{"id":12035,"date":"2025-06-07T18:34:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T22:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12035"},"modified":"2025-07-26T13:29:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T17:29:40","slug":"ballerina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/06\/07\/ballerina\/","title":{"rendered":"Ballerina"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ballerina<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 125 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence throughout, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Len Wiseman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Shay Hatten\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Romain Lacourbas\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 6, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, Keanu Reeves, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Ava McCarthy, Choi Soo-Young, Juliet Doherty, David Castaneda, Anne Parillaud, Victoria Comte.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0The full title of the female-driven action movie Ballerina<\/strong> is From the World of John Wick: Ballerina. It takes place between the third and fourth John Wick movies making it John Wick 3.5 even though it really isn\u2019t. Keanu Reeves\u2019 unstoppable professional hitman cedes control of this vehicle to a new driver, a newbie in the field named Eve Macarro. She\u2019s played by Ana de Armas, a Cuban actress who proved her mettle in the last James Bond outing, No Time to Die (2021). She commandeers this vehicle quite capably. In simple terms, she\u2019s a bad ass babe.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Every violent rampage has a catalyst. For retired assassin John Wick, it was the killing of his dog that set him off. For Eve, it\u2019s the murder of her father. She was just a child when a team of assassins led by a mysterious creep known as \u201cThe Chancellor\u201d (Byrne, The Usual Suspects) barged into their home and killed her dad making her an orphan. Winston Scott (McShane, Deadwood), a character familiar to fans of the series, shows up and takes her to a safe place, a ballet company run by \u201cThe Director\u201d (Huston, The Addams Family). Only it\u2019s not solely a dance company. It\u2019s a front for the Ruska Roma, a clandestine group of highly trained assassins, most of whom are females. It\u2019s there where Eve grows into adulthood while learning skills that will help her avenge her father.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Len Wiseman (Live Free or Die Hard), Ballerina<\/strong> starts off unsteadily, wobbling a bit until it starts to hit its stride. That happens when Eve finds a clue that will lead her to her father\u2019s killers. The Director tells her to leave it alone lest she should start a war in the criminal underworld. Naturally, she doesn\u2019t heed the advice. She sets off in search of the location of the people responsible, an assassin cult that\u2019s been in existence for about 200 years. These are people you don\u2019t want to f*** with.<\/p>\n

Eve\u2019s mission begins at the Continental in NYC where she consults with Winston before going to Prague to confront a member of the tribe (Reedus, The Walking Dead) who\u2019s hiding out with his young daughter (McCarthy, The Primrose Railway Children). That\u2019s where the action really kicks in. From there, Eve ends up in a snowy European village occupied by Chancellor and his followers. It\u2019s more like a fortress really. They all go after her with guns. She handles them like a true female John Wick. At some point, the living legend himself shows up. Whether he\u2019s there to help to stop her, I\u2019ll never tell.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The whole third act is spectacularly entertaining. Eve discovers a secret or two before unleashing her fury in a full-tilt-boogie firestorm of violence and balletic fight choreography. At one point, she wields a flamethrower in what I like to think is a nod to the Exterminator movies of the 80s. There\u2019s also a bit where some of her pursuers chase her into an armory. LOL! Do they not realize it won\u2019t end well…. for them? THIS is what the John Wick movies are all about.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The John Wick movies, in all their OTT-ness, have been consistently great. The spin-off Ballerina<\/strong> is merely good. It\u2019s a decent action movie even if the early action scenes don\u2019t possess the same fluidity as the ones in the previous films. Wiseman fumbles around a bit in the beginning trying to find his footing. Once he does, Ballerina<\/strong> becomes a fun ride. He tightens things up considerably once Eve sets out to find her father\u2019s killers and even the score. It helps that the action scenes aren\u2019t overedited to the point of confusion. You always have a sense of geography. You know who\u2019s shooting at whom and who\u2019s getting shot. It\u2019s action done right.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ana de Armas has what it takes to be an effective action heroine. She\u2019s tough, beautiful and deadly. She also hits all the right dramatic beats with her character. She shows the signs of someone who\u2019s carried a heavy load of anger for a long time. At the same time, she hasn\u2019t lost her humanity. Once she sees a child in a predicament similar to hers, she does what she can to protect her, something nobody did for her as a child. Byrne is great as the villain of the piece. He\u2019s the classic cult leader, a charismatic creep who talks a good game but is too cowardly to do his own dirty work. Catalina Sandino Moreno (Silent Night) does fine work as a member of the assassin cult. Cold and deadly, she has a connection to the whole situation that some might see coming. It\u2019s nice to see Lance Reddick (as the Continental concierge) one last time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Reeves\u2019 role isn\u2019t huge, but his presence looms over the whole movie. You\u2019re always aware you\u2019re watching a John Wick movie with almost no John Wick. He makes a quick appearance in the first act in addition to taking part in the final battle. It\u2019s best to watch Ballerina <\/strong>with the understanding that it\u2019s not really a John Wick movie. It belongs to Eve all the way. She takes charge of things like a champ. Wiseman expectedly leaves the door open for future installments should she prove popular with audiences. I don\u2019t see why she wouldn\u2019t. Ballerina<\/strong> is that rare action movie that will appeal to men and women. It\u2019s a date movie with loads of violence. What more could you ask for?\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ballerina (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lionsgate\/Action-Thriller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 125 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence throughout, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Len Wiseman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Shay Hatten\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Romain Lacourbas\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 6, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, Keanu Reeves, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Catalina Sandino […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Ballerina-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12035"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12043,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12035\/revisions\/12043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}