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movie review - John Wick: Chapter 4

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Kokubunji, 2024.01.26

The Boy and I watched this, perhaps to see it through as much as anything. This series of movies has made less and less sense as they progress, and in this case the world-building established in the earlier movies is eroded as the titular character goes through more impossible and absurd stuff. There are zero likable characters, who are roughed in using only the rudest crayon sketches. For instance, a large sub-plot unfolds with this fellow who has a dog and .. I'm not sure what the point really is other than perhaps to keep the action going. In the end the guy takes his dog and they just walk away. There are lots of flashy sequences and I applaud what they are doing with the style. But overall it just feels like a cash-grab. I suppose you can see that coming with the '4' in the title.

One thing for which I'll give them credit: they employ a recurring reference to the '80s movie "The Warriors" in an appropriate way, as our hero(?) goes about New York on a voyage that mirrors the violence and sequence of challenges in that older (and significantly better) movie.

Avoid. Watch "The Warriors" instead. Or perhaps if you're a fan of the main actor try "Swedish Dicks".

rand()m quote

The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov