The Reel Rejects - Just Watched JOHN WICK CHAPTER 4! Instant Reaction & Review!

Episode Date: March 24, 2023

RIGHT OUT OF THE THEATER John Wick Chapter 4 Movie Review covering the epic crime story, action scenes, Keanu Reeves, Lance Reddick, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Scott Adkins, Mark Zaror, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, & MORE! #JohnWick #johnwickchapter4 #KeanuReeves #DonnieYen #Billskarsgard #scottadkins #TheMatrix #MarkZaror #LanceReddick - Become A Super Sexy Reject For Full-Length T.V. & Movie Reactions! https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects - Support The Channel By Checking Out Our Bomb A** Merch: http://shopzeroedition.com/collections/reel-rejects-merch - POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-reel-rejects/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hawaii starts with the same aloha we share with each other extended to you. Hawaii starts with a cabin crew that takes care of you like Ohana. Hawaii starts here with Hawaiian Airlines. Visit Hawaiian Airlines.com to book your next vacation. Getting engaged at Shane Company, Dream Engagement Rings are our specialty. We have the most beautiful, natural, and lab-grown diamonds, handpicked in every price range, ready to compare side by side. Shop online at shanko.com or in store. Shane Company, your friend and jeweler

They're just like, they're doing it They're doing the things you want them to do And they're acting too They're actually playing characters That I care about That I want to keep watching You're not just like get to the next action scene I really thought that we were going to turn on the camera

For this movie that we were just going to be like It's fun, a lot of great action It's really cool Can't wait for the next one I was so surprised by Just how much of an epic crime fantasy I would call Ray to an epic crime drama I would call it an epic crime fantasy

What is going on there, Citizens of the Reject Nation? Greg and John, we just saw a movie that we were so back and forth on whether or not we should go to the theaters and watch it. Not because we weren't interested, don't get me wrong, we saw the first three of this franchise in the theaters. We just know that with the channel, whatever this video is going to get in views, it would do phenomenally better if we just waited on video on demand and just did a reaction at home. But something was calling that we had to go see. this in the theater, like, we couldn't let it go. We did watch this in IMAX, and from the opening shot, I went, God, you know, I never forgot the size and scale of IMAX.

I forgot how effective if you get really great sound design. And a beautifully shot movie. Yeah, like, yeah, this is effective. This is the first John Wick movie I've seen in IMAX, and every time I'm going to rewatch it, it's going to be an IMAX, so thank you, IMAX for inviting us. We've seen other movies in IMAX that we have not recommended, but I'm going to do it. Well, yeah, watch this movie at IMAX. It's two-hour, 40-something-minute movie.

I could say with the utmost confidence within the first 20 to 30 minutes of this film, immediately was like, I am so glad I did not wait to watch this on video on demand. And on top of that, too, by the time it ended, I was especially glad. I was so happy. You feel rewarded for the decision. The views don't matter, John. We should have watched us in the theaters. What matters is life and bullets and cinema and awesome.

Yeah, please go ahead. Leave a like on this video. That would mean a lot. There's another heads up. John Coy and I, we are going to be having a panel at WonderCon this coming Sunday, March 26th, 11 o'clock a.m. If you are in attendance, we'd love to have you come say hi. Let's talk about John Wick, Chapter 4. I'm going to try something out here.

I'm going to give my little percentage rating at the top. 95%. Not bad. Why? What's the missing five? Well, that's what engagement's for. You wait around and you find out what that 5%'s all about. The last 30 seconds of this video.

So, John, what is the plot? Oh, my goodness. Well, John Wick, he's still trying to clear his name and his debt to the hide table, and they're still coming after him, but there's a new player, a marquee in the game, who is looking to wipe John out once and for all, and then a whole coterie of other interesting characters interlope into the plot along the way. Now, for the longest time I have said to myself that the first John Wick movie is still my personal favorite, is the most personal, is the most intimate, and it's best structured, in my opinion. And I really do, like, love the franchise as a whole,

but the first one has always remained my favorite one personally. Agreed. This one, though, I don't know if it's my favorite one. I will say that out of the sequels, it is my favorite one of them all. I feel like I could really argue with anyone on why this one is the best one. Yeah, it's the best one of the sequels. It is an easy slam dunk. And it's not just because of the action.

That's the crazy part. Like, yes, okay, look, I don't want to give away a lot of these action scenes, but there's such a variety here that is, of course, impressive. Why I was so hooked within the first 30 minutes was because, Because weirdly, in that first act, you don't spend a whole lot of time with John Wick in that first act. Instead, as you see in the trailers, you got all these other characters. Now, when you see a trailer for this movie, you go, he's probably going to have like 20 minutes of screen time. Donnie Yen's probably going to have like a cool scene or two.

They have a whole new list of characters here. And I thought they were all great. Yeah. They were excellent characters. Donnie Yen, nine times out of 10, you take an international superstar like that guy. You put him in some American cinema action film. They go to waste. they do not waste this guy.

