BALLERINA : Tuesday 10th June 2025

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'BALLERINA' earlier this week, and this American action thriller film is the fifth film in the 'John Wick' franchise, and serves as a spin-off instalment that is Directed by Len Wiseman, whose prior feature film making credits are 'Underworld' in 2003, 'Underworld : Evolution' in 2006, 'Live Free or Die Hard' in 2007 and 'Total Recall' in 2012, as well as Producing 'Underworld : Rise of the Lycans' in 2009, 'Underworld : Awakening' in 2012, and 'Underworld : Blood Wars' in 2016. This film is also Co-Produced by Chad Stahelski who Directed the first four 'John Wick' films. The film was released here in Australia and the US last week, having so far grossed US$57M from a production budget of US$90M and has generated largely positive critical reviews. Allegedly as far back as March 2023 the studio announced it has plans to develop a sequel with de Armas returning to her role. 

The film opens with a young Eve Macarro (Victoria Comte) playing at ballet dancing with her father Javier (David Castaneda) in their lavish seaside villa. Javier is/was an assassin, a Kikimora for the Ruska Roma, and when Eve was younger he went on the run with his daughter to escape a Cult his wife was heavily involved with, which ultimately led to her death. The Cult's Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne) wants to retrieve Eve, and so undercover of darkness the Cult lays siege to their residence, killing the guards and fatally wounding Javier, who helps Eve escape. New York Continental Hotel owner Winston Scott (Ian McShane) brings Eve to the Ruska Roma, where Eve meets their Director (Anjelica Huston) and agrees to join them.

Over the course of the ensuing twelve years Eve (Ana de Armas) trains as a ballerina and a Kikimora assassin/bodyguard under the Director and her mentor Nogi (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). Eve graduates as a Kikimora after killing a fellow Kikimora, as a final test to truly assess that she has what it takes. After completing a contract some two months later, Eve is attacked by an assassin, whom she kills and identifies as a Cultist from a scar of a cross burned onto his wrist. She asks the Director about the Cult, wanting revenge. The Director forbids Eve from chasing down the Cult due to a centuries old truce between the Cult and the Ruska Roma.

Eve disobeys the Director and visits the New York Continental, where Charon, the Hotel Concierge (Lance Reddick, in his final screen appearance following his death in March 2023, aged 60) grants her a meeting with Winston. Winston reveals that one Cultist, Daniel Pine (Norman Reedus), is staying at the Prague Continental with a US$2M bounty on him, so Eve travels there and books a room directly next to his. Several Cultists are also there, led by Lena (Catalina Sandino Moreno), waiting for the bounty's fulfilment. 

Eve infiltrates Pine's room, discovering his young daughter Ella (Ava McCarthy), whom Pine reveals is hiding from the Cult, having escaped from them. When the Cult sees that Eve has not killed Pine, Lena increases the bounty to US$4M. The Cultists and other mercenaries attack Pine on Continental grounds. Eve assists him and he entrusts Ella to her. Cultist Dex (Robert Maaser) shoots Pine, while Lena incapacitates Eve and takes Ella. The Prague Continental staff spare Eve for not breaking Continental rules but execute two captured Cultists/mercenaries for their attack.

While in Prague Eve goes to purchase a stash of weapons from arms dealer Frank (Abraham Popoola), but the Cult henchmen attack his shop. After Eve kills every last one of the Cult's heavies, Frank helps her narrow down the location of the Cult's base and provides her with a car so that she can drive herself to their location. 

Eve's search leads to the town of Hallstatt in Upper Austria, where she quickly comes under attack as all the townspeople are of the Cult and many are assassins, some of whom the Cult has offered safe haven to. Eve is eventually captured and brought to the Chancellor, who discovers her ties to the Ruska Roma. Eve reveals her revenge plot, while he reveals that Pine is his son and Ella his granddaughter. The Chancellor remembers Eve, informing Lena that she is Eve's older sister, whom Eve believed to be dead. Eve breaks free before being cornered by Lena, who reveals their kinship. Lena tells Eve that Javier abandoned her during his escape due to fearing that the Cult had already indoctrinated Lena. Hearing of Eve and Lena talking, the Chancellor orders their deaths. The Cult's attack kills Lena while Eve escapes.

The Chancellor calls the Director with a declaration of war between their factions due to Eve's relentless actions, despite the Director repeatedly stating that Eve had gone rogue. To satisfy the Chancellor, the Director sends John Wick (Keanu Reeves) to take out Eve as a compromise, which the Chancellor accepts. 

