The nicest man in Hollywood, Keanu Reeves, returns for the much-anticipated fourth instalment of his full-throttle violent John Wick series.
In a three-minute featurette released on February 22, Reeves, 58, is again doing his own stunts, action sequences, and talking us through what to expect in John Wick: Chapter 4.
“We have all the John Wick swag: Cars, new weapons, Jiu-Jitsu,” Reeves said in the video before its cinematic release on March 23.
“With Chapter 4, we took it to another level.”
The team of stuntmen and co-stars trained for 12 weeks, including training with machetes, swords and nunchucks, which Reeves describes as “challenging” before the video cuts to him throwing them to the ground in frustration.
“For Chapter 4, we wanted to bring muscle cars back,” Reeves said.
“We’re going to have this sequence around the Arc de Triomphe.”
Stunt co-ordinator Scott Rogers said: “We tore all the doors off and lost the windshield.
“You’re going to do a reverse 180 and you gotta shoot a gun, and you gotta reload. He actually started getting too good in the car.”
“We’re smashing people, hitting people. It’s just amazing,” Reeves said.
“Have we gone too far?”
Not if you’re a Reeves fan. He’s always watchable.
If you don’t like full-on fight movies with lots of blood and people falling out windows, there’s a documentary on Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton, and a couple of gentler UK movies, one starring veteran actor Bill Nighy, the other starring Oscar winner Olivia Colman.
With the 95th Academy Awards on March 13, there’s also still time to see all the Oscar-nominated short films – animation and live action – at your local cinema on March 3.
In the Short Films (Animated) category is young Queenslander Lachlan Pendragon’s film An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I think I believe it.
And if you’re curious as to why Andrea Riseborough scored a best actress nomination for To Leslie, a film about a single mother who turns to alcoholism after using up all the prize money she received after winning the lottery, it hits cinemas on March 9.
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Empire of Light: March 2
Set in an English seaside town in the early 1980s, Empire of Light is a story about human connection and the magic of cinema from Academy Award winning director Sam Mendes.
Starring Olivia Colman (The Favourite, The Lost Daughter), BAFTA winner Micheal Ward (Blue Story, Top Boy) and Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man), Colman plays the duty manager at a cinema.
Struggling with her mental health, she forms a relationship with an employee.
The Rotten Tomato metre gives it just a 44 per cent rating, but it’s not John Wick, so that’s a bonus for movie fans.
65: March 9
From the writers of A Quiet Place, 65, which is short for 65 million years before people inhabited Earth, is a classic sci-fi thriller starring Adam Driver.
He then scored the lead in House of Gucci before entering into the world of weird thrillers with White Noise.
Now, he’s stranded on the planet with just one teenage girl survivor and whole bunch of Jurassic Park style dinosaurs.
To Leslie: March 9
To some surprise and controversy, Andrea Riseborough became one of five best actress nominees alongside Ana de Armas (Blonde), Cate Blanchett (Tar), Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans) and Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere all at Once).
Many thought the last-minute social media campaign by Hollywood A-listers during the nominations period to watch the movie swayed Academy voters.
You be the judge. It’s in cinemas four days before the Oscars ceremony.
Scream VI: March 9
All the usual cast are back for this sixth instalment of a horror classic.
Following the latest Ghostface killings, the four survivors leave Woodsboro behind and start a fresh chapter.
Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Jenna Ortega, Hayden Panettiere and Courteney Cox return to their roles in the franchise.
Rest assured the plot will have similarities to the previous five iterations.
Till: March 9
Till is true story of Mamie Till Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, who in 1955 was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi.
In Mamie’s poignant journey of grief turned to action, we see the universal power of a mother’s ability to change the world.
Shackleton: The Greatest Story of Survival: March 9
Shackleton: The Greatest Story of Survival reveals the true story of polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and the crew of the Endurance, told by the only man ever to have repeated their incredible feat – explorer and adventurer Tim Jarvis.
Following in the beset crew’s footsteps, Tim reveals the enduring legacy of Shackleton’s crisis leadership in the face of impossible odds.
Champions: March 9
We haven’t seen Oscar-nominated Woody Harrelson for a while.
After Zombieland and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, he’s continued to make movies with general appeal, but no real tear jerkers.
Champions might be that film, in a good way, as he plays a minor basketball league coach who gets into trouble and is sentenced to community service.
Forced to coach a Special Olympics team is the premise.
The cast is rounded out by more than 10 actors with intellectual disabilities who authentically tell the story, including Madison Tevlin, Joshua Felder, Kevin Iannucci, Ashton Gunning, Matthew Von Der Ahe, Tom Sinclair, James Day Keith, Alex Hintz, Casey Metcalfe, Bradley Edens and Champ Pederson.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods: March 16
Shazam continues the story of teenage Billy Batson who, upon reciting the magic word “SHAZAM!,” is transformed into his adult Super Hero alter ego, Shazam.
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Living: March 16
Oscar nominee for best actor in a leading role, English actor Bill Nighy, – it’s also up for Best Adapted Screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro – has been doing the rounds promoting this film, and accepting numerous awards on the way through for another heartwarming film.
Nighy, 73, plays a veteran civil servant, Mr Williams, in 1952 in London, who is part of the bureaucracy of rebuilding post-WWII England.
“As endless paperwork piles up on his desk, he learns he has a fatal illness, and thus begins his quest to find some meaning to his seemingly grey, monotonous life before it slips away.”
He goes to a few parties, is a little reckless, then meets a young co-worker who inspires him to finish one last project for children in a poor district of East London.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: March 30
With a fabulous cast including Michelle Rodriguez, Hugh Grant, Chris Pine and Regé-Jean Page, D&D is the story of a thief and a band of unlikely adventurers who undertake an epic heist to retrieve a lost relic.
The film “brings the rich world and playful spirit of the legendary role-playing game to the big screen in a hilarious and action-packed adventure.”
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: March 30
A new Australian production of The Rocky Horror Show will be broadcast live to cinemas for one night only from the magnificently restored Theatre Royal Sydney, in honour of the iconic Rock ‘N’ Roll musical celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2023.
