Timely thread
Once every six months or so I check what Amazon Prime has to offer me
six months ago it was John Wick Chapter 3, but I can't remember anything about that one. In fact, the John Wick series is similar to The Kingsmen franchise in my head, in that I will watch the latest episode and then immediately forget it.
This week it was time to log in to Amazon again and "available to me" was John Wick Chapter 4, and at just shy of three hours it is maybe too long, but it made me laugh a couple of times
One: the receptionist at the Osaka Continental Hotel ( a "safe place" for assassins employed by The Table ) rips off her vaguely "kimono" outfit to reveal a figure hugging leather fetish ninja outfit. I've seen enough "what's fashionable in Tokyo" youtube videos to know that some Japanese take a lot of care and attention to their "fit", but I find it hard to believe that she woke up and thought "I will wear my bodycon female ninja fetish outfit overlaid with a western take on traditional Japanese style" ( I once stayed at a hotel in Tokyo where one of the staff wore a selection of very expensive looking kimonos and now I'm wondering just what she was wearing under them... )
Two: John Wick needs to gain entry to a Berlin club. Who can help? Sven, the head bouncer from Berghain of course! He's acting though, so in this film he is called "Klaus". We know that because he has one line, "I AM KLAUS!" which he repeats about three times.
Three: John Wick has to get from A to B. Cue, a "homage" to one of the best Action Films EVER, The Warriors. In fact they take the piss by using the original Martha Reed and The Vandellas version of "Nowhere to Run" which Walter Hill couldn't afford to license.
Four: the killer dog urinates ( this a spoiler, I'll say no more )
Five: after the final credits an emotional reunion may be spoiled
I was entertained, and it features Donnie Yen, who I have to say I still admire his skills even although he is a turncoat CCP apologist, as a blind swordsman ( and shootist ), so that was a bonus.
The Osaka set piece features Wick utilising Nunchucks, which from a British man of a certain age's perspective was refreshing as there was a period when the British Board of Film Censors would ruthlessly cut any scenes featuring them, leading to some prints of the Bruce Lee vehicle "Enter The Dragon" featuring a mystifying sequence where Bruce picks up a pair and then you see a pile of bodies and the intervening five minutes of hardcore rice flail action have somehow disappeared. The BBFC did the same thing with Shuriken because too many tykes in the UK were fashioning throwing stars in metal work class, which is why I used to own some badly butchered Kung Fu films on VHS.
edit: I'm not sure that the people criticising the John Wick franchise have the right mindset to enjoy mindless action films