They let him have the kind of Donnie-in action you would want when you watch one of his films from his country. Absolutely. And he also provides a sort of like lucid style to go along with his character who's blind. More importantly than that, it's a great performance.

He's intimidating, scary, funny, but she becomes so emotionally invested in him. He had lines in this movie that earned the biggest applause. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, you could just tell he's so inhabited, especially the role of a blind character in a movie like this. Even that didn't play as

typical. I feel like usually they just have super powers and can sense everything, but the way he threw himself into really feeling and creating the movement and the language of this character on screen was something really impressive to behold. He really went all out. This movie to me, it just had

this great seamless blend of anime, western neo-newar, video games. Any kind of action you've ever seen in your life. The movie's really long. Before watching it, I was kind of under the presumption that it would just be overindulgent. I thought it would just be a movie where it's two hours and 40 minutes of whatever action scene they could throw at the screen and that's all it's really going to be.

This movie allowed the scenes when there was an action to truly breathe, to truly have a mood, truly hone in and evoke stuff coming from within its themes about existentialism, literally the point of life. What is the purpose of this? You know, I have asked myself this when watching the John Wick films of, after a certain point, why are you still doing this? You just give it up and die. And then themes about fatherhood, themes about friendship, things that brotherhood, things I was not expecting this movie to do. It's the most artistic one of them all from behind the camera.

It really brought it back to that really awesome cinematography that I kind of missed from the first one, but they did something that felt literally like I was watching a graphic novel come to life in so many ways. Yeah, and it also really inhabits and uses the palettes of everywhere it goes in the the world because this is a very globe-trotting movie. You're in Japan, you're in France, you're in all sorts of places, and each one of them really feels immersive and like they really thought about every possible way they could use the features of these places to accentuate the action, but also to accentuate, yeah, the visual palette of the movie, and there's a certain

elegance, I think. Coming out of the theater, we were talking about the Raid and the Raid 2 and the sort of jump between those movies, and I think this has a lot of that restrained elegance not that it's necessarily only about the crime world because we've seen it applied to there but it also just has this desperation of will and character and it is like one of those movies that you don't expect to come out of feeling like it is a fully fleshed character journey and yet it does it is because it's an ensemble piece their stories are equally important in this whole journey that all centers around john wick because to me this movie's like if the raid two met the fast and furious universe in a way sure because of the physics of

the human body in here? Because, yeah, it does get a little bit ridiculous, of course. How many high falls can he withstand? Not just him. Most all of these people in this war, yeah, when you reach a certain level of hitman in this society, do you just get overpowered or some kind of like body armor beyond your suit? But the movie's still very intense. I thought it was just going to be popcorn fun.

You know how the third John Wick movie starts off with this great 20 minutes in New York? And I thought that was going to be the movie. but I noticed that no one was even really applauding in the first 30 minutes. We were just so engrossed by what was going on with the story, and the action had a great intensity to it throughout. And that's what you want from this movie. This sense of, like, real personal stakes and finding myself on this journey going, are they actually going to kill this guy off or not?

Yeah, I mean, you think that about John, you think that about multiple people. And I think this one and the first one, I think, make really nice bookends because you have such a fruitful blend of, yes, action and beautiful cynics. but also an emotional core that really does feel vital. Like the second and third movie, love them both as well. But there is much more that's just motivated by the lore and the world building and just the rules that apply to everybody who's a hitman. That's all there, because you had the personal one with the first one,

and then you got the big world building and the crazier hide-in action in physics with the human body, and this kind of encompasses what the previous three films did, and kind of even better at the same time, too. I gotta say, too, a guy who I kind of, whenever I hear is playing a bad guy, guy I kind of rolled my eyes at now because I'm like of course he's playing a bad guy whoa he had it he was effective he was great Bill Scarsguard he plays a French man where several times during this movie I would have one or two thoughts this guy's the best villain out of the whole franchise secondly I would have many times where I go God this guy's such

an asshole I know God this guy such an asshole I wait to see him get his ass beat someone needs to teach this guy a lesson I love the philosophical questions that are here in this movie. Hirioki Sanada, he had this wise man, almost Ronan, Shogun, assassin-like quality to him in here. I've often joked about how they always have to make him do sword fights in movies. In American cinema, I think this is the best one. Sure. No, no, no, 100%. I mean, I'm sure that this got to be, I would imagine he would have even had input on it.

Like, it is very satisfying and it doesn't distract you that way. And there are also multiple other weapons at place. I think the world really sweeps you up into feeling like, yeah, this is right for this scene rather than just, oh, we got him here, let's do that. And also, shouts out to Rina Sawayama, who plays his daughter character, because she really threw down, along with everybody else, to sell everything, like, during her fight scenes as well, and just her presence on screen.

I thought she lent a beautiful sort of warmth, even though that's not how I would describe, like, the characters necessarily, to the proceedings, because so much of this has to do with the real toll and cost of living this life, being a part of this world, and the fact that there's always some loose end that is going to come back and come for karma, essentially. Yeah, their story in this movie greatly affects the trajectory of this entire epic journey that you go on throughout this film.

