John Wick: Chapter 4
I may be saving you some time reviewing this, if you aren’t one of those people who have watched all ten hours of the previous three films. I can tell you they’re all very much the same, with increasingly large budgets, so if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all.
Over the years a lot of unkind things have been said about Keanu Reeves, but he is all right in my book. I thought he was fine as Nemo in the Matrix trilogy, and I was fine with him as Don John in Much Ado About Nothing. He has been unjustly maligned and under estimated in much the way John Wick is again and again and again. (and again and again and again)
There are some humongously popular series that I’m pretty much meh about, like Godzilla, or Bond or Transformers or Fast and Furious. Sensing a trend here. The John Wick series darn near falls into that category, the only difference being I’ve seen all of them. Each of them have a clever idea and a great first movie followed by either slow or fast declines, or in the case of Bond up and down decades. The basic premise is that John Wick is the baddest mofo to have ever lived, and after his wife dies some bad guys kill his dog and, nearly as bad, steal his car. He then gets a gun and kills everyone on the planet. The second part happens every film.
This neo-ist of noirs has a lot of action, gorgeous stunt work, beautiful and exotic settings that go all over the world and into many dangerous cultures. The action goes on and on for so long in every film that after a while it becomes mind numbing. People, especially him, get hit by cars, they get thrown through glass, he throws something at them and hits the end of whatever sharp thing he’s just stuck in them to really drive it home. He shoots a thousand shots out of a twenty shot clip and never misses the bad guys who even with a machine gun can’t hit the city they’re in much less Wick. At one point I bet my viewing companion the next fight scene would last 40 minutes. She laughed when it ended – I was over by ten minutes. When I say it’s a noirish film I mean they’re all gorgeous and shot from super odd angles and with terrific lighting that make me nod appreciation every time. Some of it is very clever and I don’t remember rolling my eyes at any of it in any of the films, except maybe every time he goes into a place with lots of glass. I know, you know, everyone knows, he’s gonna be thrown through all that glass.
For this noirish series Keanu is a perfect blank slate, and at the beginning of the franchise he did a lot of tough fight scenes and totally sold them because he’s just that good at mimicking fighting and shooting. When you think of action heroes you think of Bruce Willis and Jason Statham and Tom Cruise, but Reeves is rarely mentioned. That underrated thing again. But as with all action movie actors, age will take its toll. I noticed a bit of a slowdown in the third film, of his movements and his speech, but he was still doing a lot of his stunt work and looking good. In the fourth film, I could hardly get past how little of the work he was doing, except for understanding how it is when your body wears out. He can still throw a punch, but it’s so slow now my aunt could duck it. The stunt men he was killing by the bushel slowed down to help sell the action, and the other actors seem to have slowed their speech to match his.
Of all the Wick films I think this is the most operatic and Shakespearean. Everything seemed just a bit grander, from the settings for every extended fight scene to the grand palaces of evil and cities full of assassins. There also seemed to be more nods than in other Wick films. I saw a Bourne reference and a crazy subtle Circle of Iron moment. I really like how the makers of this Wick film use noir sensibilities to make something huge and opulent, and I like Keanu Reeves. If you’re in the mood for endless fight scenes and Shakesperean decadence, this is the series for you.
LINKS:
- John Wick: Chapter 4 – Official Movie Franchise Site
- John Wick: Chapter 4 – Official Website
- John Wick: Chapter 4 – IMDB
- John Wick: Chapter 4 – Wikipedia
CFR: In Addition:
Oh squee. Once again I am so glad that Mildred wrote John Wick: Chapter 4. Yes I have seen it! Or rather, I’ve seen the first 3/4th. Whuh, you might say? Well I got to watch John Wick: Chapter 4 on two plan rides from Tucson, AZ to Indianapolis, IN.* However, due to the timing of the flights, I only saw the first 3/4ths. That’s right I missed the big fight scene at the end. I’ll watch it one day.
As for the film, well, wow. What I saw I loved. Yes to Mildred’s reference to Shakespearean drama. There was a lot of pathos and betrayal that hurt me as a watcher. The structure that John Wick has lived in takes a punch and very loyal secondary characters true allegiance comes through. In fact, a lot of virtue and loyalty to honorable behavior came through here and I really liked that. It’s one of my things.
However I must really celebrate the opening of this movie. Lawrence Fishburne at his best, delivering a rousing speech about John Wick, who we see practicing his punches. Now granted Fishburne has the chops so he could have carried this opening with one long shot. What a voice, what a man, what a delivery! But let’s up it folks. So this opening huzzah includes beautiful shots, lighting, action, and music. I wanted to stand up and CHEER! However the seatbelt prevented this and I think the flight attendants have enough to deal with.
Now, Mildred has already discussed the awesomeness of Reeves and how he is wrongly ignored. I would like to salute Reeves again with this: The man can elevate the word “yeah.”
So at the end of Fishburne’s rousing opening speech the camera to turns to Wick (Reeves) and he just says “Yeah.” That’s it.
And that is all we need.
I salute you, Mr. Reeves. You are a kind man, a generous soul, and goodness you are respectful of women. Thank you! Your star will always shine bright for me. I will also include your Wick costars in that as well.
Oh and one last piece of very good news: No dogs die in this movie. Yay!
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