch 

Starring Keanu Reeves, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, Donnie Yen, Laurence Fishburne, Bill Skarsgard 

Release Date March 24th, 2023 

Published March 24th, 2023 

John Wick Chapter 4 wastes no time in getting our favorite killing machine into action. After a brief introduction to where John's been hiding since we last saw him, action shifts to the Middle East where John Wick, in full black suit in the desert, is killing people while riding on horseback. The scene is key first for getting John Wick into action mode and for giving him a key piece of information. As John executes a nameless baddie, he's informed that the only peace he shall ever have will come in death. This sets up the plot of the movie: Will John Wick live or die? 

The plot is driven by John Wick's continuing desire to be allowed to live a normal life. He just wants a dog and a house and a muscle car for a quiet retirement. Unfortunately, the many, many people John Wick has killed since he took vengeance over the murder of his beloved dog, means that John may never stop being pursued by killers eager to grab a 20 plus million dollar bounty on his head. That bounty comes courtesy of a mysterious cabal known collectively as 'The Table.' You can assume that the table is much like the one in Godfather 2 where the heads of families sit and carve up portions of the world. 

Thus, John Wick's task, though seemingly impossible, is to kill his way through the table. Thankfully, his efforts thus far have led the leaders of the group to consolidate power inside one man, The Marquis (Bill Skarsgard). Kill the Marquis and John Wick will earn his freedom from the table. Naturally, this task is more complex than simply killing one man. Standing in John Wick's way is an old friend, a man chosen by The Marquis as his proxy in any direct combat with John Wick. That man is Caine, the blind master, played by Donnie Yen. John Wick and Caine have been friends for years but with the life of Caine's daughter hanging in the balance, the blind master has no compunction about killing his longtime friend. 

I love the lore of John Wick. I love how the universe maintains a very specific and yet uncomplicated logic. In this universe, there are suits that are made of Kevlar, these suits have an almost magical quality. They make the wearer impervious to most weapon attacks. Getting thrown off a roof, shot, or tossed down some stairs are things that can slow someone down. But, if you are wearing a Kevlar suit, you are protected from serious impacts, meaning bones won't break, and bullets may collect on the surface but not penetrate. A sword or a knife may still be an issue. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review John Wick 3 Parabellum

John Wick Parabellum (2019) 

Directed by Chad Stahelski 

Written by Derek Kolstad, Shay Hatten, Chris Collins

Starring Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Mark Dacascos, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick

Release Date May 17th, 2019

Published May 17th, 2019

The John Wick franchise is the best thing Keanu Reeves has done in his career. I realize that won’t be a popular statement with the fandoms of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure or The Matrix, but it's true. The role of supreme assassin John Wick fits Keanu Reeves like a perfectly tailored bulletproof suit. Reeves’ very physical being seems to have been crafted to act out John Wick’s incredibly choreographed violence. It’s a joy to behold for fans of action cinema.

John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum (Prepare for War) picks up in the immediate aftermath of John Wick Chapter 2. John now has a $14 million dollar bounty on his head and is considered Excommunicado by the community of assassins amongst whom he’d been considered the greatest of all. Now, thanks to his old friend, Winston (Ian McShane), John has one hour to get his affairs in order before his own contract goes live and he becomes a target.

Writer Derek Kolstad and Director Chad Stehelski, who’ve each been with this franchise from the start, have a remarkable talent for world building, as they’ve demonstrated in each of the first two Chapters of the John Wick story. The layer upon layer of dynamic mythology that Stahelski and Kolstad have crafted within this John Wick universe kicks right back in with John Wick Chapter 3 and draws you right back into this unique world in mere minutes.

The odds are well stacked against John Wick and yet, the screenplay does a remarkable amount of work to sell you the idea that an army the size of a small country won’t be enough to slow down our hero. The same mythologizing that gave us such compelling details as The Continental, a hotel for assassins only, a service that caters to killers by removing large numbers of dead bodies, and so on, also gives us a John Wick personal mythology that makes Wick both the Devil incarnate and Death in human form.

John Wick carries this remarkable air of menace and invulnerability, it’s like rooting for a horror movie villain. John Wick could come up on Jason Voorhees and you would fairly assume John Wick is the more fearsome of the two. That comes from Derek Klolstad’s exceptional script which takes care to include dialogue that never lets up in putting over the idea of John Wick as the most remarkable killer since the plague.

The fight choreography in John Wick Chapter 3 is insanely awesome. A fight scene inside what appears to be a weapons museum is gloriously staged with gut wrenching violence that also happens to be incredibly witty. The audience I was with watching John Wick Chapter 3 groaned and hollered and giggled with delight at the various unique ways John Wick murdered potential assassins. Knife throwing, neck cracking, close quarters combat, all of it at a breakneck pace that never feels too fast. It’s damned brilliant and director Chad Stahelski and stunt coordinator Jonathan Eusebio deserve all the praise imaginable for this remarkable work.

Keanu Reeves, as I mentioned, has never been better than when he’s in John Wick’s black, bulletproof suit. His blank slate face is a perfect mask for the baddest killer on the planet. The character calls for an actor who masks his emotions and never betrays his thoughts to his opponents and Reeves is remarkably great at not letting anyone in on his inner thoughts. In the past, that might be me calling Reeves boring, or dim, but in John Wick, it comes off as the perfect choice for how to play this character.

John Wick doesn’t show weakness, he rarely appears to register pain, he’s never cocky or flashy and he doesn’t smile. All of those qualities are exactly the kinds of things that have held Keanu Reeves back in other movies and yet, with John Wick, it’s as if the character were tailored for Reeves’ unique acting talent. Reeves’ wiry physicality, and powerhouse use of angles and leverage, it could be a stunt person or CGI, whatever, it looks awesome. He doesn’t just play John Wick, his body appears to have been built specifically for the balletic violence of this character.

I completely adore John Wick Chapters 1,2 and 3. This is a great franchise with a remarkable pace, incredible style and a performance by Keanu Reeves that is relentlessly entertaining. John Wick is incredibly violent and that should be noted here for those who think they want to see what is likely going to be the number 1 movie in America on opening weekend. John Wick Chapter 3 is filled with bloody, gory, brutal violence, of the hard R-Rated variety. If violence is a turn off for you, John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum is not the movie for you.