The fourth John Wick instalment allows Keanu Reeves to be the person he truly is: a cold-blooded psychopath
If there’s one thing I enjoy more than viral videos of Keanu Reeves committing random acts of kindness in public, it’s watching him shoot scores of nameless foreigners in the face. Sure, it’s sweet that he has hour-long conversations with homeless people and surprises fans by turning up to their wedding, but the 58-year-old actor is really at his best when he’s ruthlessly ending the lives of anyone who dares to come near him.
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John Wick: Chapter 4 offers roughly three hours of exactly that. There are dozens-upon-dozens of headshots, slit throats, broken necks and car crashes – and at no point does a deranged fan ask Reeves to kiss their baby or something. No, it’s in this franchise that the 47 Ronin star is afforded a much-needed break from his role as the internet’s nicest celebrity, and where he can finally unleash his blatant, pent-up desire to shoot someone in the eye socket and then knife their neck multiple times. “No I don’t want to take a fucking selfie!” you can practically hear him thinking as he fatally batters one goon’s head with a nunchuck.
Chapter 4 picks up where the third film left off, with John still fighting for survival against the literal billions of secret assassins that seemingly make up the world’s entire population. To break free from ‘The Table’ and earn his freedom, though, he must this time defeat French bastard Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Derek Jacobi) in single combat. John suffers more bullet wounds and potential backbreakers than ever before, but you can tell from the maniacal glint in Reeves’ eye that none of these fuckers stand a chance of stopping him. This is his day off from being a humble, lovable saint and by god he’s going to take full advantage of it.
In an inventive bird’s-eye view scene, Reeves laughs like a demented clown as he unloads several fire-spitting shotgun rounds at waves of uncredited baddies. As each one bursts into flames or instantly explodes, the actor can be seen punching the air in delight, most likely imagining his victims as the red carpet interviewers who ask him inane fucking questions about being “so relatable” because he once ate a sandwich on a park bench.
There’s also a brilliant bit in which John loses his mind after tumbling down the Sacré-Cœur’s 222 steps, having been tossed by Marquis’ persistent henchman (Matthew Perry). The mere embarrassment of being momentarily bested by Chandler Bing sends him on a crazed rampage, prompting him to get even more creative with his executions. He kills one bloke with an un-buttered baguette. Seconds later, he takes on a bazillion Paris hitmen, armed with nothing more than a sharpened whisk and a piping bag filled with bees.
With each kill you can see Reeves enjoying himself more and more. By the end of the film he’s barely even in character; just full-on grinning and swearing as he tosses Molotov cocktails into crowds of people who could possibly be innocent members of the public. Good guy or bad guy, it makes no difference to Reeves. He just wants to see people suffer.
Some might say that the endless killing gets a bit repetitive and tedious, but those people have clearly never been forced to donate millions of their own money to children’s hospitals. Keanu Reeves is secretly a terrible person, and it’s only through these films that his facade of niceness finally slips.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is in cinemas March 24.