Scott Atkins, he's the one guy who you bring over here, and you're mainly like, I just want to see him have cool fights. He has great fights, and as a fan of action cinema, to be able to watch a movie where you got Hiroyo Okicinata, you got Donnie Yen, you got Scott Atkins in here, and they really utilize them. It's like an action. It's like a wet dream, man. Have it come in a life. You're just like, they're doing it. They're doing the things you want them to do.

And they're acting too. They're actually playing characters that I care about, that I want to keep watching. You're not just like get to the next action scene. I really thought that we were going to turn on the camera for this movie that we were just going to be like, it's fun. A lot of great action. It's really cool. Can't wait for the next one.

I was so surprised by just how much of an epic crime fan, Like, I would call Ray to an epic crime drama. I would call it an epic crime fantasy. Yeah, 100%. It still has that peripheral fun. There is a lot of latent humor that's not overt.

Absolutely wants you to chuckle and have a good time with it. Yeah, it's just got so much flavor and there's still more to the world of the Continental and the high table and all that stuff. And nothing, it's like it could easily become pretentious or become silly. And I think they find the perfect blend to prevent that from happening. And yeah, I mean, you mentioned that fast and furious kind of physical. but they never go silly with the way they portray and capture anything. It always feels as grounded as possible. And stunt work, yeah.

Yeah, and so that sells the things that feel a bit more out there. They have these great actions, these have some great oner's in there. They do things that are like, I can't, how do they keep topping themselves? How do they keep finding inventive ways that keep surprising me at every turn of, man, this doesn't feel like you're just pulling shit from your previous movies. The action in this movie has such an amazing blend of, of why, a wide variety of styles from sword play to, of course, the gunfoo, as they call it. The num chuck scene was, like, they really made a full-on John Wick numchuk fight scene.

Which I've been waiting for in American cinema for so, like, no one hits themselves in the nuts, it's amazing. And, like, you got Shuriken throwing stars, you've got dogs, horses, pretty much anything you've seen in a previous John Wick movie, plus more new kinds of fight. Oh, yeah, the car play. My God. There were shots in here. I was like, I can't believe they're doing this. There's one that starts off with this, above shot oneer is all I'll say. Yes. If you're looking down for a long time, you'll know it's what we're talking about. It's brilliant.

Ian McShane gives another great performance. He once again, shouts out to Lance Reddick. Not in this film a lot, but when he's there, it's very effective. I really appreciated him being here. May he rest in peace because, yeah, the second he shows up on screen, I'm like, God damn, it is a bummer not to have this guy anymore. It really is. Also, I cannot remember the actor's name, but another...

Lawrence Fishman. His name's Lawrence Fishman. Are you Samuel Jackson? No, no, no, Lawrence Fishburn. Lawrence, Fisherman, Bowery King. Clancy Brown. Clancy Brown, also great. But no, no, no, the tracker.

The guy who plays. Tracker, nobody. There's a character in here called Nobody. I mean, that's not a supposed to anybody. Or just the tracker. He's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's great.

He's one of the best lines in the movie. Makes for a really interesting wild card. Yes, and an interesting thematic compliment to John. The 5% that was kind of missing for me, there was maybe like 10 minutes in this movie where I was going. and you could pick it up a little bit. But out of two hours and 40 minutes,

I'm like to have only 10 minutes of that film where I'm going, I'm kind of waiting for you to get back to a little bit more of a rhythm here, a little bit more pulse. I don't even know if it's 10 minutes. It might have been like five, where I had the thought go off in my head for a second of speed it up a little bit.

Regardless, I don't even think when that scene was happening, I would want this movie to not have that scene. I would still prefer that scene being in there. Secondly, yeah, just a couple of questions that I would occasionally have with this movie of how's he flying to all these places? I did have that exact thought.

I was like, who's his airplane guy? That seems like a real easy way to get yourself caught turned in the high table. There's a couple little nipicks. How's he going from A to Z exactly? Because he's kind of globetrotting here. You know, John Wicks got a special tunnel that goes under the Atlantic Ocean, that's all.

Yeah, yeah, screw I'm bumping it up. 97%. Oh, you're almost at my rating. You're almost in my rating. I'm a 98.5, G. Nice, nice. What's that extra 1.5? I might meet you there.

Who does that point five? I have no idea. I'm just leaving it up there because I got my 10 minutes. We'll probably go away on my rewatch. That 1.5 is for anybody who comes up to me with a point that I would go, oh, okay, fair. It's for the airplane thing. That's what it's for. But guys, I love the hell out of this movie.

It's terrific. I can't wait to watch this two to three more times. Watch it in IMAX because it's well worth it. It's amazing. All right, guys. Thank you so much for being here. Subscribe, we'll like at Swoonicon. We'll talk to you guys soon.