I’m off to see John Wick: Chapter 4 tonight — it opens in cinemas on both sides of the Atlantic on Friday — so of course I’ve got the previous three films on my mind today. I’m still tickled when I think about what a delight the first installment, 2015’s John Wick, was… grading for delight on a horrifically violent curve, naturally.
What’s thrilling here is how writer Derek Kolstad and directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch find incredible freshness in hoary clichés. This emphatically is not a same-old flick about a wronged assassin out for revenge: it is funky-elegant and weirdly funny, with thrillingly choreographed fight scenes that feel like deadly dancing. Keanu Reeves as Wick so embodies noirish hardboiled stolidity that the actor’s entire body of work could well have been leading to this performance. I love this movie so much for how it’s different about being more of the stuff we always love.
Read my 2015 review… and then read my review of 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3. (For some reason I cannot recall, I did not review Chapter 2, but I did see it, and love it.)
US: rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
See John Wick at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
