Browse: Home / Guest Review: James Williams on JOHN WICK: CHAPTER FOUR

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here
  • Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

Guest Review: James Williams on JOHN WICK: CHAPTER FOUR

Posted By Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott on March 29, 2023 in Reviews | Leave a response

The first time we hear Keanu Reeves speak in John Wick Chapter 4, it’s to say a single word: “Yeah.” It may not seem like much, but over the course of four movies, Reeves-as-Wick has come to own that word, finding countless variations in his delivery that can render it hilarious, tense, and heartbreaking, sometimes all at once. His trick is similar to what the series as a whole has been able to pull off, reivingorating the moribund action genre from its ate-00s/mid-10s doldrums by continually finding clever twists on a formula.

Chapter 4 picks up where the previous film left off, with Wick making alliances with the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) to take down the High Table— a shadowy council of gang leaders who (the series implies) essentially run the world — after one of his few remaining friends, Continental Hotel manager Winston (the great Ian McShane) betrays him. The High Table, hoping to end the conflict as quickly as possible, has granted the Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård, at his oiliest) unlimited means to dispose of him. The Marquis extorts Wick’s old friend Caine (Donnie Yen, excellent) into tracking John down and killing him. Meanwhile, the mysterious Mr. Nobody (Shamier Anderson, in a star-making turn) forms an uneasy alliance with Wick in order to drive up the bounty on his head before he collects it.

There’s a lot going on here, and at two hours and forty-nine minutes, it can feel overstuffed. Chapter 4 is the first John Wick movie not written by series creator Derek Kolstad, and his imagination and deceptively simple plotting is much missed. Chapter 3 opened with an extended action scene that featured Wick dispatching henchman with books, horses, swords, and knives; Chapter 4’s focus on gunplay can’t help but feel like a step down in comparison.

Fortunately, series director Chad Stahelski is on hand and keeps the proceedingsfleet-footed. His way of shooting action scenes in fluid long takes pretty much changed the game overnight in Hollywood action cinema (you absolutely could not get away with anything like the infamous fence-jumping scene from Taken 3 today), and he keeps finding ways to top himself here, from sword and bow and arrow fights at the Osaka Continental to a top-down shootout in a Paris apartment. He openly borrows from Lawrence of Arabia, The Warriors, Sergio Leone, and Barry Lyndon in ways that feel ambitious and respectful instead of a game of “spot the reference.” With only the John Wick movies on his directing resume, he has still found a way to establish himself as one of the most thrilling contemporary action directors.

Stahelski and Reeves have implied that the mainline series might take a break after this installment, and Chapter 4 does feel like the logical endpoint of a trilogy that started with Chapter 2 (the original is so low-key and self-contained by comparison, that it feels almost completely separate from the rest of the series). If this is the last John Wick movie we get for a long time, then Stahelski and Reeves have gone out on a high point.

Posted in Reviews | Tagged Chad Stahelski, Donnie Yen, Ian Mcshane, James Williams, John Wick, Keanu Reeves, Lance Reddick, Laurence Fishburne

About the Author

Sam “Burgundy Suit” Scott

Sam is a features writer for Looper and studied writing under Kevin Wilson at Sewanee: the University of the South. He’s been a staff writer for The Solute since its launch in 2014 and editor of the Year of the Month series since 2017.

I don’t know how to put this, but he’s kind of a big deal. He has many leather-bound books and his apartment smells of rich mahogany.

Now on Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/user/creators?u=23744950

  • Tumblr
  • Twitter

Related Posts

Nuns, Lola, NunsThe Friday Article Roundup: The Rundown→

A surprisingly good Peter, Paul and Mary tribute bandMiller’s Triple Features: Aging Gracefully→

Year of the Month: James Williams on THE FISHER KING→

You’re out of control: Persia on The Rootless Culture of MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    38376 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    30714 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    30338 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Gordon with Mr. Looper

    Attention Must Be Paid: Will Lee

    27649 views / Posted January 7, 2023
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    23336 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • The truth is FAR out there.

    The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here

    December 6, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • This is a way lower res image than I will be allowed to get away with at the new site.

    Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer

    December 5, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE

    December 4, 2024 / ZoeZ
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray

    December 3, 2024 / Greta Taylor
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

    December 2, 2024 / The Ploughman

Last Tweets

    ©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

    Menu

    • Home
    • Who We Are
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact Us
    • Login
    Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!