Tag: Bill Skarsgård

John Wick: Chapter 4 Review: Action Fatigue.

John Wick has been the highlight action franchise of the past ten years.
The first film, released in 2014, was surprisingly good and revitalized Keanu Reeves’ career.
The franchise has been going strong since then, with each sequel being a solid addition.
Well, four years since Chapter Three, Parabellum, released, we finally have John Wick: Chapter 4.
The movie has received plenty of praise from critics and fans alike, with many calling in the best in the franchise, although I do not think I would go quite that far.

Despite the film having some truly fantastic moments and characters, there are specific issues that hold it back, for me.

Chapter 4 once again follows Reeves as the titular John Wick who, after somehow surviving falling from the top of the Continental in the previous movie, goes to war with the High Table with the help of the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburn).
As for Winston (Ian McShane) and Charon (Lance Reddik, may he rest in peace), they are also suffering from the fallout of Parabellum, as they are left at the mercy of the Marquis, Vicent de Garmont (Bill Skarsgård).
Desperate to hunt down and kill John, the Marquis enlists the help of the blind assassin Caine (Donny Yen) and a hunter who goes by Mr Nobody (Shamier Anderson), while Winston advises John to challenge the Marquis to single combat to earn his freedom.
The characters and world building of John Wick continue to be strong in this fourth installment, with John having the best narrative arc since probably the first movie, and Caine and Mr Nobody being fantastic characters who I would be excited to see more of. 

Caine in particular is stellar, with Donny Yen presenting excellent dramatic weight, comedic timing and, of course, stunt work.

As for the action, it is, as expected of a John Wick movie, absolutely incredible, just like it was in the past three films.
Once again directed by Chad Stahlenski, the action of John Wick: Chapter 4 is undoubtedly some of the best in the entire franchise.
The stuntwork, the cinematography, the editing; all of these are glorious and combine to create truly terrific action.
This culminates in one action set piece in the third act that takes place entirely in an overhead shot, which I would argue is the best action scene of the decade. 

This action scene alone makes John Wick: Chapter 4 worth seeing in the theatre.

It reminded me a lot of a video game, which also makes me really want a John Wick video game, now that I think about it.
All of these fantastic features should have made Chapter 4 the best installment in the John Wick franchise, however, there are unfortunately a few things which hold it back.
One of these things is Keanu Reeves himself.
As I said, I loved the arc his character went through but Reeves performance in this film is probably the weakest in the entire franchise, with even simple sentences sounding wrong, which is a bad thing since simple sentences is all John Wick speaks in this movie. 

Even the line, “I’m going to need a gun” sounds wrong coming out of Reeves mouth.

Along with this, Chapter 4 doubles down on many of the things that broke my immersion in previous installments.
John is still surviving downright impossible falls and civilians still do not react to people being murdered right in front of them.
Also, the more I think about what happens in this movie, the less relevant the events of Parabellum seem, since conflicts that were set up in that movie don’t really amount to much here.
But by far the biggest issue I had with John Wick: Chapter 4 is the action itself.
This may sound like a contradiction because I was heaping praise on the action earlier.
As I said previously, the action is spectacular, with great cinematography, stuntwork, etc.
My problem is that we got too much of a good thing.
The action scenes in this movie go on and on and on and on, to the point that I began to grow bored with it all, despite how well made it was.
I can only see so many people get shot or stabbed in the face before it becomes tiring, as psychopathic as that probably sounds.
I actually remember checking my watch a few times to see just how long the action had been going.

This Japan fight seemed to go on forever. It was fun to watch when the first few goons attacked John but got extremely tiring by the third or fourth wave of them.

