Ballerina

One of the greatest time periods for action franchises definetely started in the 80´s. You had Sylvester Stallone as Vietnam war veteran soldier John Rambo in the Rambo franchise, and then you had Mel Gibson and Danny Glover kicking ass in the Lethal Weapon franchise. Obviously i have to mention the Die Hard franchise as well with Bruce Willis as bad ass cop John McClane with several sequels included. All of the films in these classic action franchises are definetely worth a watch, especially if you love lots of guns, explosions and 80´s hair. Since i grew up in the VHS era i have seen so many classic action films from this time period. Who didn´t fall in love with other 80´s classics such as The Terminator, Commando, Cobra, Tango & Cash and many more wonderful titles? If we move into more modern days we do have some action franchises that have been able to survive, at least for a while. A perfect example of that is of course Sylverster Stallone´s love letter project as a tribute to action movies of the 80´s known as The Expendables. 4 films were made completely with a incredible cast in each film ( especially in The Expendables 2 ). I would highly recommend you buying all four films on physical media, these are the kind of action films you can rewatch and enjoy every single time. Let´s focus especially on one specific year for a moment and that is the year of 2014. It was this year a brand new action franchise started known as John Wick with actor Keanu Reeves taking on the role as the hitman John Wick. At the time when the first film came out it really gave actor Keanu Reeves a brand new audience worldwide, especially after making smaller low budget films for a while. The first film was a box office success, but the sequels that followed in the John Wick franchise would become ever bigger ticket sellers worldwide. I enjoy all of the John Wick films for different reasons and you should definetely watch them all. I remember a over a year ago i heard there is a spin-off film from the John Wick franchise called Ballerina. I was lucky to watch the film in cinema at the last week it was running in cinema here in Sweden, and just about a week ago got my physical copy to prepare for this review. Is this a film worthy the John Wick franchise or is this an action film that no one asked for?

Eve Macarro ( Victoria Comte ) is the daughter of assassins Javier ( David Castaneda ) of the Ruska Roma crime syndicate and his Cultist wife. As a child, Eve was taken away from the Cult by Javier, which led to the death of her mother- To retrieve Eve, the Cult and their leader Chancellor ( Gabriel Byrne ) raid their home, Javier dies as he helps Eve escape. New York Continental manager Winston Scott ( Ian McShane ) brings Eve to the Ruska Roma, an assassins society under the cover of performance dancers, where she meets The Director ( Anjelica Huston ) and agrees to enlist. Over the next 12 years, Eve ( Ana de Armas ) trains as a ballerina, assassin and bodyguard. Eve seeks revenge of the murderer of her father, but The Director says she is not allowed to do this. To honor her father she will go on with her mission.

In recent years i have been struggling finding some really good action films that reminds me of classic films of the past. I can happily say that Ballerina manage to land in the John Wick franchise in a respectful way while exploring some different sides of the John Wick universe. If fans of this beloved franchise was worried that this film wouldn´t be anywhere as good as the previous Keanu Reeves films i will be honest and say im actually quite surprised. Not that this film is ground breaking in any way or deliver a lot of new things to action films in general, but what this film does right is to keep the essence of the John Wick franchise while making some interesting changes along the way. I think it was very good that they tried to tell the story of Ballerina in a completely different way through the main character Eve Macarro ( played really well by actress Ana de Armas, who i personally remember from director Denis Villeneuve´s 2017 sci fi action film Blade Runner 2049, definetely worth owning on physical media ), who is a very brutal and effective assassin. Now, you might think that just because she is an assassin we only see her kill and we don´t find out anything about her personality. There are a couple of scenes where we get to understand why Eve became the woman she is today, and all the struggles she had to go through. Ana de Armas does a really good job portraying a female assassin and i am especially impressed by her physical performance in certain action scenes. We also get to see characters from the previous John Wich films such as Winston Scott ( Ian McShane ), The Director ( Anjelica Huston ) and the final acting performance by actor Lance Reddick as the character Charon. The action scenes are very well made, i also appreciate the very beautiful cinematography by Romain Lacourbas that matches the most colorful scenes. One of the highligts is without a doubt the flame thrower scenes that looks gorgeous and is quite effective. The main villain Chancellor played by legendary actor Gabriel Byrne deliver some really fun moments and Keanu Reeves does show up for a short while as John Wick. Director Len Wiseman ( who directed the first two Underworld films ) proves once again why he is a really talented film maker in this specifc genre. The action scenes are far better than most films in this genre and i had a really good time with Ballerina. Maybe not as good as all of the John Wick films but definetely pretty close, Ballerina deserves to be owned on physical media or on digital release.

Rating: DDDD