Let's dance: John Wick's successor on point as vengeful assassin
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina
(MA, 125 minutes)
4 stars
Cuban actress Ana De Armas absolutely stole the movie from under the nose of Daniel Craig when she played the Cuban spy in the 2021 James Bond film No Time to Die, and she's been a box office A-lister since.
She is spectacular in this action flick that, in case the overly bloated and narratively descriptive film title doesn't give it away, fits somewhere into Keanu Reeves's John Wick films.
If I were to guess, I'd say it takes part around the third Wick film, because Keanu does indeed play a small but essential part in Ballerina as his John Wick character, and we learn one of the reasons he might have found himself disavowed by the secret assassin underworld in John Wick: Chapter 4.
His presence serves to both connect the new character to that film franchises's universe, but also hands the torch over to a very capable successor, probably studio insurance in case Keanu decides he's too old to pretend to be a karate expert assassin.
De Armas also plays a professional assassin and as the film opens we begin with her origin story, as the younger Eve (Victoria Comte) who has her idyllic island life destroyed with the arrival of a mysterious gang of black-clad killers, each carrying a heavy 'X' scar on their arms.
Her lighthouse keeper dad is apparently also a retired assassin in hiding, having stolen baby Eve away from this crew that were intending to bring her up as a future killer.
Dad once again saves Eve from this crew, particularly its enigmatic leader The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), but at the cost of his own life.
It seems that killing is to be Eve's destiny anyways, as years later we meet the grown-up Eve (De Armas), placed in the care of The Director (Angelica Huston), who runs an assassin training academy disguised as a professional theatre school.
It is here that Eve learns the ballet skills that give the film its name, dance being just a part of the curriculum that teaches these future death machines quick reflexes and incredible strength.
And it is here that Eve first meets John Wick, a former student and member of the assassin clan Ruska Roma that The Director is the head of.
Eve isn't just any baby killing machine though, she has her own vendetta against her father's killers driving her and vows to stay and continue learning only as a means to find the mysterious crew with the X scar.
And she eventually does, and it doesn't go well for anybody.
Fans of the John Wick films will get a heap more of the stuff they love: exquisitely choreographed fight sequences and lashings of ultra-violence delivered with a sense of humour.
For newcomers, I'll say there's so much to enjoy about this film, as long as you're pre-disposed to liking those things I just mentioned.
Among the film's many gifts to viewers is the way director Len Wiseman, his writer Shay Hatten, weapons master Marek Bocek and the very long list of stunt coordinators in the credits work with Ana De Armas to make her a plausible assassin.
One of the assassin school coaches (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) orders Eve to "fight like a girl"' by which she means to understand that while she may not match the strength of many male opponents, she should understand where her strengths are.
It's a real joy to watch Eve work a room grabbing pots, pans, kitchen knives, and her ballet training to despatch dozens of men, and it is just really lovely team work from the film production crew, such professionalism.
I'll enjoy more of these in years to come, I'm sure, as it is just really bloody fun to watch.
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina
(MA, 125 minutes)
4 stars
Cuban actress Ana De Armas absolutely stole the movie from under the nose of Daniel Craig when she played the Cuban spy in the 2021 James Bond film No Time to Die, and she's been a box office A-lister since.
She is spectacular in this action flick that, in case the overly bloated and narratively descriptive film title doesn't give it away, fits somewhere into Keanu Reeves's John Wick films.
If I were to guess, I'd say it takes part around the third Wick film, because Keanu does indeed play a small but essential part in Ballerina as his John Wick character, and we learn one of the reasons he might have found himself disavowed by the secret assassin underworld in John Wick: Chapter 4.
His presence serves to both connect the new character to that film franchises's universe, but also hands the torch over to a very capable successor, probably studio insurance in case Keanu decides he's too old to pretend to be a karate expert assassin.
