John Wick: Chapter 4      4 stars

I have missed out on the John Wick movies until I saw Chapter 4, the latest in this action franchise featuring Keanu Reeves as John Wick, the greatest hit man ever. I have heard all about his grudge against a crime syndicate that was responsible for killing his pet puppy, but I didn’t realize the true scope of what is apparently the greatest action movie franchise of the past decade. The story is rather straight forward: There is an international crime syndicate called The High Table that has determined that John Wick must die so under the direction of the Marquis (Bill Skarsgard) hundreds of the organization’s best killers are gathered to track down and kill Mr. Wick along with anyone who helps him. However, the crime families have a rigid set of rules that will allow Wick to gain his freedom from The High Table and guarantee his safety. If he can challenge the Marquis to a one on one duel as a member of one of the crime families and defeat him he will be allowed to go free. The only problem is that there is an army of killers and assassins that have the incentive to kill Wick thanks to the bounty on his head that continues to rise as he kills each with amazing efficiency. The main point of the John Wick movies is to portray the high level of violence and the subdued way that the man in the well-tailored black suit is able to engage and defeat his enemies. The action sequences are done with long takes and moving camerawork that captures both the battling subjects and what is happening in the background. I greatly prefer this method to the closeups with quick editing done by so many action movies. Obviously, this requires painstaking attention to detail and some well executed choreography. (After seeing this movie, I will never think the same when I see France’s Arc de Triomphe.) There are some other important and colorful characters returning from previous outings that include Donnie Yen as Caine, a blind assassin and Shamier Anderson as Mr. Nobody who happens to have a dog that aids in the killing and then there is Ian McShane as Winston, Wick’s friend from the New York Continental Hotel who previously shot Wick. We also must say goodbye to Lance Reddick as Charon, the hotel concierge in one of his final performances. Now that I have a taste of the movie I think I will have to go back and view some of the earlier outings of John Wick.