What’s it about?

John Wick goes on the offensive, aiming to escape the bounty on his head by turning his fight for survival into a direct challenge on the High Table

What’d we think?

The first John Wick film introduced the titular character as a man who had escaped a vast and mysterious criminal world filled with archaic rules and regulations, and so much of the enjoyment of that first film came from what we didn’t know about the setting. The sequels pulled back the curtain perhaps a little too far, and while Chapter 4 doesn’t walk this back, it commits to both bringing us back to the core of John’s character while piling on even more over-the-top lore and colourful characters.

Chapter 4 spends far more time following a few of the other characters that inhabit this world and in far more effective fashion than the earlier sequels, which is lucky as John doesn’t have too much to do once he’s set on his course. It should go without saying that the action is top-notch and there’s plenty of it, with the signature gunplay (swordplay/pencilplay/dogplay, etc) being delivered in slick style, with a few of the setpieces being among the best in the series. While it never drags, at around two and a half hours it’s the longest in the tetralogy by far and is pretty exhausting by the end, but a must-see for fans and still a strong recommendation for newcomers.

Editor’s note: The movie also serves as a surprisingly touching sendoff for Lance Reddick, completely coincidentally.