{"id":673521,"date":"2025-06-05T01:15:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T22:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/from-the-world-of-john-wick-ballerina-review-ana-de-armas-slays-in-a-hard-charging-spinoff-that-makes-for-a-mindless-summer-treat\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T01:15:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T22:15:17","slug":"from-the-world-of-john-wick-ballerina-review-ana-de-armas-slays-in-a-hard-charging-spinoff-that-makes-for-a-mindless-summer-treat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/from-the-world-of-john-wick-ballerina-review-ana-de-armas-slays-in-a-hard-charging-spinoff-that-makes-for-a-mindless-summer-treat\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018From the World of John Wick: Ballerina\u2019 Review: Ana de Armas Slays in a Hard-Charging Spinoff That Makes for a Mindless Summer Treat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a21e37e426e4\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a21e37e426e4\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/from-the-world-of-john-wick-ballerina-review-ana-de-armas-slays-in-a-hard-charging-spinoff-that-makes-for-a-mindless-summer-treat\/#From_the_World_of_John_Wick_Ballerina\" >From the World of John Wick: Ballerina<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tYou\u2019ve got to love Anjelica Huston, wearing pounds of power jewelry and Cher-strength makeup as a Ruska Roma crime queen known only as \u201cThe Director,\u201d putting a young ballet student through her pirouette paces until her toes have bled clean through her satin pointe shoes. \u201cTend to your wounds before you get sepsis and we have to cut off your feet,\u201d the Director intones in a lugubrious Belarusian accent. If the dizzying crescendo of intricately choreographed fight scenes is the main attraction in <em>Ballerina<\/em>, it\u2019s those occasional moments of dry humor that make it a welcome extension of the <em>John Wick<\/em> universe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tDirector Len Wiseman and screenwriter Shay Hatten don\u2019t try to reinvent the wheel, which turns out to be a good thing in a movie that switches out its protagonist but otherwise is very much of a piece with the previous four films in the high-intensity gun fu franchise, which has grossed north of $1 billion worldwide.<\/p>\n<div class=\"review-summary-card\">\n<div class=\" lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-a-125 u-background-color-honey-light \">\n<div class=\"lrv-u-flex lrv-u-flex-direction-column u-width-275@tablet u-border-b-1@mobile-max u-border-r-1@tablet u-border-dotted lrv-u-margin-r-150 lrv-u-padding-r-150 lrv-u-margin-r-00@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-r-00@mobile-max lrv-u-padding-b-125@mobile-max lrv-u-margin-b-075@mobile-max\">\n<h3 id=\"title-of-a-story\" class=\"c-title  lrv-u-font-family-primary u-font-size-34 u-font-size-38@desktop-xl lrv-u-line-height-small lrv-u-margin-b-125 \"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"From_the_World_of_John_Wick_Ballerina\"><\/span>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tFrom the World of John Wick: Ballerina\t\t<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase lrv-u-font-family-accent lrv-u-font-weight-bold lrv-u-color-brand-primary lrv-u-font-size-16 lrv-u-display-block\">The Bottom Line<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-span  u-font-size-22@tablet u-font-style-italic lrv-u-font-family-secondary\"><\/p>\n<p>\tEveryone understands the assignment.<br \/>\n\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<strong>Release date<\/strong>: Friday, June 6<br \/><strong>Cast<\/strong>: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, Keanu Reeves, David Casta\u00f1eda, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Anne Parillaud, Abraham Popoola<br \/><strong>Director<\/strong>: Len Wiseman<br \/><strong>Screenwriter<\/strong>: Shay Hatten, based on characters created by Derek Kolstad<br \/><span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRated R,<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2 hours 5 minutes\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIf you\u2019re worried about missing Keanu Reeves\u2019 monotonal delivery as the taciturn hitman, fear not. He stops by just long enough to waste a bunch of would-be killers and drop a few uninflected buzzwords like \u201cchoice,\u201d \u201crules\u201d and \u201cconsequences.\u201d John also reconfirms his fidelity to well-tailored black-on-black business attire by showing that outerwear is not a requirement, even in a snow-covered Alpine village with winds coming off a glacial lake.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAbly stepping in for Keanu\u2019s John is another elite assassin trained by the Ruska Roma, Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), a character first glimpsed in <em>John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum<\/em>. In between those punishing ballet classes, Eve is kept busy by chief instructor Nogi (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) with shooting and martial arts training until she\u2019s taking down guys twice her size on the mats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tHer shared heritage with Wick \u2014 who was raised by surrogate mother the Director as Jardani Jovonovich \u2014 is evident in their matching Latin back tattoos. His reads \u201cFortis Fortuna Adiuvat\u201d (\u201cFortune Favors the Bold\u201d), while hers is \u201cLux in Tenebris\u201d (\u201cLight in Darkness\u201d), complemented later with the addition of a winged angel bound to a cross. Like John, she also earns a nickname out of Slavic folklore: He\u2019s \u201cBaba Yaga,\u201d she\u2019s \u201cKikimora,\u201d a spirit who can be avenger or protector. (I kept wondering who\u2019s next: \u201cTinky Winky?\u201d \u201cChimichanga?\u201d)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tYou\u2019d be forgiven for thinking this all sounds like it was struck a little too schematically from the John Wick template. But you really want a radical reimagination of a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> that has consistently delivered and has never pretended to be anything more than it is?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tMany of us have been waiting for de Armas to sink her teeth into a substantial action role since her brief but tantalizing <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>earance as Cuban CIA agent Paloma in <em>No Time to Die<\/em>. She gets ample opportunity to make good on that promise here as a hardened but still vulnerable woman, as formidable in brutal mano a mano clashes as she is with a gun \u2014 as well as a whole range of ad hoc weaponry, including an ice pick, a grenade belt, a katana sword, a mallet, a TV remote, a firehose, a pair of ice skates and a flamethrower. De Armas followed Reeves\u2019 lead by throwing herself into the fight training and doing as many of her own stunts as possible, helping to maintain the adrenaline rush that has always distinguished this series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tHatten keeps the story simple, going back almost to the kind of kill-or-be-killed basics that made the first film, 2014\u2019s <em>John Wick<\/em>, such a solid base on which to build. Whereas John sets out for revenge after thugs kill the dog that was a final gift from his late wife, Eve wants those responsible to pay for the death of her father Javier (David Casta\u00f1eda), when she was just a child.