Keanu Reeves lets his knives, guns and nunchucks do the talking in this 4th Wick go around. It’s non-stop, over the top violence taking hit after hit and we stopped early-on, keeping tabs of the body count. Director Chad Stahelski has well-choreographed endless battles with Wick mowing down numerous assassins and their never-ending army of henchmen in picture perfect settings. The dialogue written by Shay Hater and Michael Finch, is sparse but there doesn’t need to be much with the constant flurry of flying bodies, broken glass, smashed cars, and major destruction.
With nearly 3 hours of Wick’s martial arts, picking up guns with an inexhaustible supply of bullets along with cars and motorcycles off the street, Wick manages to evade his pursuers at a high energy frantic pace. Frankly, some of those scenes are just too long which tests their credulity. But who’s looking for realism here anyway? Wick may be the coolest guy in the room, but why doesn’t he ever break a sweat? Tension builds throughout, but some of the chases and antics get so outrageous, they are obviously staged to garner laughs. Yes, a lot of it is cartoonish, but super slick entertainment.
Assassins show up wherever Wick goes around the globe as he keeps fighting, hoping to finally gain peace and freedom from the High Table. Wick not only worked for that organization as a bounty hunter, but again, he’s also a prime target. Wherever he goes, from New York, Berlin, Osaka, Jordan, and finally at stunning landmarks in Paris, hundreds come to annihilate him every which way. Cinematographer Dan Laustsen (Nightmare Alley, The Shape of Water) captures it from every angle and apparently there are more assassins in Paris than anywhere else. It’s a wonder any of the stuntmen, let alone the actors, survived making this film.
Ian McShane and Laurence Fishburne are back, again in pivotal roles. So is Lance Reddick in a final appearance as the concierge of the hotel in New York. Unfortunately, Reddick died recently, unexpectedly, shortly before the SXSW World premiere.
Wick gets shelter from Osaka Cosmopolitan Hotel manager, Shimazu (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his daughter, Akira (Rina Sawayama). But the ruthless High Table ruler, Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgärd) is hellbent on eliminating Wick and has hired the blind, but amazingly lethal Caine (Donnie Yen), to get the job done. The fate of Caine’s daughter is in the balance. Donnie Yen plays it very tongue-in-cheek with his razor sharp cane, emerging as a stand out character in this chapter. He reminded us as more serious, but also sly Ken Jeong like character, providing dark humor along the way.
The Tracker (Shamier Anderson), who refers to himself as Mr. Nobody, literally comes out of nowhere, but is always lurking close by with his killer dog.They are completely in sync. Skarsgärd is cold-hearted scary, but convinces Mr. Nobody to hunt Wick.
One of the weirdest of the bunch is Killa, (Scott Adkins). This imposing figure is a card shark who plays life and death high stakes games. Adkins is transformed with a prosthetic suit into a humongous giant of a man with a broad, menacing, gold-toothed smile. The actor is a well-known martial arts expert, who had to work hard fighting in his costumed heft. In his getup, he’s totally unrecognizable.
There was supposed to be a Chapter 5 shot along with Chapter 4, but that didn’t happen. So is this the end of the John Wick series? Now, as if Wick didn’t already have enough enemies, there’s talk of a film covering Wick’s time between chapters 3 and 4 starring Ana de Armas as another assassin. Plus, there may be a prequel in the works going back to how Wick’s involvement with the High Table began. During Q & A at SXSW, Stahelski and Reeves said it’s time to take a break, but it doesn’t sound like they’ll be gone for long.
In this film, it’s a race to the finish in this over-sized action adventure and like an old TV commercial slogan, he “takes a licking, and keeps on ticking.” Same might be said for Keanu Reeves who you think is down for the count every other minute in this thriller. After fighting up and down more than 200 steps in Paris’ Montmartre district, he looks fresh as a daisy prepping for the ultimate duel. Credit to Stahelski for keeping the tension rising throughout. The end may surprise you, and stay for a post credit scene to keep you guessing. Is this franchise about to flicker out, or will Reeves come back to make Wick light up the screen once more?
Lionsgate 2 hours 49 minutes R
