Review: “John Wick 4”

One of the most impressive aspects of the “John Wick” series is that each entry somehow finds a way to elevate the action and spectacle of the previous film.  After three exhilarating entries, creating a fourth movie that once again raised the bar sounds like an impossible task.  Thankfully, the Baba Yaga has never shied away from the impossible.

John (Keanu Reeves) has spent the last few months hidden away in the Bowery King’s (Laurence Fishburne) underground lair recovering from injuries he sustained at the end of “John Wick 3.”  Dressing in all black again, John has one goal in mind, vengeance against the High Table and those who betrayed him.  His path to success isn’t as straightforward and clear as it was before.  As many characters remind him, he broke the rules, and that carries consequences that he has to face.  In addition, the High Table has given carte blanche power to a young, arrogant man known as the Marquis (Bill Skarsgård) whose only goal is to eliminate Wick and all those he associates with.  The Marquis has no qualms about deconsecrating any Continental that might shelter Wick and slaughtering anyone even remotely associated with him.  One exception is an old friend, Caine (Donnie Yen), a blind assassin whose young daughter’s life lies in the hands of the High Table.  Caine is given a choice, eliminate John Wick and other former friends, or his daughter dies instead.

“John Wick 4” leans heavily into the lore and style of this surreal world where killers seem to outnumber civilians.  With multiple characters sporting bullet-proof business suits or full-on ballistic armor, the fighting gets more creative and visceral.  Bullets are often used just to knock a villain around until a more unique method of death can be applied.  Even Wick’s style varies more than before.  There’s the usual gunplay, but in an early scene he employs the best Gun-Kata seen since “Equilibrium.”  Later he has to resort to a set of nun-chucks that he swings around like a baseball bat.  Each action set piece throughout the entire movie amps up insanity.  Sure, it occasionally stretches credibility to its breaking point, but it looks so incredible, who cares?  Even Donnie Yen’s blind assassin is so cool we want to believe he’s capable of the ridiculous fighting style he employs. The movie rarely slows down during its nearly 3-hour runtime, but when it does, we’re thankful for the chance to catch our breath before we’re off to the next action extravaganza.

Yes, the series has left reality behind, it’s quite long and glorifies violence.  But those are some of the reasons it is the best American action movie I’ve ever seen.  Is it really that good??   “Yeah.”