Ana de Armas learns to ‘fight like a girl' in John Wick spin-off
(MA) 125 minutes
Rumours of a fifth John Wick film, with Keanu Reeves returning as the world's favourite globetrotting, puppy-loving assassin, remain just rumours for the moment. Meanwhile, Ballerina is being marketed as 'from the world of John Wick' meaning that the heroine Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas) is a graduate of the Ruska Roma assassin academy for young ladies, which was first seen in John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum decorously presenting itself to the world as a ballet school.
Anjelica Huston returns as the school's stern, largely deskbound director, and Reeves has what amounts to an extended cameo as Wick, who eventually becomes Eve's reluctant mentor (if you're keeping track, the action takes place in between the third and fourth Wick films).
This has its risks. If you want to watch a James Bond movie, it doesn't mean you want to watch a movie about some other charmingly lethal spy you've never heard of, while Bond stops by for 10 minutes or so to offer advice and support from a distance (nothing like this has ever happened in the past, at least not on the big screen – but we can't rule it out since Amazon now owns the rights to Bond).
Not only does this risk diluting your original brand, but it also gives the impression that you don't believe your new story and character can stand on their own two feet. In the case of Ballerina, there's some reason for this anxiety. The Wick connection aside, what we're dealing with is a very standard revenge yarn, following Eve after graduation as she heads for Europe to seek out the sinister clan that killed her father (David Castaneda).
Good action films have been based on slimmer premises, but none of it winds up being very satisfying, although there's no single reason why. The script is rather disjointed, failing to do much with either the ballerina premise or the backstory involving Eve's dad.
The director Len Wiseman isn't incompetent, but makes no attempt to match the dazzling stunt work of the Wick films at their best. Nor is De Armas the equal of Reeves as an action star (a motif introduced early on involves Eve learning to 'fight like a girl,' but this, too, is exploited less interestingly than might be hoped).
Despite all the impalings and bullets to the head, there is in the end a fatal softness to the whole enterprise: De Armas as Eve is too little the relentless force of nature, too much the worried ingenue, fronting up for her early missions with the look of a would-be entrepreneur applying for her first job at a publishing company.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News AU
2 days ago
- Sky News AU
‘Insane' James Comey mocked over ‘concerning' Taylor Swift confession
'To Di For' podcast host Kinsey Schofield mocks former FBI director James Comey after he shared a video revealing he listens to Taylor Swift as a way to cope with US President Donald Trump. 'The internet is so confused, one of my favourite comments online was I see, James Comey is lobbying for the insanity defence when criminal charges come his way,' Ms Schofield told Sky News host Rita Panahi. 'If I could steal a line from my favourite Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, James Comey needs to go to Amazon and buy some testicles. 'What grown man wants to sit around and talk about how Taylor Swift is a part of his healing process? I'm concerned.'
West Australian
3 days ago
- West Australian
How unlikely TV star Bob Odenkirk transferred his skills to become an action film hero in Nobody 2
Bob Odenkirk entered the entertainment industry as a nobody, gradually worked his way up to 'somebody' status and, now, as a nobody again, has become Hollywood's unlikeliest action hero. In the 2021 hit, Nobody, the 62-year-old played Hutch Mansell, a mild-mannered family man whose past as a former government assassin comes in handy when he's reluctantly drawn into a war with the Russian mob. Odenkirk's performance was widely praised, coming after the actor had already won a legion of fans as the unscrupulous lawyer Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, earning six lead actor Emmy nominations in the process. With Nobody 2 hitting Australian cinemas this week, Odenkirk says Hutch and Saul have some similarities. 'Somewhere around the third season of Better Call Saul I realised that they're watching this show all the way around the world,' Odenkirk says in an interview with The Sunday Times. 'And I thought, 'What can I do in the movies that could play for this audience'. And I realised Saul is hard working. He never quits. He's clever. He kind of gets knocked down, gets back up again. That's an action hero, except he's not fighting. 'I was willing to train to fight. I've enjoyed the training a lot, so it's sort of this weird, squiggly journey over into action.' That training paid off in the first film, with one particularly memorable scene in which Odenkirk's Hutch dispatches a gaggle of gangsters onboard a bus. When it comes to action sequences, it's a modern classic of the genre, which is no huge surprise given Nobody was written by Derek Kolstad and made under the auspices of David Leitch's 87North Productions, the brains behind the John Wick franchise. But Odenkirk readily admits Hutch is no John Wick. He has a different action star in mind. 'He's more Jackie Chan than John Wick,' the actor says. The comparison might have the uninitiated thinking Odenkirk veers into slapstick during his fights, but this isn't the case. Yes, Hutch might bump his head or occasionally cop a blow that's intended to land with humour, but this isn't the broad comedy of a Jackie Chan film. The violence is, well, violent. As someone who started out as a writer on Saturday Night Live, Odenkirk is a natural with the comic timing, and the rest requires visits to a stunt gym twice a week, which ramps to sessions every day when there's four months until the production starts. The punishing training regimen is necessary to pull off the 11 distinct fight sequences in Nobody 2. 