Movie reviews: 'John Wick: Chapter 4' is a well-choreographed ballet for the bloodthirsty

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4: 4 STARS

"Why don’t you just die?" screams one of the hundreds of people looking to kill the titular character in "John Wick: Chapter 4," the wild new Keanu Reeves assassin movie now playing in theatres.

Why doesn't he just die? Because he's John Wick, a mix of Anton Chigurgh, Wile E. Coyote and the Energizer Bunny, that's why.

If you’re a fan of the movies, you already know Wick can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. You don’t need the backstory to enjoy the new film, but it might help. Here's a quick John Wick Wiki to get you up to speed.

The John Wick Universe is a place where an association of twelve crime lords, called the High Table, govern the underworld's most powerful criminal organizations. They control the Continental, a hotel chain with exclusive branches sprinkled across the globe that serve as homebases for assassins. It is a place run by a strict set of rules, like never do "business" on the premises, by managers like Wick's friend Winston Scott (Ian McShane) who runs the New York outlet.

Legendary hitman Wick ran afoul of the High Table, and was declared excommunicado. He is persona non grata and they want him dead. Trouble is, he's hard to kill.

Also, he really loves dogs as much he loves killing people. There. You're caught up.

At the beginning of the new film, High Table elder and all-round psychopath, Marquis de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård), displeased with Winston's continuing connection to Wick, decommissions the Continental New York. "He is the face of your failure," he sneers.

With one of his last allies rendered powerless, Wick must get to the Marquis before the Marquis can get to him.

Cue an amount of mayhem rarely seen this side of Russian car wreck videos on YouTube.

At 2 hours and 49 minutes "John Wick: Chapter 4" is by far the longest film in the franchise. Heck, it's even longer than "Pulp Fiction," "A Clockwork Orange" and "Raging Bull," but director Chad Stahelski maintains interest, staging at least one major action sequence, more like a well-choreographed ballet for the blood thirsty, each hour. People get gone in spectacular ways, Wick defies the laws of physics and medical science to get his revenge and some of the world's most beautiful locations become the backdrop to Wick-style mayhem.

A scene staged in the roundabout circling Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile is an eyepopper, one of the best big screen action scenes in recent years not directed by George Miller. A shootout on the 200 steps of Paris's Sacré-Cœur has an anarchic cartoon vibe that would make the Tasmanian Devil envious. Tom Cruise may be famous for his signature run, but after this, I think, Reeves will be remembered for falling down stairs. It's a wild, extended ticking-clock sequence that uses slapstick humour to alleviate the tension as Wick violently makes his way to a date with destiny.

Adding to the action sweepstakes are Hong Kong martial arts superstar Donnie Yen as the blind assassin Caine, and legendary Japanese actor and martial artist Hiroyuki Sanada, last seen on screen with Reeves in 2013's "47 Ronin," who plays the manager of the Osaka Continental Hotel and an old friend of Wick. Yen is effortlessly cool, with an elegant and humourous fighting style that threatens to steal the show from Wick's blunt force. Sanada has fighting skills and brings gravitas to the character, a man who values loyalty above all. The personality each bring to their scenes adds much to the effectiveness of the action.

Director Stahelski stages several all-timer action scenes with grace and inventiveness, always remembering to keep the frenetic battles clean and easy to follow.

Of course, the Wick movies are all about the central character, a man whose path to inner peace is littered with the bodies of the people he's killed. Like a character straight out of a Sergio Leone film, he is a man of few words, and few motivations. In part, that is what makes the character and the movies so enjoyable. He may be the most lethal man on the planet, but, in each movie, his violent tendencies are in service of one objective. There is no muddled middle ground for Wick, no waffling, and that clarity of purpose keeps the movies from becoming cluttered, even at an epic 169-minute run time.

If "John Wick: Chapter 4" is the last film starring Keanu Reeves in the series — it is set-up for spin-offs within the Wickverse — then it goes out with a bang.

A GOOD PERSON: 3 STARS

For better and for worse, "A Good Person," the new drama written and directed by Zach Braff, starring Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman, and now playing in theatres, is a portrait of the messiness of addiction.

Pharmaceutical rep — and part time jazz singer — Allison's (Pugh) happy, carefree life falls apart when the car she is driving veers off the road, leaving two relatives dead, her future sister-in-law Molly (Nichelle Hines), and Molly's husband Jesse (Toby Onwumere). Allison survives, but to combat residual pain, is prescribed OxyContin painkillers.

Now, a year later, consumed with guilt, she is unemployed, living at home with her mother Diane (Molly Shannon), estranged from fiancé Nathan (Chinaza Uche) and addicted to the opioids.

Allison's life shifts when she bumps into Daniel (Morgan), the father of her ex-fiancé and Molly, who perished in the crash, at an AA meeting. The stern, ex-cop — who leans into pronouncements like, "Better to be half-an-hour early, than one minute late" — blames Allison for the accident, but attempts to find common ground with her and possibly chart a course through their shared grief.

