John Wick: Chapter 4 review – Excess is not a problem

As for more action, returning director Chad Stahelski excels himself by finding fresh ways to maximise the series’ convulsive and cartoon-ish carnage. And even if the plot is blunter than a kick in the head, writers Shay Hatten and Michael Finch navigate the 14 beat-’em-ups involved efficiently.

After losing a finger and taking a bullet in Chapter 3, Wick recovers here by punching coiled rope until his remaining knuckles bleed, ready to tackle crime syndicate the High Table. To break his criminal ties, he issues a challenge to the Table’s sadistic envoy, the Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgard), who deploys assassins to kill Wick. Enter Donnie Yen’s blind swordsman Caine and Shamier Anderson’s sharp-shooting Mr Nobody, aka the Tracker, who shares Wick’s love of dogs. MMA star Scott Adkins cameos as the gold-toothed Killa, while Wick’s aides include hotel manager Shimazu (Hiroyuki Sanada) and his daughter Akira (singer Rina Sawayama). Meanwhile, Ian McShane’s Winston returns, supplying balancing notes of whisky-dry calm.

While the action takes longer to kick off than in Chapter 3, an early set piece in the Osaka Continental Hotel compensates. The battle between armoured hitmen and Shimazu’s army escalates bracingly, with Yen and Sawayama adding a lightness to the muscle-mania. Indeed, it’s a shame the film doesn’t find more time for the nimble Sawayama, who joins Chapter 3’s Halle Berry in leaving the sausage party too soon.

But more of almost everything else soon follows, including of Adkins, who sports a ludicrously outsized bodysuit to trade block-rocking beatdowns with Wick in a Berlin nightclub. More drollery features here, as revellers ignore the flying axes and rave on regardless. Upholding the saga’s disregard for realism, the action throughout seems to unfold in a lavish alternative universe, where ravishing furnishings and Skarsgard’s wardrobe alike honour the excess-all-areas edict.

Maintaining that mandate, half of Paris seems to emerge for the bounty on Wick as he travels to the Sacré-Coeur Basilica for a climactic duel. Here, Stahelski revs up a volley of almost exhausting, mostly exciting showcases of action-movie flair. After the ‘gun-fu’ – basically, kung fu with guns - and ‘horse-fu’ fun of earlier Wicks, Chapter 4 adds pulverising car-fu prangs. Shot from above, a fracas across the rooms of an apartment block flaunts Stahelski’s hyper-stylised pitch exuberantly. A semi-comic sequence on the steps to the Sacré-Coeur delights, too, evoking classic Hollywood musicals by way of Looney Tunes as Yen pirouettes around his opponents and Reeves takes 222-step tumbles.

Even if Reeves delivers every line like a man bewildered by words, his physicality and presence remain vital to the series’ appeal. Commitment unflagging, his persona provides an innately endearing counterpoint to the action extremes, such that he never needs to strain to engage.

As the mayhem mounts, then mounts again, Chapter 4 generally resists the perils of excess fatigue. And if the apocalyptic violence begs one clear question, the writers at least acknowledge the query: “Have you given any thought,” Wick is asked at one point, “to where this ends?” Chapter 4 has a considered ending, not just a sequel set-up, at least until a post-credits scene teases at something more. It’s to the film’s credit that, even after this lengthy fourth workout with Wick, you leave wanting to see that teaser’s promise fulfilled.

John Wick 4 is released in cinemas on Friday 24th March 2023. Check out more of our Film coverage, or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.

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