John Wick: Chapter 4

Closing the book with a bang

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

5 / 5

This is almost a funny story: In 2017 I was on a Valentine’s Day double date with another married couple, and the combined wives wanted to see Fifty Shades Darker. It was a massive box office draw, especially for that holiday. But in the most brilliant counterprogram move in cinema history, the other grown-up film premiering that weekend was John Wick: Chapter 2. The other husband took the bait; he just couldn’t bring himself to see Fifty Shades, so I agreed to watch Keanu Reeves shoot people in the face with him (and most of the husbands, it appeared) while the lusty moms bonded over their own fantasies in the next theater over. I had not seen the first film, but I had it in the back of my mind for “someday.” I loved Chapter 2 (it remains on my greatest-ever list), doubled back to stream part 1 a day or two later, and really fell in love with the series. I’ve been there for these ever since. 

There’s a lot to like. The best sequels in the best franchises expand the world via the story. The Empire Strikes Back does this. The Godfather Part II does this. Toy Story 2 does this. And it’s harder than it seems, because “expand” can often mean “bloat,” which means you end up with big repetitive exposition dumps about nothing and a series that ends up trailing off into direct-to-video hell (cough cough Death Race). The John Wick series absolutely does this, with each film introducing a new facet of the ultra-stylized, near-operatic world that exists “under the High Table” as we follow along with John’s very Campbellian hero journey further and further into the shadows he left behind but must re-enter in search of personal salvation via vengeance. The use of faux-Latin to give these organizations the proper sense of age and reverence is an exercise in tropey brilliance: we’re already primed to assume that Latin names denote ancient conspiracies, so the writers don’t have to be heavy-handed with it. Even organizational details like the Continental hotels and their Concierges and Managers are never really explained so much as they are referred to in ever-increasing detail. The series trusts the audience enough to get it. Salute!

And the moviecraft on display here is just as arresting. Long long shots of awesomely staged fight choreography are this franchise’s calling card, and Chapter 4 continues to deliver that, offering a series finale that expands the settings in parallel with the unfolding story. Paris proves an especially fun playground for the series’s trademark mayhem, including a running battle in traffic around the Arc de Triomphe (kudos to the film for testifying that French drivers are more likely to honk and drive through a gun battle than they are to stop or turn around) and a marathon shootout up the 200-odd steps to Sacre Coeur. This is aided by Keanu Reeves still doing most of his own fighting and stunts. This guy trains his butt off for this role. It shows in everything he’s doing on screen, from his stoic toughness (Reeves’s comparatively flat acting makes this the role he was born to play) to his fine gun manipulations (it’s hard not to raise an appreciative eyebrow at some of the no-look tactical reloading he has learned how to do). 

5 stars of 5: This is very much a dude movie, closing out what might be the greatest dude-movie franchise to date. It makes no apology for its commitment. Neither do I.