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWhile both Charon (Lance Reddick in his last screen role) and Winston (Ian McShane) \u2014 respectively the concierge and owner of the New York Continental Hotel, home away from home for contract killers \u2014 are back, there\u2019s mercifully much less of all that self-serious High Table arcana and Blood Oath Markers. Though of course the tattooed switchboard operators at HQ, posting updates on the bounty board, make an appearance or two.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tEve\u2019s traumatic childhood loss is seen in an exciting opening sequence, in which divers with crossbows emerge from the sea and promptly wipe out guards at a splendid coastal villa. Ushering the young Eve (Victoria Comte) into a hiding place and reminding her she knows the drill, Javier proceeds to off most of the hit team with the quick-thinking skills of a trained killer and explosives expert. He comes close to defeat, when he\u2019s overpowered and given a grave choice by a shady figure known as the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne). But he regains the upper hand and gets Eve out of there, though not without sustaining a fatal bullet wound.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tEve is placed by Winston in the care of the Director, who recognizes the killer instinct forged out of pain and anger as the girl matures. Her first mission is to thwart an abduction plot. She aces the assignment in vintage franchise fashion by neutralizing wave upon wave of Asian gangsters who come at her with agile moves that seem to run the gamut from Muay Thai through Wushu and Ninjutsu to Silat. (Series creators Derek Kolstad and Chad Stahelski have always owed a debt to the fist-and-foot mayhem of <em>The Raid<\/em> and its sequel.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tUnsurprisingly, the setting is a dance club bathed in eye-searing neon and the clash is accompanied by thumping techno music, deftly integrated into Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard\u2019s pulse-pounding synth score (along with an occasional whisper of Tchaikovsky\u2019s <em>Swan Lake<\/em>). But the moody nightscapes pierced by saturated primary colors that have characterized much of the series give way to a different palette when the action shifts from the Continental in New York and then Prague to the picturesque Austrian village of Hallstatt, which turns out to be a kind of retirement community for killers, presided over by the Chancellor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tWhen an X seared into the wrist of a foiled assassin triggers memories of her father\u2019s death, Eve goes to the Director for more intel. She learns that the mark identifies members of a cult who kill both for business and sport and have maintained a truce with the Ruska Roma for centuries. But Eve will not be deterred \u2014 neither by the Director\u2019s orders nor Winston\u2019s advice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tIt\u2019s fun for a change to see a woman at the center of so much death and destruction \u2014 Eve seems barely able to step into an establishment without leaving major wreckage and a body pileup in her wake. This is notably the case when she visits the elaborate emporium of high-end arms dealer Frank (an amusing Abraham Popoola), and even more so in a kitschy Hallstatt restaurant, where Eve learns never to trust a beer hall wench. De Armas doesn\u2019t make the mistake of looking too composed, or making the vigorous smackdowns look effortless. She sweats and grunts and winces in pain, though it\u2019s pretty astonishing how many violent body-slams she can take without breaking her back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tHatten\u2019s script throws family conflicts at her, with unexpected relations popping out of the woodwork, and she feels a kinship with Daniel Pine (Norman Reedus), a fugitive from the X cult he married into, who, like Eve\u2019s father, wants to give his preteen daughter Ella (Ava McCarthy) a normal life. But the Chancellor doesn\u2019t respond well to defections, especially those involving children, whom he regards as his own clay to mold. Not only does he unleash an entire township of killers on Eve, but she has to contend with a lethal emissary of the very pissed Director, too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tThe fundamental difference between the <em>John Wick<\/em> films and <em>Ballerina<\/em> is that John won his freedom and spent four movies trying to escape his dark past, while Eve embraces it, showing no sign of hanging up her assassin\u2019s hat in a final scene that clearly suggests a sequel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tAs a protagonist, Eve doesn\u2019t have the droll Zen vibe of Reeves\u2019 John, showing her rage in a more obvious death stare, and she loses the tutu early, making the title seem somewhat arbitrary. But de Armas is a magnetic presence with all the right moves, and Wiseman\u2019s muscular direction \u2014 along with DP Romain Lacourbas\u2019 sleek visuals and an unrelenting pace that never lets up on the violence for long \u2014 make for mindless summer action entertainment with a lot of style.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/movies\/movie-reviews\/from-the-world-of-john-wick-ballerina-review-ana-de-armas-1236255035\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve got to love Anjelica Huston, wearing pounds of power jewelry and Cher-strength makeup as a Ruska Roma crime queen known only as \u201cThe Director,\u201d putting a young ballet student through her pirouette paces until her toes have bled clean through her satin pointe shoes. \u201cTend to your wounds before you get sepsis and we&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":673522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/bolero-unit-240403-00841rc5-H-2025.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[59928,150442,148876,107482,89997,5204,2707,100929,31998],"class_list":["post-673521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-ana-de-armas","tag-anjelica-huston","tag-ballerina","tag-gabriel-byrne","tag-ian-mcshane","tag-john-wick","tag-keanu-reeves","tag-lance-reddick","tag-norman-reedus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}