John Wick 4 Review: Save The Best For Last…?

John Wick 4 – also known as John Wick: Chapter 4 – is coming to theatres worldwide, and yes, I’m thinking that Keanu Reeves’ John Wick is well and truly back! I’ve been a fan of the John Wick movies ever since the first one.

The release of a new movie in this franchise has always been a big deal for me. As far as the movies go, I really do believe that they’ve been getting better and better with every new release. The only film in the franchise that I didn’t think was as good as the previous one was John Wick: Chapter Two.

That said, I still loved the film. When John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum was released in 2019, it ended up being one of my favourite films to have been released that year. The only movie that I thought beat it that year was Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout.

Actually, I think that the John Wick franchise owes quite a lot to the Mission: Impossible movies. Those films do something similar in the sense that each new release is bigger and more insane than the previous one.

Reeves and Cruise are also pretty similar. They are both movie stars that have become synonymous with the action movie genre, and they both put their bodies on the line in order to entertain us. Reeves did so much training for these films, and it really shows.

Yeah, I’m thinking John Wick is back in John Wick 4!

Credit: Summit Entertainment

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But, let’s get into what John Wick: Chapter 4 is all about. Here’s the movie’s plot synopsis (yes, I’m just going to copy and paste it because I’m lazy, and honestly, these John Wick movies aren’t about their plots):

With the price on his head ever increasing, John Wick uncovers a path to defeating The High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes.

So, basically, John Wick has to kill a new asshole that wants him dead. This time around, the asshole in question is Bill Skarsgård’s the Marquis Vincent de Gramont. He’s been tasked by the High Table with the very difficult (maybe impossible) job of having John Wick killed.

He’s going to offer assassins a lot of money in order to get the job done, but Wick’s someone who really cannot be messed with.

This new John Wick movie goes all over the globe. There are scenes that take place in Morocco; Osaka, Japan; Berlin, Germany; and Paris, France. These are some incredible locations, and these John Wick movies have always been able to make these settings really come to life during their action sequences, and it’s no different here.

I was particularly fond of the scenes that took place in Osaka and Paris. They just looked gorgeous. The lighting, the locations, the perfectly choreographed fight sequences. It was all just perfection.

It feels like director, Chad Stahelski, who’s directed all the other John Wick movies, wanted this movie to turn the fast-paced action sequences up to eleven, which is very, very good news for all of you who loved the action in the previous films.

That said, what I will say is that this movie takes the bullet-proof suits a bit too far, and in doing so, I actually think it takes a bit away from some of these action sequences. But that’s a minimal issue I had with these scenes.

John Wick 4 features some of the best action set pieces I have ever seen on the big screen

Credit: Summit Entertainment

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For the most part, these are the best choreographed and shot action set pieces I have ever seen. Some of these scenes reminded me of the very best parts of The Raid movies.

Keanu Reeves is also back and better than ever in this movie. He doesn’t have too many lines, and I think that’s where he shines. His performance in all of these movies has been mostly physical, and I think he delivers his very best performance as the titular character in John Wick: Chapter 4.

However, there’s something about his line delivery in these movies that’s also noteworthy. Reeves is able to give the character a lot of physicality, but he’s also quite vulnerable, and I often think he’s rather witty. There are some great one-liners in the film, and I think it might be one of the funniest John Wick movies to date.

I know it’s a rather odd thing to say, but this film has some laugh-out-loud moments, which I wasn’t expected.

Reeves is also joined by the best supporting cast we’ve ever seen in these films. The likes of Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane and Lance Reddick (in one of his final roles) are back. However, the movie has added some pretty impressive actors to the roster.

The likes of Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Rina Sawayama, and Scott Adkins are all in the movie, and they are brilliant. However, it was Donnie Yen as the blind assassin, Caine. He’s a High Table assassin but also is an old friend of Wick’s, and he’s been tasked with the mission of killing John Wick.

Yen is a brilliant addition to this franchise. He is a legend of the martial arts movie genre, and some of the action scenes he’s involved in are just sensational. He’s got a unique fighting style, and it’s an absolute joy to see him and Keanu Reeves’ John Wick go toe-to-toe in this movie.

I’m really trying to come up with any negatives with the film, but all I do is keep on thinking of another action set piece in the movie that took my breath away. There’s a moment in the film where John Wich has to fight a bunch of assassins on the roundabout surrounding the Arc De Triomphe in Paris, which is just bonkers and so much fun.

There’s also another scene in a Parisian apartment in Montmartre that’s shot just like a top-down shooter video game, and it’s brilliant. It’s such an inventive scene, and it’s pretty impressive that they are able to come up with new and unique sequences like this after four movies.

John Wick is the action franchise that just keeps on giving

Credit: Summit Entertainment

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John Wick is the action movie franchise that just keeps on giving. There’s so much to love about this movie. Is it a bit too long? Some people might say so, but I was hooked from start to finish, and I wouldn’t have minded if the movie ended up being a few minutes longer.

Will this be the last movie in the John Wick franchise? I’m not sure. I hope not, but that ending seems to suggest that it might be. But, if the franchise was to end with Chapter 4, I would be very satisfied with how it was all concluded.

What do you make of this review? Are you going to be watching John Wick 4 in cinemas? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is set to be released in cinemas in the US and the UK tomorrow, 24th of March.

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