Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Lionsgate
John Wick: Chapter 4 borders on being too much of a good thing—both in the sense that it’s the fourth installment of a series that could have easily ended after its first, and with regards to its gargantuan 169-minute runtime. Fortunately, more turns out to be just about right in this case, with the film offering up such an onslaught of brutal, breakneck action that it’s easy to forgive its less compelling narrative excesses. Designed as a culmination as much as a continuation, it may not be consistent enough to rank as the franchise’s finest, but when it gets going, it cooks with gas.
[Spoilers invariably follow]
Whereas John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum opened with a breathless bang from which it never fully recovered, director Chad Stahelski’s latest (which premiered Monday at SXSW and is in theaters Mar. 24) takes its time kicking into explosive gear. Thought to be dead thanks to Continental manager Winston (Ian McShane) shooting him off the patio of a NYC skyscraper, Wick (Keanu Reeves) is introduced hiding out with the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne), who’s nursed him back to health so that he might make a grand return.