Take Nineteen: (From the World of John Wick) BALLERINA

Ballerina marks the first spinoff from the John Wick cinematic universe instantly making it the fifth movie in the franchise and takes place during John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum (and no, I didn’t know this going in. Google is our friend.) Eve Macarro (Ana De Armas) finds herself orphaned and taken in by the Ruska Roma. For the next 12 years, she is trained as an assassin, ballet being a part of her curriculum. She uses her teachings to seek revenge on The Chancellor, the leader of the cult responsible for the death of her family. The road to vengeance is paved with a bunch of high adrenaline knuckle-ups, twists, turns, and an appearance or two of a stoic figure who will be very familiar to fans of the series.

Upon first seeing the trailer, my first thought was that this would be the Black Widow movie we were SUPPOSED to get. The tone felt correct. After watching the rigorous training sequences, I was convinced—- this IS would have been so much better than what we got. But hey, this is a review of Ballerina after all. I’ll just say she too definitely has blood on her ledger…

Let’s talk action. Boy, does this movie have it! It is very much in line with the John Wick style. They go IN! There is no quarter given simply because she is a woman and I love that. I am a sucker for cool femme fatale. And this movie did not meet a grenade or hammer it didn’t like. Or knife. Or axe… Or flamethrower—- they did some stuff with flamethrowers I have never seen done before it was very cool.

The plot wasn’t the most complex I’ll admit. But hello, John Wick. It’s a fun ride. I was entertained. My score: 8.

Don’t dance around the topic- tell me what you thought about this review and the film itself in the comments.

And until next time….