‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ Review: Keanu Reeves Takes Franchise To New Levels Of Action, And Length – SXSW - Deadline

I personally have still never forgiven the first film for brutally killing off John’s lovable little beagle puppy, but I have to let it go, as the rest of the series has not let audiences down — particularly the last one with a kick-ass Halle Berry and what is still for me that amazing sequence, a masterpiece of action choreography with all those killer dogs doing their thing against the humans.

In a switch from being constantly on the run and the hunted, here Wick is on the offensive deciding instead to go after the High Table, setting up a one-on-one challenge against their sadistic emissary, The Marquis, in order to get the target off his back.

So too is a Paris-set sequence where the series puts this antihero in the driver’s seat of a classic muscle car, rampaging through the streets of Sacre Coeur where Bill Skarsgard ’s The Marquis rules.

So too is another prolonged set piece in a Berlin nightclub where he faces another new foe, the appropriately named Killa (MMA star Scott Adkins), and yet another in the Osaka Hotel run by John’s confidante Shimazu (Japan film icon Hiroyuuki Sanada).

Returning to the series is Laurence Fishburne as Bowery King, the kingpin who oversees an underground underworld operation and remains a mysterious friend for Wick, as well as Ian McShane’s Winston, the owner of the hired killers paradise, the New York Continental Hotel.

Title:.John Wick: Chapter 4 Section: Special Event Director: Chad Stahelski Screenwriters: Shay Hatten, Michael Finch Cast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgard, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins, Clancy Brown Running time: 2 hr 49 min Distributor: Lionsgate