With its parallel world teeming with killers, its sophisticated choreography and brutally staged stunts, and with an extra portion of style, “John Wick” has become a true cult hit, the influence of which can still be felt in modern action cinema for almost a decade is. years later is noticeable. A key ingredient in the recipe for success: tough fights that hurt just to watch.
Of course, after things got going in Part 1, director Chad Stahelski upped the ante with the sequels. If the franchise starter in this country was still released from the age of 16, “John Wick 2” and “John Wick 3” received a release at the age of 18. And part 4? He stays true to that trend: “John Wick: Chapter 4“ was released by the FSK in the unabridged version from 18 years. That means: from March 23, 2023, the fourth allergy with the assassin of the same name will also be screened in full in the cinema for everyone who is of age.
And when we say “full length,” we mean it literally in this case. The running time of the next Keanu Reeves tear is pretty impressive: The movie is a proud two hours and 49 minutes, making it by far the longest chapter in the entire series – at least so far.
“John Wick 4” is more than an hour longer than the first appearance of the assassin thirsting for revenge, continuing the trend of increasing runtimes. After 101, 122 and 131 minutes, however, the fourth film now takes a particularly big jump to 169 minutes, so that we are already curious to what extent “John Wick 5” might even surpass it…
“John Wick 4”: not only long and hard, but also good
An XXL running time and a high age rating are all well and good, but they don’t necessarily mean a good movie. In the case of “John Wick 4”, however, we can make everything clear: the first press reactions are already talking about an epic that deserves (and needs) its duration, about an action fireworks that not only sets new standards within the series, but perhaps even one of the best action movies ever.
Also FILMSTARTS editor Björn was enthusiastic about the spectacleemphasizes in his short review, among other things, how stylish practically every shot in the film looks and how great the action is again – which is not really surprising given the genre-tested star ensemble:
With stuntman and Keanu Reeves’ “Matrix” stunt double Chad Stahelski, not only one action master took his place in the director’s chair. No, he also traditionally collected many action celebrities for the camera. In addition to Reeves, you can watch Hong Kong superstar Donnie Yen (“Raging Fire”), martial artist Scott Adkins (“Undisputed III”), Hiroyuki Sanada (“Bullet Train”), and Chilean martial artist Marko Zaror (“Alita: Battle Angel”) .
In terms of content, everything revolves around the title hero played by Keanu Reeves, who ends up in Berlin, Paris, Osaka and New York in his fourth adventure. And this time he has to deal not only with half the underworld on a global level, but above all with the ruthless crime boss Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård) – in whom he seems to find his strongest opponent yet…