Alright, friends, we’ve finally reached the end of our four-part series on the John Wick franchise. It’s time to climb those steps and prepare for our duel at sunrise. This week, we’re talking about the final and longest film in the franchise (for now), “John Wick: Chapter 4”. When we kicked this series off, there was some hesitation about taking four whole episodes to talk about Mr. Wick. Was there enough there to keep it interesting? Well, we’re happy to say that those thoughts were unfounded. Honestly? We could have kept going. They are that good. This series might be the greatest action series of all time. If not the greatest, this is - at a minimum - one of the most important action franchises of the last twenty years and has redefined everything about the genre through choreography, attention to detail, writing, and a true willingness to get crazy with it. The fourth film doesn’t disappoint and we’re here to break it down and talk about our favourite scenes, characters, action sequences, and more.
In this episode, we talk about what works and what doesn’t (surprisingly little) with the fourth John Wick movie. This includes conversations about the length and the original runtime, the expansion of the world and the use of setting, the dragon’s breath shotgun sequence, the editing and sequencing, what might have been left out when it was cut down from 225 minutes to its current runtime, the returning cast, the narrative depth given to Winston and the excellent new characters including Donnie Yen’s Caine, Shamier Anderson’s Mr. Nobody, and Bill Skarsgard’s Marquis Vincent Bisset de Gramont, the final three action sequences in Paris being an all-time hall of fame action movie run, Japanese bow kills being gnarly, dogs running across car roofs, Scott Adkins doing windmill kicks in a fat suit, and a whole lot more. Otis thinks this might be the greatest action movie ever and the best of the Wick films. PALMREADER isn’t so sure but admits that it could be some form of recency bias on his part. They both agree that it seriously rules, though.
Later, we break down the film's plot and talk about what makes this one different from the rest of the series. We spend some time talking about Donnie Yen and unpack how important the character Caine is to the elevation of this film. We marvel at the little details, share some behind-the-scenes trivia, get excited about the various insane kills and weaponry, break down the final duel, and expose you to various other instances of gushing about John Wick. Lots of ‘em.
At some point, we talk about the ending and potential storylines for the fifth film, try to rank the films and unpack why this series is so important to the action genre. This proves to be a bit more difficult than expected because these films keep getting better and it comes down to fractions of a point when comparing them. We praise director Chad Stahelski and the whole cast and crew for making something incredibly action-packed, funny, smartly crafted, well executed, and a franchise that consistently improves with every film. It’s insane. Can they do it again? We will have to wait and see. This was so much fun and we’re so glad we did it. We’ll be back next week with a Lazy Bird to catch you up on everything we’ve been watching, playing, and listening to. Be seeing you, John.
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