So the issue was not the action itself but that it often went on for so long at certain points that I began to feel fatigued by it all.  
I never thought that a movie could make me bored with constant action, yet John Wick: Chapter 4 somehow achieved this.
Despite these issues, though, I would still recommend the film.
The action, although sometimes overly long, is stellar, the characters are all compelling, the film is definitely the funniest in the franchise, and the ending is incredibly satisfying.
John Wick: Chapter 4 is definitely better than Parabellum, however, I am not sure where I would place it afterwards.
My opinion of this movie’s ranking may depend on what happens in the future of this franchise.
If future installements honor Chapter 4’s ending then it should be high up but if they do not then it will probably be on the lower end.  

It Chapter 2 Review: Highly Flawed but a lot of Fun.

3 and a half stars
When I started my blog two years ago, the first review I ever did was Andy Muschietti’s 2017 adaption of Stephen King’s It.
With Stephen King being one of my favourite authors, and It being one of my favourite novels, I was highly anticipating that first film.
I ended up loving It, giving the film a four and half star rating out of five.

It first movie.jpg
I loved the first It film as a fan of Stephen King’s novel.

So, I was naturally, highly anticipating the sequel, It: Chapter 2, which I just saw this morning.
And what did I think of it?
Well, my feelings are mixed.
I would say that I enjoyed the film, with it being a lot of fun at times, however, it is highly flawed.
I will start with the positives fist and the biggest praise I can give this move is that the acting is phenomenal, with all of the Losers club being perfectly cast.
It: Chapter 2 picks up 27 years after the first film with Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa) calling the other members of the Losers’ Club, including Bill Denbrough (James McAvoy), Beverly Marsh (Jessica Chastain), Richie Tozier (Bill Hader), Eddie Kaspbrak (James Ransone), and Ben Hanscom (Jay Ryan), back to the town of Derry, Maine after the monstrous entity known as It resurfaces.
Bill Skarsgård does an amazing job playing the monstrous clown Pennywise, It’s favourite form, and this is most apparent in a scene where he lures a little girl in, showing how deviously manipulative It can be.
But it is with the Losers’ Club that the acting department really shines, with Bill Hader turning in the best performance as Richie.

Bill Hader.jpg
Bill Hader is by far the best actor in It: Chapter 2.

As well as being greatly performed, Richie also has a fantastic arc and provides a lot of the film’s laughs alongside Eddie.
There is even a cameo from Stephen King in the film, which is very well done.
Then there are the scares, a few of which got me but many did not.
This is okay, though, because, even though I was not as scared as when watching the first film, a lot of these scenes were very exciting.
It: Chapter 2 even managed to surprise me at times with one small storyline surrounding Bill trying to save one of It’s victims going in a direction I did not expect at all.
Sadly, this is where my praise for the film ends because it does have a lot of flaws that hold it back.
The biggest of these is easily the film’s runtime.
Coming in at 169 minutes, It: Chapter 2 is just too long.
The second act, especially, drags on for what feels like forever with so many formulaic scenes.
What is worse, it felt like these scenes should have been condensed in favor of other ones.
For example, Henry Bowers’ role is lessened to the point that I wondered why he was even in this movie.

Henry Bowers.jpg
I feel like more time should have been devoted to Henry Bowers instead of other scenes in the film’s repetitive middle act.

Then there is the humor.
I know I praised the comedy earlier but there is just too much of it.
It is incredibly jarring to see the characters experience a horrific moment in one scene and then be making “your mum” jokes in the next.
This culminates in an especially bizarre moment when “Angel of the Morning” plays in what is supposed to be a scary scene.
Plus, there is a pretty problematic idea that is brought up about Stanley Uris (Andy Bean) at the end of the film that I feel should have been left on the cutting room floor.
I get what they were going for with that scene but it definitely can be read in a way that sends a very bad message.
Not that anything will come of that message, but it is problematic nonetheless.
Overall, though, these issues did not ruin the film for me.
I still enjoyed It: Chapter 2 quite a bit.
The acting is fantastic, especially from Bill Hader, a lot of the jokes are hilarious, and many of the scenes are exciting and take unexpected turns.
There are just quite a few issues you need to prepare yourself for going in, the biggest being the runtime.
Still, I would recommend the film, especially to fans of King’s original novel.