The Chancellor orders a temporary stand-down of the townsfolk once John arrives at Hallstatt, where he finds and defeats Eve, repeatedly sparing her and imploring her to leave Hallstatt. Eve pleads for her revenge, so the sympathetic John gives her the remaining twenty-eight minutes until midnight, when the stand-down orders end, to kill the Chancellor. If she fails to kill the Chancellor by then, he will have no choice but to see out his contract to its foregone conclusion.

Eve continues fighting against the Cult across Hallstatt, with John killing Dex to save Eve. Some Cultists attack John, who in turn kills them. When the Cult loses track of John, the Chancellor attempts to flee with Ella in a SUV, but Eve shoots the driver causing the vehicle to come to an abrupt halt, and corners the Chancellor. The Chancellor exits the car and attempts to reason with Eve, but Eve executes him where he stands, and rescues Ella. John calls the Director who asks if 'she' is dead, but John simply responds by stating that 'he' is dead.

Ella is reunited with an alive and recovering Pine at the New York Continental where Eve takes refuge. Now exiled from the Ruska Roma, Eve watches former Kikimora trainee and friend Tatiana's (Juliet Doherty) Swan Lake ballet performance. The Cult places a US$5M bounty on Eve, and being alerted to this development on her mobile phone, as were several other members of the audience, she quickly exits the theatre.

'Ballerina' has all the trademarks of the four previous 'John Wick' instalments, which I guess is down largely to the involvement of Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves, from the bullet ballet choreography, the intense close quarter fight scenes, the creative kills, and a strong cast who really give it their all. Director Len Wiseman has done a very respectable job of steering this franchise in a relatively new direction whilst maintaining the many touchstones, characters, top notch cinematography, relentless pace and everything we have come to expect from the series so far. Ana de Armas gives a solid performance as the Ballerina in question here, and seems to slip easily enough into the role as the gun totting, arse kicking, flame thrower wielding, ice skate launching, grenade lobbing assassin Eve Macarro, and it's good to see Keanu Reeves reprise his role as John Wick even if only for a couple of scenes in the last fifteen minutes or so. 

'Ballerina' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

JOHN WICK : CHAPTER 4 - Tuesday 28th March 2023.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'JOHN WICK : CHAPTER 4' this week, and here we have the continuing saga in the 'John Wick' franchise that is once again Directed and Co-Produced by Chad Stahelski following his earlier successes with the 2014 debut in the series 'John Wick', then 2017's 'John Wick : Chapter 2' and 2019's 'John Wick : Chapter 3 - Parabellum'. Those first three films grossed globally a total US$587M off the back of combined production budgets of US$145M. Originally set for worldwide cinematic release on 21st May 2021, 'John Wick 4' was delayed first due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then Keanu Reeves's commitments with 2021's 'The Matrix Resurrections'. This film saw its World Premier in London on 6th March and was released worldwide from last week, having garnered positive critical reviews and grossed so far US$153M off the back of a US$100M production budget. 

The film opens up with the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) returning to his underground hideaway where John Wick (Keanu Reeves who also Executive Produces here) has been recovering after being shot by Winston (Ian McShane) at the end of the last film, and is in training to get back into shape so that he is best prepared to exact his revenge on the High Table. We next see John riding horseback across the desert sands of Morocco chasing after three horsemen, whom he eventually guns down, before meeting with the Elder, who sits above the High Table, and whom he also shoots dead. 

Responding to this development, the Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgard), a senior member of the High Table, summons the New York Continental Hotel Manager Winston and his concierge, Charon (Lance Reddick) to his very plush offices overlooking the city skyline and down across to the Continental. De Gramont explains to Winston that the High Table has given him unlimited resources to find and kill John Wick. He berates Winston for his failure to assassinate John when he had the chance to do so. As a consequence, De Gramont strips Winston of his duties as Manager, declares him as 'excommunicado', destroys the Continental, and shoots Charon in the chest, killing him. We next see De Gramont in Paris where he enlists Caine (Donnie Yen), a blind, retired High Table assassin, to kill his old friend John, threatening to murder his daughter if he declines, or fails to do so.

John takes refuge at the Osaka Continental Hotel, run by his long term friend Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada). De Gramont's right-hand man Chidi (Marko Zaror), supported by many High Table assassins and Caine, arrive to investigate the hotel, looking for John. Koji's daughter Akira (Rina Sawayama), the hotel's concierge, evacuates the hotel just before Chidi announces that the High Table have 'deconsecrated' it, resulting in a battle royale between Chidi's men, Koji's men, John and Akira. 