'It's hard, but it's good for you to exercise that much, but it is a lot,' Odenkirk admits. 'It's like doing two workout sessions a day, and that's fine for a couple days, but when you get into a couple weeks of it, it starts to really wear you down. 'I don't usually get hurt. We do a lot of stretching and preparation. I do oftentimes get bloody hands, because you swing your arms a lot and you'll hit your hand on something and that's the most injury I've gotten from these films.' The sequel picks up the action a few years after the events of the first movie, with Hutch's family now fully aware of his former life as an assassin. Wife Becca (Gladiator's Connie Nielsen) is becoming increasingly unhappy with her husband's extracurricular activities, so, like the dutiful family man he is, Hutch decides to take his brood on a road trip to a kitsch amusement park somewhere in Smalltown America. It was the site of his happiest childhood memory, so imagine his frustration when Hutch finds the park now run by thugs in cahoots with an unhinged crime lord, played by the one and only Sharon Stone having the time of her life. 'I had met her at an awards show, the Golden Globes actually, and she seemed very nice, and she was complimentary to me,' Odenkirk recalls. 'I wrote her a note, and I said, 'Would you be willing to be a very big, broad character, because I didn't want her to come in and say, 'Hey, can we give it subtlety and can I play it more grounded'. No, not grounded. Big, broad, Bond villain level.' Stone delivered, providing the ideal foil for Hutch, who somehow becomes even more relatable in Nobody 2. 'There's all these indignities that are very common, the kinds of things everyone suffers through in their daily life,' he explains. 'When you go on a vacation, you get the wrong hotel room. The water park is closed when you get there, and you drove for five hours in the heat. You're just worn down.' So, when a local yokel in a video game arcade smacks Hutch's daughter, it's the perfect excuse to vent some of that frustration. 'It's the kind of thing in real life that could happen, but that you shouldn't respond to,' Odenkirk says. 'You shouldn't fight, but you want to. And, of course, Hutch is a guy who does fight ... and he comes back in that arcade and he punches that guy, and then he takes all the other security guys out. 'That's the beauty of Nobody 2, every dad can feel it.' It's the sort of movie that makes you want to cheer out loud in the cinema. An underdog story that proves the old adage about the size of the dog in the fight being less important than the size of the fight in the dog. And this underdog has a ton of fight. Odenkirk wouldn't have it any other way. Nobody 2 is in cinemas now.
Perth Now
5 days ago
- Perth Now
Jeff Bezos mourns mom
Jeff Bezos' mom has died. The Amazon boss has paid tribute to Jackie Bezos, with whom he co-founded the Bezos Family Foundation, after she passed away at the age of 78 'after a long fight with Lewy body dementia.' Jeff wrote on his social media accounts on Thursday (14.08.25): "Her adulthood started a little bit early when she became my mom at the tender age of 17. That couldn't have been easy, but she made it all work. "She pounced on the job of loving me with ferocity, brought my amazing dad onto the team a few years later, and then added my sister and brother to her list of people to love, guard, and nourish. For the rest of her life, that list of people to love never stopped growing. She always gave so much more than she ever asked for. "After a long fight with Lewy Body Dementia, she passed away today, surrounded by so many of us who loved her — her kids, grandkids, and my dad. I know she felt our love in those final moments. We were all so lucky to be in her life. I hold her safe in my heart forever." Jeff, 61, touchingly ended his tribute to Jackie - who is also survived by husband Mike Bezos, her other children Christina and Mark, 11 grandchildren and a great-grandchild - with a direct message to her. He wrote: "I love you, mom." Jeff's wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos was among those to comment on her spouse's post. She wrote: "We will miss her SO much. Love you [heart and broken heart emojis] (sic)" Katy Perry shared a broken heart emoji, while Sharon Stone posted: "My sincere condolences I just lost my mom too." Antonio Banderas offered condolences in a comment written in Spanish, which translated as: "My deepest sympathy to you. Much strength in these tough times.(sic)" Other stars to pay their respects in the comment section included Naomi Campbell, Miranda Kerr and designer Philipp Plein. The news was first announced by the Bezos Family Foundation, who remembered Jackie as a "devoted mother" who "always" put her kids first. They said in a statement: "She made countless trips to Radio Shack for Jeff, spent numerous hours supervising cheerleading practices with Christina, and hauled drums in the back of the family station wagon for Mark. "She dedicated her life to her family and poured her heart into raising her children with compassion, patience, and wisdom. "Jackie created a space where everyone felt safe, heard, and cared for. Whether offering a plate of food, a bit of advice or simply a listening ear, she had a remarkable way of making people feel like family. "To the countless people she touched throughout a remarkable life, Jacklyn Gise Bezos was a fierce advocate and supporter, filled with heart for others, and never accepting the status quo." In lieu of flowers, the foundation said the family asked people "to support a nonprofit organization that is meaningful to you or to perform a simple act of kindness in her memory.(sic)"
