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From: Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-05-28 (Wednesday)
Date: Thu, 29 May 2025 17:47:28 -0700
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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.

-- 
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky 
dirty old man.