John fights through waves of armoured assassins, and a showdown with Caine is interrupted by a bounty hunter who calls himself 'Mr. Nobody' (Shamier Anderson). He helps John's escape after determining the contract money for killing him falls short of his expectations. Caine allows a wounded Akira to flee after killing her father, but upon leaving she swears to exact her revenge on Caine, to which he responds with 'I'll be waiting'. 

John returns to a snow covered New York and meets with Winston at Charon's gravesite. Winston advises John to invoke an old High Table tradition and challenge De Gramont to a duel. Winning will free him of all obligations to the High Table. The over rider is that John can only request a duel on behalf of a crime family. And so John travels to the Berlin headquarters of Ruska Roma, with whom he had severed all ties, to request readmission. His adoptive sister Katia (Natalia Tena) allows John to rejoin in exchange for dispensing with Killa (Scott Adkins), a High Table senior who murdered her father. Although Killa sets up an ambush at his nightclub with both Caine and Nobody there too, John still manages to kill him, but not before taking a beating himself, and wins back his status within Ruska Roma.

Winston takes John's formal challenge to De Gramont, who is initially dismissive of the notion but then reluctantly accepts when he realises he has no choice. As part of the deal he asks that the New York Continental be rebuilt funded in totality by the High Table, with him being reinstated as Manager, should John win, to which De Gramont reluctantly agrees.

In Paris, John and De Gramont decide the parameters of their duel in a meeting moderated by the Harbinger (Clancy Brown), the Table's emissary. De Gramont nominates Caine to fight in his place. The duel is to take place with duelling pistols on the following sunrise just after 6:00am at Sacre-Coeur, with John and Winston being executed should either fail to appear on time. 

The Bowery King arrives in Paris and meets with Winston and John to give John a weapon and a new ballistic three piece suit.

De Gramont hatches a plan to prevent John from arriving at the duel in time by placing a US$26M bounty on his head, which leads to a frenetic sequence around the Arc de Triomphe with John fighting off hordes of assassins on his way to Sacre-Coeur, including Nobody, who negotiates a bounty increase to US$40M with De Gramont when it looks as though his plan is failing. During their confrontation, John prevents Chidi from killing Nobody's dog, and so a stunned Nobody decides to abandon his pursuit of John, and subsequently kills Chidi on the steps leading up to the Sacre-Coeur. 

After Caine and Nobody assist John in the 220 steps that leads to Sacre-Coeur by taking out another horde of assassins and De Gramont's henchmen, they reach the summit just in time for the duel. Caine takes his place opposite John for the duel, while Nobody watches on from the sidelines with his trusted dog by his side. Each inflicts serious wounds on the other through two rounds of duelling, first at a distance of thirty paces then twenty paces. The third round at a distance of just ten paces, comes to a halt when Caine mortally wounds John with a shot to the gut. Demanding the right to administer the coup de grace, De Gramont immediately steps up and swaps places with Caine. However, as Gramont stands over John pointing the loaded pistol at him, Winston perks up with 'you idiot, he didn't fire his third bullet', with which John shoots and kills an unsuspecting De Gramont with his single pistol bullet cleanly in his forehead. 

The Harbinger grants Caine and John their freedoms from all obligations to the High Table, Winston is reinstated as the Continental Hotel Manager and the hotel will be rebuilt at the High Table's expense. John stands, and turns to Winston and asks that he takes him home. After collapsing on the staircase, John has a vision of his life and marriage before peacefully succumbing to his wounds. Later, back in New York, Winston and the Bowery King say their farewells to John at a gravesite where he is buried next to his late wife, Helen, with the tombstone reading John Wick, Loving Husband, next to his wife's which reads Helen Wick, Loving Wife. 

'John Wick : Chapter 4' certainly ups the ante on the action set pieces, the majestically choreographed fight sequences, the bullet ballet and the trademark gun fu that our titular action hero is renowned for. The body count, which must stretch well into the couple of hundred here all at the hands of one single man, is relentless and I have to say repetitive, with my mind wandering towards the end and thinking when will all this wrap up? And despite John getting thrown off high balconies, crashing through a second storey window and landing on a car roof below, getting hit by various cars and hurled against others and being thrown down 220 steps to land in a crumpled heap at the bottom, he seems to get up, dust himself down, and carry on with killing the bad guys with nary a scratch to show for it - like he's Superman - and maybe he is, until he's not! Including the credits (which you have to sit through if you want to catch the end credits scene) this film borders on three hours, which is easily thirty minutes longer than it needed to be, but that said it never leaves you wanting as it lurches from one action sequence to the next, to the next and so on right up to the satisfactory conclusion that for now at least, seems to put a lid on this franchise that has redefined the action genre and set the standard by which all other films of the ilk will be judged. 

