Movies
JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 Surprise Fan Screening At SXSW Brings Rave Reviews And Appearance By Keanu Reeves And Chad Stahelski
Director Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves surprised the audience during a Q&A following a special screening of “John Wick: Chapter 4” during the 2023 SXSW Conference and Festival at The Paramount Theater on March 13, 2023 in Austin, Texas.
The LA Times reports of the screening “The marquee outside Austin’s Paramount Theatre may have read “Baba Yaga” before the screening, but the packed, frenzied audience all knew what they were there to see.”
The early reviews have been wildly positive:
Variety: “John Wick: Chapter 4” is 2 hours and 49 minutes long, but it has a story that, if it were told more briskly, could fit into an 83-minute potboiler that you might have seen in a grindhouse in 1977. Yet the way that Chad Stahelski, the series’ stuntman-turned-director, has staged it, full of hushed, portentous, ritualistic verbal showdowns that are meant to be hypnotic as they build up to each new action scene, “Chapter 4” feels like the first “John Wick” movie that wants to be a Clint Eastwood spaghetti Western. It’s like Sergio Leone crossed with John Woo as seen in Times Square.
Cinemablend: John Wick: Chapter 4 earns every second of its epic runtime, and there’s a strong argument to be made that it’s the best of the sequels.
Freshfiction: it’s an overwhelmingly excellent cacophony of bone-breaking, muscle car smashing and crowd-pleasing spills and thrills.
The Wrap: “John Wick 4” barrels along with charming idiosyncrasy. Even when it drags — 169 minutes is a lot of time to fill, even for this masterful crew — the film gamely mixes comedy, action, and drama into one truly satisfying cocktail.
UPROXX: Goes out as easily the best of the series and a contender for one of the best pure action movies in recent history if not ever made. It’s so good I really kind of hope they end on this. I truly don’t think it can be topped.
The Hollywood Reporter: Director Chad Stahelski, who helmed all the previous films, and his formidable stunt team have outshone their previous work, and that’s saying something. These sequences play like the great dance numbers in old MGM musicals, complete with incredibly complicated, lengthy continuous shots that feature the full bodies of the performers rather than kinetically edited snippets of a gun here or a limb there. They’re so virtuosic you practically want to stand up and applaud when each one is over.
John Wick (Keanu Reeves) uncovers a path to defeating the High Table. But before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into foes. Stars Keanu Reeves, Donnie Yen, Bill Skarsgård, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shamier Anderson, Lance Reddick, Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins, and Ian McShane.
The new film of the JOHN WICK franchise opens in theaters March 24.
Asked about his favorite scene in the movie, Reeves chose a quiet character moment near the end, where Wick remembers his dead wife, “After eight years of playing the role … that was really special,” Reeves said. “And also just making the film after a few years, coming back to see Ian McShane and Laurence [Fishburne] and to work with this man again” — he said, gesturing to Stahelski — “it’s almost like the beginning, like the alpha and the omega and everything in between.”
Stahleski added, “For me it was the first day Keanu came on set. He had the suit back on and it was the first time we were back together in three years. So it was pretty special.”
Fans can be excited over the other JW projects. A television series around “The Continental” hotel and a film called “Ballerina,” starring Ana de Armas are in production, with Reeves making a cameo in “Ballerina”.
The original 2014 film debuted at Austin’s Fantastic Fest. Check out Reeves recap of the first three films and catch up on the movies here: https://www.peacocktv.com/watch/movies/movies-john-wick-collection
So will there be a 5th film? THR reports in an interview with the director “In our minds, Keanu and I are done for the moment. We’re going to give John Wick a rest. I’m sure the studio has a plan. If everyone loves it and it goes kooky, then we’ll take a quiet minute. Wicks always, for some weird reason, always get the latest release date in Japan. It’s always like, three months later. If it’s the same this time, we’ll do a Japanese tour and release the movie in September. Keanu and I will take the long trip to Tokyo, we’ll sit in the Imperial Hotel Scotch Bar and go, “What do you think?” We’ll have a couple 20-year-old whiskies and write some ideas on napkins. If those ideas stick, maybe we’ll make a movie.”
Get your tickets now: https://tickets.johnwick.movie/
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