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‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ is an action magnum opus | movie review

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Keanu Reeves returns as an assassin trying to survive an onslaught from the all-powerful High Table in John Wick: Chapter 4.

John Wick: Chapter 4 takes the over-the-top action it’s known for and cranks it up to the highest level. After a slow start it moves like a beast through some of the best action sequences of the series. It lacks some of the forward plot machinations that make the other three films so breezy. Still, it’s thrilling and innovative — and even the funniest of the sreies. The house sequence is maybe one of the best action scenes in a decade. It’s imperfect but so much fun. Oh and Rina Sawayama slays.

Over the last decade, the John Wick series has been an unlikely success story in a Hollywood that has been increasingly reliant on well-known IP and action movies that include men in tights saving the world — I love Marvel, don’t come for me. Even the franchise’s director Chad Stahelski and producer David Leitch thought that the movie was going to flop. As they put it, who would want to watch a movie about a man that viciously murders more than 80 people to avenge his dog? Apparently, a lot since the franchise has grossed over half a billion dollars. By the time we reach John Wick: Chapter 4, Wick has been battered, bruised, stabbed, and shot more than any man should be able to handle. But he is no man. He’s the boogeyman.

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The Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), a high-ranking member of the all-powerful High Table, tells blind assassin Caine (Donnie Yen) there are three types of people: those who have something to live for, those who have something to die for, and those who have something to kill for. He then says that John Wick (Keanu Reeves)has none of those. He did at one time. He had his wife Helen. And then her final gift to him — his canine companion whose untimely demise sets up the start of the series. Then he killed his way out of New York City and back again to protect his friend and send an FU to the High Table. What does he have left to kill for?

That’s what John Wick: Chapter 4 grapples with as Wick once again finds himself at the center of the High Table’s target list. This time, though, they’ve sicked the ruthless Marquis de Gramont on him—and this time The Continental rules are out the window as evidenced by the Marquis’ destruction of the New York branch while he strips the title of manager from Winston (Ian McShane). With no place to turn and his pool of friends shrinking, Wick goes to the Osaka Continental Hotel managed Shimazu (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his concierge and daughter  Akira  (musician Rina Sawayama in her film debut — Pixels, rise up!) for safe housing. 

This first third of the movie is surprisingly meditative compared to past entries of the series that have tended to throw us into the action immediately. The first action sequence of John Wick: Chapter 3 is among the great action scenes of all time. However, this slow start is not without reason. As Marquis’s right-hand man Chidi (Marko Zaror) and his army of High Table mercenaries descend on the hotel, Shimazu, imbued with stoic power by Sanada’s performance, tells his daughter they must fight for those they love. And we’ll come to learn what it is each character is fighting for.

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What it lacks in propulsive plot momentum, Chapter 4 makes up for in perhaps the most ambitious action sequences in the series’ history. Seemingly endless sections of the movie are dedicated to Wick carving his way through the High Table’s infinite supply of henchmen—two sequences even clock in at nearly thirty minutes. The Osaka Contintental sequence is classic John Wick as the staff of the hotel, largely donning swords, knives, and bows-and-arrows, take on the heavily armed High Table army. Grandiose and epic in scale, it’s perhaps the most ambitious set-piece of the series… up until that point at least. 

What’s particularly refreshing is our point-of-view switches between Shimazu, Akira, John, and even Caine, who has been coerced into helping the High Table in a bid to protect his daughter. Each character moves the plot forward as they all push forward with their own motivations as their futures are entwined. However, what’s apparent is that while everyone else falls into one of the three categories the Marquis lists, John does not. 

Eventually, John and Winston reunite and concoct a way out of their precarious position with the High Table: challenging the Marquis to a duel. However, to do that, John has to secure the blessing and crest of his estranged Bulgarian family. So begins a classic John Wick tale that will bring him around the world and back — and perhaps to redemption. Along the way, another assassin known as The Tracker (Shamier Anderson) and his trusty canine sidekick — cinematic parallels! — are roped in the Marquis’s scheme, John fights his way through a crowded club in a callback to Chapter 2, and participates in perhaps the greatest action sequence of all time.

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John Wick: Chapter 4 is an immense action magnum opus. It is near non-stop wall-to-wall combat, car chases, and shoot-outs on a level not seen since Mad Max: Fury Road. The sequence following John Wick through Paris, around the Arc de Triomphe, into an abandoned haussmann-style house (where one of the greatest single-take action sequences will blow your mind as the camera moves in near impossible ways), and up a set of stairs in the funniest and most brutal fights of the series, could bring any action fan to tears.

However, what sticks with you is that initial question. What does John Wick have left to fight for? Where the movie ends up with that question may divide fans. What won’t be controversial is why the other characters old — Winston, King of the Bowery (Laurence Fishburne) — and new — Akira, Caine — are still fighting. Why they have something to live for, to die for, or to kill for. As a series, John Wick, dripped in all its glorious violence and bloodshed, has always been about love. And by the time you watch John claw his way through dozens of men up a flight of stairs you realize that no matter the motivation, you will always root for John Wick.

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Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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Karl Delossantos
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Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.