"Neither of us chose this fate," he says, "but perhaps we can find a way to love it."

"A Good Person" features fine performances from Pugh and Freeman, but, despite its heavy subject matter, defaults to a feel-good vibe in scene after scene.

Pugh, even with her movie star glow, convinces as a person drained of the will to live and Morgan's mix of grandpa and Dirty Harry is entertaining and occasionally moving, but they are undone by a script laced with platitudes. Written by Braff, the story brushes up against the edges of the emotionality required to give us all the feels, but every time it begins to feel authentic, it takes a turn to the artificial. Braff never met a manipulative moment he couldn't exploit, and it blunts the effectiveness of the storytelling.

"A Good Person's" set-up suggests a deep dive into survivor's guilt, addiction and, ultimately, forgiveness, but the lack of jagged edges and grit feels more Hallmark than harrowing.

THE LOST KING: 3 STARS

"The Lost King" is not the alternate title for Prince Harry's recent tell-all book or a "Where’s Waldo" style game. It is the mostly true story of amateur historian Philippa Langley and her quest — some would call it an obsession — to find the remains of the last English king to die in battle, Richard "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" the III.

A lowkey dramedy, now playing in theatres, "The Lost King" stars Sally Hawkins as Langley, a divorced sufferer of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, who becomes inspired to research the much-maligned monarch's life and death after taking in a stage production of Shakespeare's royal tragedy.

She reads everything there is on his life, joins a group of eccentric Ricardians, argues with historians and even converses with a vision of the king himself (Harry Lloyd). She feels he was judged unfairly in life, and is determined to find his remains and give him a proper burial.

In the course of tireless study, she determines that the king's resting place is in a nondescript carpark in Leicester, once the home of a Franciscan Friary. Through sheer force of will (and considerable fund-raising ability) she manages to convince the naysayers, including the Deputy Registrar of the local university, to OK an excavation.

In September 2012 Langley's theories were proved correct and the remains of the long-lost king were uncovered.

"He was right where I said he'd be," she says with amazement as the university experts scramble to take credit for her work.

"The Lost King" is a lowkey "National Treasure" style movie. Langley's quest to rehabilitate King Richard's dastardly reputation isn't nearly as action packed as the Nic Cage movies, but her deep dive into history brings with it a determination that makes up for the lack of thrills.

Instead, it's a personal story about an underdog, who, despite her intelligence, is passed over for promotions at work and treated like an outsider by academia. Langley's journey to expose the truth about a misunderstood monarch is a lightweight human tale of empathy given heft by a compelling performance from Hawkins. Her work is grounded in reality, even during the magic realism scenes when she turns to King Richard for guidance.

"The Lost King" is the kind of Brit pic that is a little too black-and-white in its portrayal of the condescending bullies who tried to derail the plucky Langley, but as a portrait of a person who refused to be trampled on, who finds her voice, it is a warm and often funny feel-good flick.

YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER: 3 STARS

"You Can Live Forever," a new queer romance set against the backdrop of a Jehovah's Witness community, is a restrained, poignant look at teenage love.

Set in the early 1990s, the story focuses on transplanted Thunder Bay teenager Jaime (Anwen O'Driscoll). She's a typical teen of the time, with a taste for getting high, movies, Siouxie and the Banshees T-shirts and playing video games. She's also gay, but hasn't told anyone in her family.

Following her father's sudden heart attack and her distraught mother's subsequent nervous breakdown, she's sent to live with her Aunt Beth (Liane Balaban) and Uncle Jean-Francois (Antoine Yared) at a Jehovah's Witness community in Quebec's Saguenay region.

Suffering claustrophobia within the tightly-knit community, Jamie feels repressed, like an outsider at the Kingdom Hall meetings she is forced to attend — "What am I supposed to do?" she asks. "Nobody wants me here." — until she meets Marike (June Laporte).

There are several paths the lowkey, deliberately-paced "You Can Live Forever" could have walked, but it chooses warmth and empathy over everything else. Co-directors Sarah Watts — who grew up in a Jehovah's Witness community — and Mark Slutsky, take pains to paint a portrait of life inside the religious community, but from a thoughtful, non-judgmental point of view. Ditto the relationship at the centre of the movie. Their bond is taken seriously, not simply a high school fling.

It is not a complicated story but it is a delicate one, handled respectfully by Watts and Slutsky, who also wrote the script. The community's beliefs are recognised in a story that sees Jamie disagree with her family's dogmas, but still empathize with them as people. It is a tricky balance, and the way Jamie accepts Marike's religious background is a tangible sign of the deep affection she has for her.

"You Can Live Forever" pays careful attention to the characters to avoid falling into stereotypes or hitting inauthentic notes. It is a little too methodical in its approach, but the emotional impact of this story of star-crossed lovers is hard to deny.