John Wick: Chapter 4 is bit like Christmas lunch: every year, you go round to your parent’s place, you sit down, and somehow, every succeeding course is better than the last.
The entrée, some sort of delectable prawn-type thing, is exquisite (The first John Wick). She brings out the next course – astounding – and that’s John Wick Chapter 2, with its sweep of world-building. And you’re thinking: “Surely this can’t get better. I’m positively stuffed.” Somehow, it does get better. John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum is absolutely drenched in this to-die-for sauce. Mwah, magnifique.
Then, mum (Who in this scenario is Chad Stahelski, former kickboxer and director of John Wick: Chapter 4 and all previous John Wick films) asks: “Desert; it’s only wafer thin?” And you’re feeling like Mr Creosote in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, as if you’re about to explode. There’s no possibility that a) you could fit it in; or b) it could be better than the preceding masterclasses in modern action cinema.
Well, bravo Stahelski. John Wick: Chapter 4 has continued the upping the ante trend set by each of the previous iterations of this franchise. A continuous raising of the bar sees Wick (Keanu Reeves) uncover a path to defeating ‘The High Table’ – the criminal organisation hunting him across the globe. But before he can earn his freedom, he must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances and forces that turn old friends into foes. The additions of Bill Skarsgård and Donnie Yen - as garnishes to a now-seasoned franchise - are absolute deserts in themselves.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is a remarkable series of set pieces from one of modern cinema’s best action directors. It’s arrestingly gorgeous in its cinematography and mind-bogglingly complex in its choreography.
John Wick: Chapter 4 begins screening at the Bowen Summergarden Cinema this month.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is “arrestingly gorgeous” says our reviewer Declan Durrant
