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Review | John Wick: Chapter 4 movie review – Donnie Yen stupendous, Keanu Reeves indestructible in epic fight movie

  • If you thought the previous movies about Reeves’ seeming indestructible killer John Wick were outlandish, they were mere entrées for this insane instalment
  • At 169 minutes it is excessive, but every fight scene is a work of art, Wick is wielding nunchucks and Yen, as his nemesis Caine, elevates every scene he’s in

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Keanu Reeves as John Wick in a still from John Wick: Chapter 4 (category III). Donnie Yen and Bill Skarsgård co-star. Chad Stahelski directs. Photo: Murray Close/Lionsgate.

3.5/5 stars

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Keanu Reeves’ seemingly indestructible killer John Wick is back for an epic fourth outing, as he continues his one-man scrap with the High Table, the all-powerful legion of assassins that excommunicated him.

As outlandish as the previous three movies were, these were just entrées for this instalment, one that bounces between New York, Osaka, Berlin and finally Paris, which should get renamed the City of Fights after this.

Director Chad Stahelski delivers an insanely outrageous action film, clocking in at two-and-three-quarter hours. Is that excessive? Yes. But the John Wick franchise thrives on excess.

As in its predecessors, the body count is in the hundreds, as Reeves’ elastic-boned hitman survives beatings, stabbings, bullet nicks and at least two multistorey falls.

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This time, he’s facing off with the Marquis (Bill Skarsgård), who wages war against Wick by blowing up the New York Continental, the assassin-friendly hotel run by the suave Winston (Ian McShane).

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