John Wick 4 and 5 - "Keanu's Gun-fu Show" meets "Fast and Furious"

[Xenomorphs Are Cute]

The Continental prequel spin-off teaser is out. It's a Peacock special that's coming on September.

 

[God of Nothing]

The Continental spin-off teaser is out. It's a Peacock special that's coming on September.

meh
the movies after the first just killed all the mystique of the continental system

 

[White Devil]

This shit is why you shouldn't franchise everything.

 

[Ahriman]

Ok so, I've finally watched it last night (I got dragged into it by a bunch of colleagues). It felt like a step-up from the 3rd one, mostly because the story kinda-sorta made more sense. If I think about it even more, I think that the events that took place in the 3rd movie could be even skipped, but at the same time - this is a frankenstein franchise of a movie that was meant to be just 1, not 4.

Everything else was pure kino as I expected, cinematography, soundtrack are 11/10. I really enjoyed the build-up leading up to the action in the Japanese branch of The Continental, but then afterwards the movie just goes from one "challenge" to the next, as it was described earlier.

In some scenes you can see Keanu not having as much flexibility as he used to, where some henchmen were almost throwing themselves at John waiting to be executed.

Spoiler

The "Hotline Miami: The Movie" dragon's breath scene was one of the highlights of the movie, it's almost as if the director checked out the game after reading comments online about the movie being compared to a videogame.

The Marquis was an "adequate" villain, nothing particularly remarkable about him, but too wooden. If anything, Viggo had more charisma and personality considering who was going up against.

Winston speaking in riddles and remembering the duel rule when - and I agree with a comment about it - he could have brought it up 2 movies ago. Also John not even bringing up the fact that he friggin' shot him over fucking around in The Continental, wtf dude.

The black dude with his dog waiting to cash in on Wick's contract like he was Dogecoin personified. Cool fighting scenes and the dog was nice, but overall he was mostly in the background doing nothing.

The blind man was a "very okay" character, but I couldn't help but remember the old Zatoichi movie (highly recommended if you are a Takeshi Kitano fan). Dude was basically Zatoichi wearing Matsuda shades and shooting 9mm.

F Charon (and irl), he was a good fren.

As for Wick, dude got shot a gajillion times, thrown out of high rises and flights of stairs, but not a single broken bone or rib... that plot armor can carry you so far. There was a point where I was rolling my eyes.

But even with all this, I've enjoyed it. Definitely more than the previous one.

I've also stayed and checked out the post-credits scene, where the Japanese manager's daughter goes after Zatoichi Wearing Matsudas... so I guess the sequel will be based on her exploits. Oof.

I am the only oldfag who noticed the entire sequence to Sacré-Cœur was an 'homage' to The Warriors right down to playing "Nowhere to Run"?

EDIT: Scott Adkins whipping Keanu Reeves' ass while wearing a fat suit was a lot funnier than it should have been.

FUCK you're right - I knew it rang a bell somehow but I couldn't remember where I saw it.

On a lighter side of things,

TL;DW you can make a bullet-resistant suit, but that won't stop the broken ribs and internal hemorrhagia. Getting shot, even wearing that, would suck very very much.

 

[Kid Named Rocket]

Watched the fourth film a few days ago after going through the first three all over again in preparation. All in all, I'd say it was pretty good.
Cinematography and choreography were pure kino as usual, and I loved the soundtrack as well – I'd say it's my favorite out of the four films, just slightly beating the first one.
I had some mixed thoughts in the first half of the movie, due to all the gimmicks like every mook having armor, the two Sumo wrestlers, Caine being blind, etc. But I feel they made it work in the end. At the very least, everything starting with the Berlin nightclub fight easily redeems the entire film.
I also liked the whole dynamic of Caine and Nobody constantly trying to killsteal from each other, with John just being caught in the middle.
I do hope this is the finale of the series, because I don't really see how they can continue John's story from here.

Also, re: the duel rule not being brought up before:
I feel that in JW2, it wasn't brought up because it just wasn't necessary – Santino was a newly instated member of the High Table and didn't really have as much pull as the Marquis did, considering how Winston just blows Santino's threats off. It's only because John kills him on Continental grounds that he lands into trouble.
In JW3, it wasn't an option because the High Table as a whole were bearing down on John, and there wasn't really a single representative he could duel to get rid of the problem. The Adjudicator doesn't count, since they're just the equivalent of a middle manager in a company.

 

[Xenomorphs Are Cute]

Watched the fourth film a few days ago after going through the first three all over again in preparation. All in all, I'd say it was pretty good.
Cinematography and choreography were pure kino as usual, and I loved the soundtrack as well – I'd say it's my favorite out of the four films, just slightly beating the first one.
I had some mixed thoughts in the first half of the movie, due to all the gimmicks like every mook having armor, the two Sumo wrestlers, Caine being blind, etc. But I feel they made it work in the end. At the very least, everything starting with the Berlin nightclub fight easily redeems the entire film.
I also liked the whole dynamic of Caine and Nobody constantly trying to killsteal from each other, with John just being caught in the middle.
I do hope this is the finale of the series, because I don't really see how they can continue John's story from here.

Also, re: the duel rule not being brought up before:
I feel that in JW2, it wasn't brought up because it just wasn't necessary – Santino was a newly instated member of the High Table and didn't really have as much pull as the Marquis did, considering how Winston just blows Santino's threats off. It's only because John kills him on Continental grounds that he lands into trouble.
In JW3, it wasn't an option because the High Table as a whole were bearing down on John, and there wasn't really a single representative he could duel to get rid of the problem. The Adjudicator doesn't count, since they're just the equivalent of a middle manager in a company.

