BALLERINA is somewhere in the middle of JOHN WICK Parts 3 & 4 which itself is an odd way to shoehorn a side-movie in and I went in with major trepidation (especially knowing how the terrific JOHN WICK 4 ended), and yet deep down this new action picture is a flat out B-movie that works on its action sequences, performances and even a surprising amount of our lead getting knocked down. This movie is not going to reinvent the wheel OR even the JOHN WICK series, but the movie is still solid at what it does and provides JUST enough for you to care and enjoy but not really for long after the credits have finished.
Eve (Ana De Armas) has a pretty deep backstory in which her father was killed by the mysterious Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne) when she was very young. She is picked up by the same group of people as John Wick was in the form of Winston Scott (Ian McShane) and trained by way of her director (Anjelica Huston). Eve is hell-bent on finding her father’s assassin, and of course Chancellor becomes aware of this and sends his killers after her. So it’s a poetry type of revenge, you see; John Wick seeked revenge against his dog, after all…
What sets BALLERINA apart for me is the enjoyment out of the small town setting where Eve finds herself in a run-hide-fight situation with an entire town of people who are sent by the Chancellor. There is a hyper violent scene in a restaurant involving some kitchen equipment, a visually gorgeous fight going up and down stairs in a visually pleasing part in the village, and many others. The movie is so silly enough to have a fight IN an armoury as well. But if it works, it works.
One aspect that I also liked here is not letting Ana De Armas be superhuman here as Eve. One part I worried is that she would just keep beating up men three times her size on multiple occasions. She takes a LOT of hits here and quite a bit of damage, and a lot of what she uses is intelligence to get out of a fight or a situation. She also makes very good use of a flamethrower, in one of the movie’s best sequences.
The filmmaker here is Len Wiseman, known for the UNDERWORLD movies and DIE HARD 4.0 and has always been a capable action filmmaker. He tries to emulate a lot of what the original filmmakers David Leitch and Chad Stahelski and for the most part, the action and fight sequences are solid. He also gives good time to his other performers here. Gabriel Byrne plays the heavy and has some good dark moments. I was pleased to see Catalina Sandeno Moreno (from MARIA FULL OF GRACE) here as a pivotal character to Eve. And I actually found Keanu Reeves to be somewhat lacking here, pretty much phoning in his performance (and off to the sides quite a bit) and his jokes falling a bit flat. Still, it’s good to see him.
Not sure where BALLERINA could go as a series and since the recent box office was lower than anticipated, I doubt seeing this part of the series continuing with Eve. But it still offers an evening of entertainment for what it’s worth and I enjoyed it just like I did a Chuck Norris movie….he came on strong, and then he was gone.
BALLERINA is now playing in theatres.