'John Wick : Chapter 4' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

JOHN WICK 3 : PARABELLUM - Wednesday 15th May 2019.

I saw 'JOHN WICK 3 : PARABELLUM' at an advance screening at my local multiplex earlier in the week and here we see the third and allegedly final instalment in the 'John Wick' fast paced neo-noir action thriller film series, that launched in 2014 with 'John Wick' then its sequel in 2017 with 'John Wick : Chapter 2' and now 'Parabellum'. All three films have been Directed by Stuntman and movie maker Chad Stahelski with the first two films in the franchise grossing US$260M at the global Box Office off the back of a combined US$65M Production Budget, and positive Critical acclaim. The films title 'Parabellum' is taken from a Latin adage 'Si vis pacem, para bellum' which when translated becomes 'If you want peace, prepare for war'. The phrase is used above all to affirm that one of the most effective means to ensure peace for a people is always to be armed and ready to defend oneself. Seemingly a television series spin off titled 'The Continental' based on the characters and safe haven location for assassins and hitmen of the film series is in the works with Keanu Reeves, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch Producing. Released in the UK, the USA and in Australia last week, the film cost US$55M and has garnered positive Press.

And so following hot on the heels of the last instalment we find John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is on the run as he is being hunted down for a global US$14M open contract on his life, and for breaking a central rule - taking a life on Continental Hotel grounds. Wick's unauthorised victim was a member of the High Table - a Camorra crime lord, Santino D'Antonio, who ordered the open contract. John should have already been executed, except the Continental’s manager, Winston (Ian McShane) has given him a one-hour grace period before he’s officially declared 'excommunicado' ie. membership revoked, banned from all services and cut off from other members. In the pouring rain he runs half way across Manhattan with his trusted dog beside him, jumps in a taxi, and orders the driver to take him to the New York Public Library.

Concealed in a fake 19th Century Russian art book Wick retrieves a marker, a crucifix neck chain and five gold coins. After a brief one on one fight with an assassin looking to cash in on the cool US$14M (the 7ft3in. tall Serbian professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers, Boban Marjanovic), whom John dispenses with fairly quickly using his Russian art book, he returns the now bloodied tome to its place on the shelf, dusts himself down and promptly leaves.

Leaving the library, Wick is spotted by a group of Chinese assassins which leads them down some back streets, alleyways and eventually into a warehouse where are kept cases and cases of antique weaponry - swords, daggers, knives, axes, pistols, rifles, shotguns all neatly arranged in glass display cabinets. Here Wick takes on six or so men in very close quarter combat, and the knives are thrown thick and fast in every direction in one of the most impressive set pieces of the film series so far. Needless to say Wick survives while the others all perish from their multiple stab wounds.

Meanwhile across town, The Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) a member of The High Table, turns up at The Continental wanting to meet with Winston (Ian McShane) the Hotel Manager of the past forty years. She orders Winston to relinquish his role at The Continental within seven days for allowing Wick one hours grace period before he was declared officially excommunicado. The Adjudicator also visits The Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) because he gave Wick the seven chamber hand gun that he used to kill Santino D'Antonio on the grounds of The Continental. She delivers him the same message . . . or suffer the consequences. In the meantime Wick visits The Director (Anjelica Houston) a figure from his past who is also a member of the High Table. He hands over the crucifix necklace to her which acts as a form of currency so permitting him one wish which she is obliged to honour. Wick asks for safe passage to Casablanca.

Having arrived on a slow boat from New York to Casablanca, Wick visits a local branch of The Continental and meets with Sofia (Halle Berry) a former close friend and female assassin from his past who owes him a favour. Wick hands Sofia the 'marker' he retrieved from the library - a medallion which symbolises an unbreakable bond by one person to fulfil a task requested by another. Wick asks Sofia to honour the marker by helping him locate The Elder - the most senior member of The High Table.

After pointing a gun at Wick and some forthright words across the table, Sofia reluctantly agrees to take her former friend to see a local guy who might just be able to point Wick in the right direction. That mans name is Berrada (Jerome Flynn) who in a round about way provides Wick with the Elders location - a long walk in the desert and just when you have reached the point of exhaustion, you need to keep walking until he finds you, retorts Berrada. In exchange for this valuable, albeit cryptic, information, Berrada demands some form of compensation, which he wants in the form of one of Sofia's trusted dogs. She tells him that its out of the question, to which Berrada becomes quickly agitated and promptly shoots the dog. Luckily for the dog, it was wearing a bullet proof vest which also conceals a pistol. With the help of her two trained canine friends who are adept at biting, gnawing, leaping, running and jumping, Sofia and Wick fight their way out of the heavily fortified building in another bullet ballet set piece before venturing in to the desert.

