“Those who cling to death; live.
Those who cling to life; die.”

John, John, John… What-ever will we do with you? Four films now. Four action-first films that have redefined the genre and brought something kitschy and wrote back to life in the biggest way possible. When the first JW came out in 2014 [Wow!] I thought we had seen something really special in 21st century genre-filmmaking. Then Chapter 2 was also quite good… And so was 3 somehow… We really might be onto something here everybody. And, I’m happy to report, John Wick: Chapter 4 is not going to let anyone down.

If you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, so I won’t spend much time summarizing the plot for you. He’s fighting for his life and, this time, the stakes are higher than ever thanks to some third-party players with charges of their own. It’s difficult to write a review of a JW without comparing it to each that came before it which, interestingly, is the only place where JW4 suffers.

At nearly 3-hours long, JW4 has the most from bloat, but still manages not to feel over-long. Featuring an entire sub-character who serves absolutely 0 purpose in the film other than to provide the token dog for this entry, some particularly low-brow humor surrounding said character, and overall what I would call the least “mature” narrative structure; JW4 is excellent as an action film, but could have been tighter, leaner, and meaner by removing some very erroneous elements. Of all the entries into the series this is the one where I most had to suspend my disbelief as I caught myself saying “wait, what?” and “why didn’t they…” over and over again. Antagonists being surrounded by enemies only to be shot at twice, characters suffering debilitating falls that we’ve seen them fail to recover from in previous films, and bad-guys patiently waiting their turn to attack abound in JW4. The good news is that, if you like action movies you’re used to all this stuff, it only stands out here because the other three films haven’t been quite so heavy on the “shhh, it’s a movie” moments.

I don’t want to drag this film. It’s uh… Really good and features more of the truly excellent fighting, shooting, stabbing, throwing, grunting, and bleeding that we’ve come to love over the last decade of Keanu kicking butt and avenging his dog. In fact, one element of this piece of the series is SO good that I would call it “one of if-not-the most well filmed action scenes of all time”. spoiler link It’s difficult in the year 2023 to rewrite anything having to do with film… And yet, both Top Gun: Maverick and John Wick have done exactly that for this genre. Chapter 4’s entry, particularly the isometric mirror fight, has added one helluva bullet into the arsenal of the modern action film. I was quite literally almost moved to tears at how excellent that scene was.

JW4 is a plenty competent – if a little busy – addition to an already wildly competent series. If you have even a passing interest in the other films, this one will be right up your alley, and, if you’ve loved the other films, you may have minor quibbles with this one if any at all. A stellar piece of action cinema and a beautiful tribute to the recently gone Lance Reddick, John Wick: Chapter 4 is one to go out of your way to see on the biggest, loudest, and most fun screen you can.

“It has been an honor, my friend.”