Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-05-28 (Wednesday)

On 5/29/2025 1:50 PM, Ian J. Ball wrote:

On 5/29/25 7:52 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
 

What Did You Watch?

 After an unexpectedly long workday, I finally got to "John Wick 4". But first:
 soaps: GH - I think this was Wed's(?) ep. Everybody - Brook Lynn & Dante (the episode before), Ned and Olivia - dumps on Lois, and it still wasn't enough for me! - Lois is clearly the villain in this piece!! Brook Lynn and Dante try to explain Gio's background to him, but are unable to prevent him leaving the Q estate with dumb Emma. They are really making Sasha hateable with this NuMichael storyline. As expected, Mac tells Willow and Drew that he can't do anything legally about Michael repossessing his kids; later, Willow goes to NuMichael to plead with him (I'm sure he will shut her down in the next episode). And, in the best bit, Nina is consoled by Maxie at the dive bar, and during the conversation she figures out that Michael is the father of Sasha's baby - Nina then gets the bartender to basically confirm it, which should give Willow a fighting chance in the custody hearing.
 John Wick 4 (Peacock) - The most ridiculous "John Wick" yet!! I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing!!
    I don't think this was in glorious 4k on Peacock (I'll have to double-check when I get home).
    Sidenote: The same visual artifacts I was occasionally seeing with "Andor" were also popping up during this movie, especially during the desert scene early in the movie. As "Andor" is Disney+ app, and this was Peacock, it had to mean that the issue was the 4k TV. Sure enough, the problem went away when I switched from "Cinema Home" visual mode (and I was seeing the same artifacts in "Standard" mode as well) to "Filmmaker" visual mode. I have no idea how they've screwed up "Cinema Home" visual mode so badly - I've got to think that this problem has been introduced with a recent update from LG, as the 4k TV was definitely not doing this before.
    Anyway, this was a fun, but ridiculous! ride.
    SPOILERS
    Will
    Surely
    Follow
    I was disappointed that some previous characters, like the "Adjudicator" from the previous film, didn't show up in this one.
    I also was annoyed that so many hatchets were buried from "John Wick 3" - both Wick and the Bowery King should have wanted Winston dead, but it's almost like the events of "3" didn't even happen on this front. (I guess they felt like they couldn't throw Ian McShane overboard!)
    And, on this same front - Did they just get insanely lucky in killing off Charon in this flick, just before Lance Reddick died IRL? Or did they change the film somehow after Reddick died?!
    I was quite surprised when Shamier Anderson (of "Wynonna Earp", and before that season #1 of "The Next Step"!!) popped up in this in a pretty darn prominent role.
    Meanwhile, they have Donnie Yen playing the Asian Daredevil (how do they get away with this!?!) as John Wick's main "rival" (though, unlike in "3", this time the rival is actually an old buddy, and not a deranged fanboy!!). Also popping up in this one was Hiroyuki Sanada (he's everywhere these days), Japanese(?) pop star Rina Sawayama, and Clancy Brown! (as "The Harbinger"!).
    Whatever else you want to say, the "John Wick" films *look* great on screen, esp. "2" thru "4". This one has lots of great shots of backlit thugs standing around palaces and opera houses and churches and the like, for your visual eye candy!
    Hey - are those napalm(?) shotgun shots(?) a real thing, or not?! That was another killer filmed sequence in this film - looking down on John Wick as he wields the napalm(?) shotgun(?!) and exterminates loads of thugs!
    In the ridiculous department, apparently John Wick (& co.!) have "inter-dimensional travel" among their various superpowers, what with the way John Wick (& co.!) hopped all around the globe in mere miliseconds in this flick!
    I also am having a harder and harder time buying the "criminal underworld world-building" they're doing in these films - this High Table stuff and all it's accompanying pomp and circumstance is insane!! The last several films (I think all the way back to "2") have definitely suffered from the lack of an appearance of even a single cop or Fed in the proceedings.
    I also didn't care for the obvious use of CGI (and/or greenscreen?) in this film - especially the sequence in Paris with all of the cars was most obviously CGI in large part.
    I guess this film wraps up the "High Table" storyarc. (Indeed, the end of this one implies John Wick is dead!) But apparently a "John Wick 5" is in the works - but it sounds like this film is going to be more like a "Fugitive"/"Equalizer" type thing, without all the insane High Table malarkey.
 

The next movie in the John Wick/Continental universe is 'From the World of John Wick: Ballerina' coming out on June 6.  Reeves is in it but I believe it is set well before the events in Wick 4.  A sixth movie called 'From the World of John Wick: Caine' is also in development but I don't think Reeves is in that.  And yes Donnie Yen is returning as Caine for that one.
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I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky dirty old man.