John Wick: Chapter 4
The critic-proof franchise returns for a fourth instalment in which the formula continues to strive for novelty.
Bodycounting: Keanu Reeves
The first John Wick film was more than enough. But then we hadn’t seen John Wick on horseback in the desert before, shooting down a quartet of fleeing Arabs. Of course, any sense of plot is a mere formality here, as what the fanbase craves is even more preposterous assassin porn. For those who don’t know, Wick is an indestructible 58-year-old hitman with a price on his head ($18m and mounting). He only wears one suit and tie – whether he’s in the desert or in the snow – and pops up all over the globe, presumably in search of a good barber. Here, the film flits between New York, Osaka, Berlin, Paris and Morocco in search of the most spectacular backdrop for another shootout between several hundred gunmen.
The latest instalment – directed again by Chad Stahelski – unfolds at 169 minutes, which provides considerable bang for your buck and more disposable stuntmen than an all-night John Woo triple-bill. Some praise must be allotted to the costume designer Paco Delgado and production designer Kevin Kavanaugh, who provide princely outfits and tableaux for the latest antagonist, the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), who holds court in some of the biggest and most opulent rooms on the planet. The Marquis is not a fan of Mr Wick and proclaims that “second chances are the refuge of men who fail,” which is rich coming from the scriptwriters of a series that doesn’t know when to stop.
Fans of the franchise are unlikely to be bothered by the clichéd dialogue and non-refundable characters, because the film delivers the action in spades. Most of it is fantastically ludicrous, but no more so than a hard rock music video aimed at a throng of spaced-out headbangers. Two set-pieces in particular are likely to set tongues a-wagging, such as when an obese, severely injured heavy (literally) manages to hurl Wick off a high balcony in-between gasping on an asthma inhaler. The fact that battalions of highly trained assassins cannot stop Wick in his tracks, it is curious that a man of such disadvantaged proportions manages to get the upper hand. The other scene of note is a gun battle on the roundabout of the Arc de Triomphe, where Wick is repeatedly rammed by oncoming traffic, with little apparent damage to his constitution.
Ultimately, the film is all about effect, strutting its stuff with gleeful abandon, squeezing every last drop of credibility out of its boundless ballet of brutality. If taken purely as high camp, Chapter 4 may suffice on some level, but eleven minutes shy of three hours, it is exhausting and an endurance test for all but the most dedicated devotees.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Lance Reddick, Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins, Clancy Brown, Ian McShane, Marko Zaror, Natalia Tena, Aimée Kwan.
Dir Chad Stahelski, Pro Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee and Chad Stahelski, Ex Pro Keanu Reeves, Screenplay Shay Hatten and Michael Finch, Ph Dan Laustsen, Pro Des Kevin Kavanaugh, Ed Nathan Orloff, Music Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard, Costumes Paco Delgado, Sound Alan Rankin.
Summit Entertainment/Thunder Road Films/87Eleven Productions-Lionsgate UK.
169 mins. USA. 2023. UK and US Rel: 24 March 2023. Cert. 15.
