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'John Wick: Chapter 4' Review: Battle Begins Guns, Knives, Fists and Sheer

It's deliberately designed to be an overstuffed gift for "John Wick" fans, and on that level, it succeeds.

"John Wick: Chapter 4" culminates in a climatic Death Wish-meets-videogame-meets-Keanu-Reeves-zen action sequence where our hero finds himself in a Berlin nightclub reminiscent of throbbing Bauhaus Eurodisco. "Fellini's Satyricon". It's like a concrete cathedral with giant mosh pits where dancers raise their arms to the sky while waterfalls cascade down the side walls (it almost looks like it's raining). But Reeves' John Wick, passing through neon humidity, does not dance. He's getting ready to let go - which is pretty much the same for him. As he swings forward, greasy hair hanging to the sides of his face, the camera rushes in front of him, framing him as the renegade action demigod that he is. We could be in the middle of an advertisement for the best cologne in the world. 

John Wick Chapter 4's Battle Begins Guns, Knives, First and Sheer

John Wick Chapter 4's Battle Begins Guns, Knives, First and Sheer

Then the battle begins. It is built around guns, knives, fists, and sheer will: anything that can cause instant death. In Dennis Hopper's Blue Velvet, Wick takes on a corpulent nemesis in fangs and a lavender suit sucking an inhaler. Naturally, he gets what's coming to him. So does the army of craftsmen who inevitably oppose Wick,  mowed down as fodder for Grand Theft Auto. The hand-to-hand combat in "John Wick" is both relentless and fascinating in its gritty realism. In the long run, the action flows enough to merit the term "ballet," but it's also brutal enough to be existential. Wick, like Bruce Lee or the heroes of the great Hong Kong action films, never knows what he will face around the next corner and is always ready to face it. This is because he has seen the depths. His reflexes are as fast as his soul is dark. 

John Wick 4: The Cast of the Action Sequel like Matrix

These days, every franchise seems to have the balance of the company pre-planned, but the films "John Wick" are the rare series that These days, every franchise seems to get mapped out in advance on a corporate balance sheet, but the “John Wick” movies are the rare series that discovered what it was as it went along. “John Wick,” in 2014, was a sleeper hit — an attempt to revive Reeves’ career with the last sort of role you would have expected him to play. Yes, he showed off his chops in the "Matrix" movies fighting the bona fides, but Wick, a former underworld assassin who can't seem to cut ties with the Illuminati hierarchy of the show's fictional mob cult, was a terrible desperation. with the taste of sadism in the blood. 

No one expected how well intuitive casting worked. Reeves, an actor who, even at his most stoic, can't hide his inherent likability, was warmer than the role required — and that wrapped it up. His John Wick was a savage bastard staring into the abyss ... with a hint of decency. He started out as an animated anti-hero, but with each film, the franchise grew grander as Wick, whose name referred to his short fuse (as well as "wicked"), emerged as a superhero of sorts. He didn't have otherworldly powers, but he had invincibility, which is the only superpower you need. "John Wick: Chapter 2" and "John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum" were elegant experiences built on action sequences that were now consciously and gloriously over the top. It almost didn't matter if the plot and dialogue were cut. Fans experienced these scenes like drugs. 

John Wick: Chapter 4's Duration

"John Wick: Chapter 4" is 2 hours and 9 minutes long, but it has a story that, if told more briskly, could fit into an 83-minute pot that could have been seen in the mill in 1977. Directed by a stunt director -turned-director Chad Stahelski, it's full of quiet, flashy, ritualistic verbal stunts that are meant to be mesmerizing as they unfold in each new action scene, "Chapter 4" feel. the first "John Wick" movie that wants to be  Clint Eastwood's Spaghetti Western. It's like Sergio Leone and John Wick have seen in Times Square. 

The film concludes the series with an elemental revenge and liberation plot of cosmology. Wick is still bound by his commitments to the High Table, the shadow world consortium that controls... everything. Thanks to the most serious crime he committed at the Continental Hotel (breaking the strict  High Table law), it seems he is now in a lifelong contract with the devil. But the devil has a face: it's the marquis of Gramont, a fascist preacher played by a baby-faced Bill Skarsgård (who is like a young Matt Damon or Stephen Dorff as the most entitled rich kid in the world). And there is an exit from the agreement. Wick is able to challenge the Marquis to a duel to the death, which takes place at sunrise in front of the Sacré-Coeur Basilica in Paris. 

That sounds like an easy challenge for a character who kills a beat like most of us eat lunch. However, there are several advantages. To make the duel official, Wick must contact his Russian tribal family. And the marquis did not duel himself. He assigns the job to Caine, a blind High Table assassin with lightning-fast limbs and an irresistible presence courtesy of Hong Kong mixed martial artist Donnie Yen. Caine, who regards Wick as his comrade despite being ordered to kill him, is as furious as Wick, and Eno, under his aviator sunglasses, gives him a mad rage. The cast includes the charismatic Hiroyuki Sanada as the manager of  Osaka Continental, Rina Sawayama as his fighter daughter, Laurence Fishburne as Joker, the former Bowery King, and Ian McShane as Winston, who can watch the game. the Marquis blows up his beloved Continental, though McShane then quietly adds his revenge-is-a-plate-cold-edge to the film.