De Armas also plays a professional assassin and as the film opens we begin with her origin story, as the younger Eve (Victoria Comte) who has her idyllic island life destroyed with the arrival of a mysterious gang of black-clad killers, each carrying a heavy 'X' scar on their arms.
Her lighthouse keeper dad is apparently also a retired assassin in hiding, having stolen baby Eve away from this crew that were intending to bring her up as a future killer.
Dad once again saves Eve from this crew, particularly its enigmatic leader The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), but at the cost of his own life.
It seems that killing is to be Eve's destiny anyways, as years later we meet the grown-up Eve (De Armas), placed in the care of The Director (Angelica Huston), who runs an assassin training academy disguised as a professional theatre school.
It is here that Eve learns the ballet skills that give the film its name, dance being just a part of the curriculum that teaches these future death machines quick reflexes and incredible strength.
And it is here that Eve first meets John Wick, a former student and member of the assassin clan Ruska Roma that The Director is the head of.
Eve isn't just any baby killing machine though, she has her own vendetta against her father's killers driving her and vows to stay and continue learning only as a means to find the mysterious crew with the X scar.
And she eventually does, and it doesn't go well for anybody.
Fans of the John Wick films will get a heap more of the stuff they love: exquisitely choreographed fight sequences and lashings of ultra-violence delivered with a sense of humour.
For newcomers, I'll say there's so much to enjoy about this film, as long as you're pre-disposed to liking those things I just mentioned.
Among the film's many gifts to viewers is the way director Len Wiseman, his writer Shay Hatten, weapons master Marek Bocek and the very long list of stunt coordinators in the credits work with Ana De Armas to make her a plausible assassin.
One of the assassin school coaches (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) orders Eve to "fight like a girl"' by which she means to understand that while she may not match the strength of many male opponents, she should understand where her strengths are.
It's a real joy to watch Eve work a room grabbing pots, pans, kitchen knives, and her ballet training to despatch dozens of men, and it is just really lovely team work from the film production crew, such professionalism.
I'll enjoy more of these in years to come, I'm sure, as it is just really bloody fun to watch.
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina
(MA, 125 minutes)
4 stars
Cuban actress Ana De Armas absolutely stole the movie from under the nose of Daniel Craig when she played the Cuban spy in the 2021 James Bond film No Time to Die, and she's been a box office A-lister since.
She is spectacular in this action flick that, in case the overly bloated and narratively descriptive film title doesn't give it away, fits somewhere into Keanu Reeves's John Wick films.
If I were to guess, I'd say it takes part around the third Wick film, because Keanu does indeed play a small but essential part in Ballerina as his John Wick character, and we learn one of the reasons he might have found himself disavowed by the secret assassin underworld in John Wick: Chapter 4.
His presence serves to both connect the new character to that film franchises's universe, but also hands the torch over to a very capable successor, probably studio insurance in case Keanu decides he's too old to pretend to be a karate expert assassin.
De Armas also plays a professional assassin and as the film opens we begin with her origin story, as the younger Eve (Victoria Comte) who has her idyllic island life destroyed with the arrival of a mysterious gang of black-clad killers, each carrying a heavy 'X' scar on their arms.
Her lighthouse keeper dad is apparently also a retired assassin in hiding, having stolen baby Eve away from this crew that were intending to bring her up as a future killer.
Dad once again saves Eve from this crew, particularly its enigmatic leader The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), but at the cost of his own life.
It seems that killing is to be Eve's destiny anyways, as years later we meet the grown-up Eve (De Armas), placed in the care of The Director (Angelica Huston), who runs an assassin training academy disguised as a professional theatre school.
It is here that Eve learns the ballet skills that give the film its name, dance being just a part of the curriculum that teaches these future death machines quick reflexes and incredible strength.
And it is here that Eve first meets John Wick, a former student and member of the assassin clan Ruska Roma that The Director is the head of.
Eve isn't just any baby killing machine though, she has her own vendetta against her father's killers driving her and vows to stay and continue learning only as a means to find the mysterious crew with the X scar.