Having honoured her 'marker', Sofia leaves Wick to continue his long walk in the desert alone, through the day and the night before collapsing due to exhaustion sometime the next day under the blistering sun. Needless to say John is found face down in the sand by a passing traveller and taken unconscious draped over the back of a camel to The Elder's lavish Bedouin like tent. The Elder (Said Taghmaoui) gives John a choice. He can either die or accept a mission to kill Winston, the long term Manager of The Continental and Wick's friend and ally, on behalf of The High Table in exchange for the removal of the bounty on his head which has subsequently been upped to US$15M. John accepts the mission and as a show of his commitment to The High Table, severs his ring finger and hands his wedding ring to The Elder.

While all of this going on, The Adjudicator recruits an assassin, Zero (Mark Dacascos), and his gang to act as enforcers for The High Table. They visit both The Bowery King and The Director, kill several of their henchmen before inflicting physical punishment on both of them as a consequence for helping Wick. Wick arrives back in New York minus a finger but donning a brand new suit of clothes. He is confronted almost immediately by Zero and his gang but manages to escape on a motorcycle. After killing the pursuing motorcycle riding gang members in another impressive chase and be killed set piece, Wick is followed in hot pursuit by Zero to The Continental where Wick takes sanctuary by placing his hand on the bottom step leading to the entrance of the Hotel.

Wick speaks with Winston who tells him he is aware that he is there to kill him. The Adjudicator arrives, however, Wick refuses to carry out the kill order and Winston refuses to surrender his position at the Hotel. Consequently, The Adjudicator declares The Continental as 'deconsecrated' with immediate effect, so permitting killing on the premises once again, before requesting an armed unit of killers elite from The High Table to converge on the Hotel armed to the teeth to take down Winston and Wick once and for all.

It's not long before two bus loads of heavily armed and armoured men with night vision eye wear and bullet proof everything converge on The Continental. With the help of the hotel's Concierge Charon (Lance Reddick), John takes on The High Table's forces inside the hotel with Winston's blessing and full and unhindered access to the hotel's private armoury, which contains all the latest cutting edge weaponry. 

Ultimately Wick, Charon, and various hotel staffers defeat the High Tables own private army, before Wick is confronted by Zero's gang once again. Wick eventually overcomes the two gang members in a fierce hand to hand, toe to toe, head to head battle royale eventually overcoming the pair, before facing off against Zero in the hotel's glass encased boardroom and killing him.

Seeing from her own private suite within the confines of The Continental that her now largely dead or dying team are no match for the one man army that is John Wick, The Adjudicator contacts Winston and offers to negotiate. Eventually she agrees to allow Winston to remain at The Continental, but states that Wick remains problematical. At a roof top meeting, Winston shoots Wick several times at close range. He falls from the roof of the hotel several storeys to the streets below. A short time later they observe Wick's body is gone, though Winston casually assures The Adjudicator that he won't get far. Wick's dog runs out of the hotel and catches up with the Tick Tock Man (Jason Mantzoukas), one of the Bowery King's men, who has retrieved Wick in a shopping trolley and brings him to the heavily scarred Bowery King - stitched up from the seven deep and potentially life threatening scars inflicted by The Adjucators enforcers. The Bowery King speaks to the injured, but still breathing Wick, saying just how pissed off he is with the antics of the High Table, and both express a desire to take it down once and for all.

I enjoyed 'John Wick Chapter 3' as much as I did the previous two instalments. This is a no holds barred fast paced in yer face actioner that owes its success to the vision of the stuntman turned Director Chad Stahelski as it does to the hard hitting keeping it real lead Keanu Reeves, who proves once again his action acting chops knows no equal, other than perhaps Tom Cruise. The action comes thick and fast and every fight sequence is choreographed in spectacular bloody, violent and creative fashion to the Nth degree. The antagonists succumb to Wick's ire in all manner of inventive ways - whether its death by book, by horse, by motorcycle, bullet, cartridge, knife, sword or axe the body count just keeps on rising and really makes you wonder how John Wick can possibly survive such a relentless and unforgiving physical onslaught - but he does, and that's what we pay our coin to see. And then of course there is the occasional gesture or one liner that adds a hint of humour to bring the action and gratuitous violence right back down to Earth. For sheer action escapism, high body count, expertly choreographed creative fight and chase sequences, and gun fu and knife play aplenty backed up by a strong supporting cast, you can't go much further than 'John Wick Chapter 3 : Parabellum' . . . . and the dog is pretty cute too! For lovers of the genre, catch it on the big screen - you won't be disappointed.

'John Wick : Parabellum' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-