Why So Blu?

John Wick: Chapter 4 (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

John Wick: Chapter 4 proved one of the biggest blasts of “I friggin’ love movies” you could get in the first quarter of 2023. This latest installment on the hitman underground franchise with Keanu Reeves in the lead opened to rave reviews and big box office. Its now come home to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray for you to take in. Released on June 9th, it came with a Dolby Atmos track and a smattering of featurettes. You can order the film by on 4K by using the paid Amazon Associate link at the bottom of this review.

.

Film

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.

The John Wick series is one that is the best of what we could ask for in modern movie going. Its a series started by a star driven feature that pushed the boundaries and impressed within its genre. Each film has found both its director and star wanting to get bigger not just by a budget, but by pushing the limits of what they can do. All the while making it look fantastic and breathtaking in the process. And their crowning achievement and mic drop, leave them wanting more, moment is most likely this fourth chapter.

Chad Stahelski has gone above and beyond to leave your jaw stuck on the floor in John Wick: Chapter 4. He leaves everything on the table. Sure, this is a lengthy endeavor, but he makes every second count and this is paced in such a way that you are never going to notice. This is an opus of sorts for him, wearing his influences on his sleeve and putting forth a beautiful tribute to many of the best action or epic movies in cinema history. Its brave and bold and risky what he’s doing, but in pulling it off…its brilliant.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is a movie that is so impressive and stunning to take it, its actually pretty hard to write or talk about without being hyperbolic. There are so many impressive action sequences done in such unique ways. Your heart races heavy throughout. The film has a strong voice and vision. The choreography of the fights, the shot compositions, the color palette are all absolutely beautiful to get high off of with your eyes. Its one of the best films of this year and its vision and craft should be rewarded by the Academy and Stahelski seriously considered for a Best Director nomination. I’m not kidding.

Video

Disclaimer: Screen captures used in the review are from the standard Blu-ray disc, not the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Layers: BD-100

Clarity/Detail:  John Wick: Chapter 4 comes to 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray with a pretty elite video presentation. This transfer is crisp with beautiful colors and a sharp, slick look to it. Details are quite strong. One of the better things in this transfer is the championship level handling of the colors and contrast with the black levels.

Depth: Depth of field is VERY strong here, with excellent pushback that gives off a really nice 3 dimensional look and strong, confident camera movements. Scale is able to accurately showcase areas big and small. Movements are smooth and natural.

Black Levels: Blacks are deep and natural with good saturation and really showcasing different shades and tones. There are excellent night scenes to go with exquisite shadow work. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: This film is a blast of beautiful colors that are well saturated throughout. You’ve got strong blues, reds, purples, yellows and more that just pop. Neon signage, fire, lights and more really get an added buzz with the HDR glow.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and consistent throughout (give or take strong usage of filters). Facial features and textures are clear as day from any given distance in the frame.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean.

Audio

Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish

Dynamics: John Wick: Chapter 4 delivers a stellar Dolby Atmos experience. This mix packs a wallop. It showcases an amazing depth and layering to put you right in the crosshairs. There is great balance to the vocals, effects and music which all take center stage and hit with good impact while not stepping on one another’s toes.

Height: From above you get lots of bullets whizzing, debris flying, people going over the camera and plenty more. It has a nice, good, loud volume to it as well.

Low Frequency Extension: The subwoofer hits in all kinds of degrees with precise impact on horse clip clopping, explosions, punches, gunshots, stabbing, glass shattering, doors slamming and more.

Surround Sound Presentation:  This room spins all sorts of around here. Rolling sound packs a punch and powers in every direction around the room. These action sequences are tailor made to play with a surround mix and this movie take every bit of advantage to play with that.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and crisp.

Extras

John Wick: Chapter 4 comes with the standard Blu-ray edition and a redeemable digital code.

Chad and Keanu: Through Wick and Thin (HD, 5:45) – This featurette covers Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves relationship from The Matrix all the way to this latest Wick flick.

Train Like a Killer (HD, 5:55) – In this piece we cover the training Keanu underwent to make this film tick.

Making A Killing (HD, 6:25) – Set design, layout and choreography to use the environment during the action is the focus of this one.

The Psychology of a Killer (HD, 4:32) – Chad Stahelski looks into the psyche of the character of John Wick and his world and how its come over the four movies.

The Blind Leading the Fight (HD, 9:18) – This featurette is all things Donnie Yen and his blind assassin he plays in the film.

Suit Up / Shoot Up (HD, 5:41) – This one looks at the costume designs in the film. How they make them practical and the inspirations that bring them together.

Packing a Punch (HD, 4:41) – We have a look at the practical stuntwork and using the environments with which to pull them off to look as natural as possible.

One Killer Shot (HD, 3:09) – All about doing single takes.

Killing at the Speed of Traffic (HD, 10:10) – This is a special behind the scenes look  at the circle car, vehicular mayhem sequence in the finale of the film.

A Shot in the Dark (HD, 5:43) – This featurette covers the nighttime shooting of the series and how they make it work both in front of and behind the camera for everyone.

In Honor of the Dead (HD, 5:23) – In this one, Chad Stahelski shares the influential films he homages throughout the fourth film.

Theatrical Trailer 1 (HD, 1:13)

Theatrical Trailer 2 (HD, 2:37)

The Continental: First Look (HD, 3:10) – A sneak peek at the upcoming Peacock series.

Summary

John Wick Chapter 4 is a marvelous piece of action cinema and one of the most creatively ambitious and satisfying of the year. Lionsgate’s 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray of the film features top flight audio and video presentations. The extras provide for a nice, meaty look at the film’s production and the character, creators and series history. A must have for people who just love damn good movies with damn fine 4K presentations.

This is a paid Amazon Associates link