And she eventually does, and it doesn't go well for anybody.
Fans of the John Wick films will get a heap more of the stuff they love: exquisitely choreographed fight sequences and lashings of ultra-violence delivered with a sense of humour.
For newcomers, I'll say there's so much to enjoy about this film, as long as you're pre-disposed to liking those things I just mentioned.
Among the film's many gifts to viewers is the way director Len Wiseman, his writer Shay Hatten, weapons master Marek Bocek and the very long list of stunt coordinators in the credits work with Ana De Armas to make her a plausible assassin.
One of the assassin school coaches (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) orders Eve to "fight like a girl"' by which she means to understand that while she may not match the strength of many male opponents, she should understand where her strengths are.
It's a real joy to watch Eve work a room grabbing pots, pans, kitchen knives, and her ballet training to despatch dozens of men, and it is just really lovely team work from the film production crew, such professionalism.
I'll enjoy more of these in years to come, I'm sure, as it is just really bloody fun to watch.
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina
(MA, 125 minutes)
4 stars
Cuban actress Ana De Armas absolutely stole the movie from under the nose of Daniel Craig when she played the Cuban spy in the 2021 James Bond film No Time to Die, and she's been a box office A-lister since.
She is spectacular in this action flick that, in case the overly bloated and narratively descriptive film title doesn't give it away, fits somewhere into Keanu Reeves's John Wick films.
If I were to guess, I'd say it takes part around the third Wick film, because Keanu does indeed play a small but essential part in Ballerina as his John Wick character, and we learn one of the reasons he might have found himself disavowed by the secret assassin underworld in John Wick: Chapter 4.
His presence serves to both connect the new character to that film franchises's universe, but also hands the torch over to a very capable successor, probably studio insurance in case Keanu decides he's too old to pretend to be a karate expert assassin.
De Armas also plays a professional assassin and as the film opens we begin with her origin story, as the younger Eve (Victoria Comte) who has her idyllic island life destroyed with the arrival of a mysterious gang of black-clad killers, each carrying a heavy 'X' scar on their arms.
Her lighthouse keeper dad is apparently also a retired assassin in hiding, having stolen baby Eve away from this crew that were intending to bring her up as a future killer.
Dad once again saves Eve from this crew, particularly its enigmatic leader The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), but at the cost of his own life.
It seems that killing is to be Eve's destiny anyways, as years later we meet the grown-up Eve (De Armas), placed in the care of The Director (Angelica Huston), who runs an assassin training academy disguised as a professional theatre school.
It is here that Eve learns the ballet skills that give the film its name, dance being just a part of the curriculum that teaches these future death machines quick reflexes and incredible strength.
And it is here that Eve first meets John Wick, a former student and member of the assassin clan Ruska Roma that The Director is the head of.
Eve isn't just any baby killing machine though, she has her own vendetta against her father's killers driving her and vows to stay and continue learning only as a means to find the mysterious crew with the X scar.
And she eventually does, and it doesn't go well for anybody.
Fans of the John Wick films will get a heap more of the stuff they love: exquisitely choreographed fight sequences and lashings of ultra-violence delivered with a sense of humour.
For newcomers, I'll say there's so much to enjoy about this film, as long as you're pre-disposed to liking those things I just mentioned.
Among the film's many gifts to viewers is the way director Len Wiseman, his writer Shay Hatten, weapons master Marek Bocek and the very long list of stunt coordinators in the credits work with Ana De Armas to make her a plausible assassin.
One of the assassin school coaches (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) orders Eve to "fight like a girl"' by which she means to understand that while she may not match the strength of many male opponents, she should understand where her strengths are.
It's a real joy to watch Eve work a room grabbing pots, pans, kitchen knives, and her ballet training to despatch dozens of men, and it is just really lovely team work from the film production crew, such professionalism.
I'll enjoy more of these in years to come, I'm sure, as it is just really bloody fun to watch.
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