I think I'll start this one off by saying that eventually, I'm probably gonna do project on 'John Wick', as it does currently stand as one of my all-time favourite action series. But for now, I'll do a bit of a recap leading up to this. The original 'John Wick' starts us off with our retired titular assassin, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) recently losing his wife. While in mourning, mobster Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Alan) and several of his thugs steal his prized 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 and, more importantly, kill his puppy, which was John's wife's last gift to him. The switch goes off in Wick, and he begins what would soon become a four-film revenge killing spree. The first film puts a bounty on Wick's head, as well, trying to stop him at all costs, and as these films go on, that bounty keeps increasing, along with the balls-to-the-wall action that is this collection of films. I'm not gonna go into every detail through all of the movies, because we'll be here all day. But eventually, Wick finds his life as an assassin unavoidable, things go from revenge to survival for him, and every movie kicks the volume up a notch just a little bit with its now famous "Gun-Fu" action. Now, through the series, Wick exacts revenge on the "High Table"; a council of twelve crime lords who have many important people in their pockets. This particular chapter begins with a huge spoiler, but said huge spoiler leads to High Table member, the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård) sending a barrage of unlimited resources after Wick. Namely, a blind, retired High Table assassin, Caine (Donnie Yen), fueled by de Gramont's threat to kill his daughter if he doesn't follow through. And may I say, it has been a while since I've seen Yen do his thing, but the guy is pretty damn amazing at what he does! Also introduced to us here was possibly my new favourite overall character of the series, a bounty hunter who calls himself "Nobody" (Shamier Anderson) and his awesome German Shepherd companion. He's awaiting an increase in John Wick's bounty before following through with his attempt, but it's entirely possible that a private deal with de Gramont could nudge him forward. The interesting thing about both Caine and Nobody is that, even though they are after a bounty for very different reasons, they both seem to be true neutral characters, each with their own reasons to be so. So, I must apologize outright to my readers if any of my plot description got confusing, seeing as even I can see there's probably a detail or two I've omitted that I maybe shouldn't have. But truth be told, seeing this was a little bit last-minute and I didn't have the appropriate amount of time to play catch-up before going in. So even I was a little lost in the beginning, plot-wise, trying to remember what was what. Again, one day I'll turn this into a better review that ties in with the previous three, regarding plot, characters, etc. But for now, I'll focus on how I liked it as a stand-alone. I'm just speaking for myself here, and perhaps this is a bit unfair to the film itself, but I really don't come to these films to take away and remember the storyline and the more important stuff within. I'm here to see John Wick kick ass with his gun-fu, high octane action and line delivery, which is nothing short of "... woah!" Don't get me wrong, I love Keanu Reeves, he's an awesome dude. But I did laugh almost every time he opened his mouth to deliver a line. That's not even a criticism though. For me, it completely adds to what makes this so much fun. Remember back in the day when action heroes were known for corny one-liners and we loved it? Well, with that in mind, I really can't complain. What can I really say? It's a 'John Wick' movie, and I feel like by "Chapter 4", its fan-base will be pretty well-established, and I can therefore say with relative ease that if you liked the other three, you'll like this one too. This is a great action series for this generation, and it all starts with an incident that would make any movie fan route for the hero. This is a series that's absolutely perfect for those really bad and frustrating days when you could just scream. On top of all the action, one can even get a good laugh from it, as a lot of the action is actually quite funny, and again, the one-liners. A super solid action series if there ever was one! 4/5
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