It's not really the finale considering there's a prequel series coming soon on Peacock. We might have in-universe spin-off stories from now on until John Wick 5.

 

[Raging Capybara]

After the shitshow that was the third film I had already lost hope for this series, but JW4 is surprisingly good. It's actually a good film for once, almost on par with the first one.

Good job, niggers. You somehow gave this character a very satisfying ending. Two great films sandwiching two massive turds.

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

Sorry for the necro, but I'm just done watching 4, and it was good!
The cinematography, music, action were pretty great. There were some moments that didn't work out (the fat Kraut should've died sooner, and the dog going through the windshield), but if you think about the universe these movies are in, they all fall apart.

Pennywise is the Padmé of this movie, with almost every scene he's in having a different outfit, which were honestly pretty nice. While this movie is long, it didn't feel as long as 3 did. Chinese blind dude was good, and I have no idea what Nobody's purpose was, but the dog was cute.

Overall, I really enjoyed it.

 

[TVB]

I ended up watching 4 as well. I loved it.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

The fourth film was stupid in a way the others weren't. I dislike people calling the films dumb because they're action because when they're actually dumb you can't call it out.

In the third film it took 40 days of wandering the desert for the elder to find you, and now john somehow finds the elder all on his own in 5 minutes, only to discover that its a completely different elder for some reason.

Its not that its stupid, its that its grossly inconsistent with what we've seen.

And the finale is also dumb. John has been shot a million times, I don't see why a shitty dueling pistol would finish him, especially when he's an position to have been able to get medical attention.

Ontop of that the ending seems completely unfitting. John built the high table, isn't the idea that he should be the one to take it down?

The action/music/set pieces are good but the framing gets worse every film.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Also just watched it. Enjoyed it, but it probably didn't need to be as long as it was. It feels like it was so they could make it feel like the finale.

Their plans for making a fifth one? I can see how they'd fudge it, just pretend John's death was faked by Winston and have someone from the High Table decide to try and make their bones by taking him out, leading all of this to come back and he finally goes after them.

I'd say one of my big problems was that Parabellum seemed to be building up the idea that there might be this big war against the High Table, and there were also some hints in the one too. The lower level people getting sick of their shit and this big war between them and the High Table, with John caught in the middle, was what I assumed the movie would be about. Especially when they were talking about filming four and five at the same time, I figured it'd be this epic two-parter.

But all in all, a solid action flick with lots of fun moments.

 

[mlanguishi]

I'd say one of my big problems was that Parabellum seemed to be building up the idea that there might be this big war against the High Table, and there were also some hints in the one too. The lower level people getting sick of their shit and this big war between them and the High Table, with John caught in the middle, was what I assumed the movie would be about. Especially when they were talking about filming four and five at the same time, I figured it'd be this epic two-parter.

If they had balls, 4 would've been Wick taking out the High Table and 5 being taking over the world ala Riddick. I was a bit saddened they didn't keep escalating the story to total insanity, cause this one could've been at least awesome that way. As it is, just kinda ended with a whimper.

 

[Product Placement]

If they do 5, it will be John fake his death to get to the High Table. But hope plans for 5 don't happen, 4 was a good place to end it.

If they really want to make more movies just do a Caine spin off with Akira going after him, was already set up in 4 anyway.

 

[TVB]

If anyone does a fifth movie, they need to make John Wick wander to Spain to Portugal to find his dog in a style of Agent 47 in the last two Hitman games. Think, he could blend in by walking like an Egyptian.

 

[ditto]

- Mr. Nobody was completely pointless. Given the dog, I actually wonder if Halle Berry's character was supposed to return but something happened that they rewrote the role.

Mr. Nobody watching the duel drinking a beer felt out of place. Then cutting back to his reaction during the climax was so jarring.

 

[Xenomorphs Are Cute]

Before the site temporarily dilated due to TubeHolding getting folded, I was reading up on the rumors of an upcoming John Wick game potentially in works, & opened up a memory hole of sorts, & I'd like to let it out before the site dilates again.

See, there actually is an official John Wick game already made for the 1st film in 2014.... for Browsers.

Yeah, it's an Unity-based, endless waves survival, car, browser game called John Wick: Revenge Ride. I can attest to this being an official because I remember personally playing this game on the 1st film's actual website, which IIRC, I went to while playing a hacked version on Arcade PreHacks later (don't judge me), where you can toggle between the hacked & unhacked version. You can also play it on Y8 Games too.

 

[DankSmoker]

Alright I'm about an hour in to the new one right now and I I get that Donnie Yen is martial arts guy that needs to show off but how has no one thought to throw a can and shoot this disabled chink in the back of the head? I'm going to be really disappointed if he is the big bad for the entire film. I need to have a cigarette break because I'm legitimately getting angry.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Alright I'm about an hour in to the new one right now and I I get that Donnie Yen is martial arts guy that needs to show off but how has no one thought to throw a can and shoot this disabled chink in the back of the head? I'm going to be really disappointed if he is the big bad for the entire film. I need to have a cigarette break because I'm legitimately getting angry.

DareDevil logic, breh. He can probably figure out a can is not a person.

 

[DankSmoker]

DareDevil logic, breh. He can probably figure out a can is not a person.

Daredevil logic is better because he doesn't carry a fucking satchel of doorbells with him.

 

[Xenomorphs Are Cute]

Daredevil logic is better because he doesn't carry a fucking satchel of doorbells with him.

DareDevil also has superhuman powers like instinct, Donnie Yen just plays a usual blind Chad you keep finding in many films before John Wick 4 (The Book of Eli, anyone?). Plus, that doorbell thing was sadly not used more than once.