2020-2029, Film Review

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina (2025)

Posted on June 9, 2025July 14, 2025 by Martin: Through the Silver Screen

**© Lionsgate, Summit Entertainment, Thunder Road Films and 87Eleven Entertainment**

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina – Film Review

Cast: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Lance Reddick, Norman Reedus, Ian McShane, Keanu Reeves

Director: Len Wiseman

Synopsis: After being trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma organisation, an assassin sets out on a quest for revenge after her father was murdered…

Review: It is incredible to think that a film about a man who embarks on a violent and personal mission to exact revenge on the goons who killed a puppy, a gift from his beloved late wife, could spawn such an enthralling and gritty action franchise. Taking a close look at the murky criminal underworld and a network of assassins with hotels all around the world for these assassins to rest in between jobs, all while allowing its titular hero to find endlessly creative ways to eliminate those who wronged him. Yet, after four films that have shot and stabbed their way to a billion dollars at the worldwide box office, and a spin-off TV show about the New York Continental. However, the time has come for the passing of the torch and for a new central figure to pirouette her way to take the limelight, that the Baba Yaga has carried so successfully.

Set between the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum and Chapter 4, Eve Macarro (de Armas) is a ballerina turned assassin who has been training in the traditions of the Ruska Roma for over a decade after her father was murdered when she was a young girl. After a decade of gruelling training, Eve graduates from the programme and is sent out on missions by the Ruska Roma’s uncompromising and strict director (Huston). Yet, the whole time, the thought of getting back at those who were responsible for her father’s murder is never far from her mind. When she comes across a clue that could lead her to them, she defies the director’s orders and sets off on her quest for revenge, and no one is going to stand in her way from getting to the bottom of who killed her father.

Anyone who saw 2021’s No Time to Die will know that when de Armas’s CIA agent Paloma meets Bond to infiltrate a meeting of the nefarious SPECTRE and fend off their goons, it delivered one of the film’s most exhilarating sequences. Despite a scandalously brief amount of screentime, she certainly left her mark on the franchise, and probably several of those SPECTRE goons, when she kicked their arses. Opportunities arose for her to develop that impressive turn alongside 007, but they never quite materialised. Thankfully, this is the one that doesn’t waste her talent and, much like Mr Wick, allows her to showcase her incredible action skills and get inventive in how she takes down her enemies. Flamethrower? Check. Grenades? Check. Ice skate blade? Check. Hell hath no fury like a woman on a deeply personal mission of revenge, and de Armas commits to the physicality of the role and does the majority of her own stunts in tremendous style.

The Wick universe is synonymous with slickly directed and stylish action scenes, where bad guys are dispatched in a violent and brutal fashion. Even with some reported reshoots helmed by franchise veteran Chad Stahelski, Len Wiseman brings an experienced hand to them. Yet for a female-led spin-off, it is a massive missed opportunity to not have a woman assume the responsibility of director. Shay Hatten’s script is surface-level at best when it comes to providing Eve with a sufficient amount of depth beyond her mission. You want to root for her, given the personal nature of her quest for revenge. Despite slotting in seamlessly as a spin-off to the underworld established by the first four John Wick films, the script does her a disservice, as she is explicitly told to “fight like a girl” by Ruska Roma teacher Nogi (Duncan-Brewster).

In a world where numerous badass female assassins have gone toe-to-toe with their male counterparts, and especially given what we know de Armas is capable of as an action star, it’s counterproductive and works against establishing Eve as a force to be reckoned with in this universe. This is not something she explicitly needs to be told when preparing for her missions. Perhaps a female director would have enabled the action to stand proudly on its own two feet, but instead, it cannot escape the shadow of Keanu Reeves’ legendary hitman. Speaking of Mr Wick, his appearance here could have been nothing more than a gratuitous cameo for the sake of nothing more than fan service, but he does serve a purpose in Eve’s revenge mission against the Chancellor (Byrne). An antagonist for Eve to confront for the pain he’s caused her, but he could have been so much more and is ultimately given paper-thin depth and development and pales in comparison to the villains of the John Wick films.

Checking back in to this brutal world of legendary hitman and bloody revenge is always a welcome one, especially as it represents our final chance to bid farewell to the late Lance Reddick as the concierge Charon. However, despite de Armas’s best efforts to twirl, shoot, and stab her way through as many bad guys as she can, as entertaining as these moments are, they don’t quite reach the heights of the films that have come before it. Still, there is definitely room for further expansion, and hopefully Eve Macarro will get her chance in the future to establish herself as a force to be reckoned with in the same breath as the Baba Yaga.

Ballerina is at its most exhilarating when Ana de Armas is tearing through bad guys through any means at her disposal, but ultimately, the spin-off doesn’t quite hit the heights set by the previous entries in the franchise.

2010-2019, Film Review

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)

Posted on May 18, 2019May 18, 2019 by Martin: Through the Silver Screen

**Image is property of Lionsgate and Thunder Road Pictures**

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum – Film Review

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Halle Berry, Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Mark Dacascos, Asia Kate Dillon, Lance Reddick, Anjelica Huston

Director: Chad Stahelski

Synopsis: With a $14million bounty now on his head after breaking Continental rules, John Wick is on the run with nowhere to go, and in the crosshairs of every hit-man and woman in the world….

Review: There’s a moment early on in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum where a character seethes at John Wick for the hell his actions have wrought, “all of this for what?! Because of a puppy?!” “It wasn’t just a puppy,” Wick retorts back. The aforementioned “this” refers to the carnage that has followed since a bunch of ill-judged thugs killed the dog bequeathed to John Wick upon the death of his wife. An event that sent the legendary hitman on a furious rampage of revenge. After said rampage ended, a commitment to a contract once again landed Wick in another spot of bother, and now all hell is about to break loose.

Set immediately in the wake of the previous film, John has been declared “ex-communicado” from the Continental after he violated one of the unbreakable rules of the Continental, by murdering someone on company grounds. Consequently, the High Table has placed a 14 million dollar open contract on John’s head, that soon has every deadly assassin in the world on his trail. The hunter has become the hunted, but God help anyone that does decide to try their hand at taking down Baba Yaga himself.

**Neigh chance that the bad guys are living through this one…**

Keanu Reeves has made his name as an action star, and once again, he excels in this role. It is undoubtedly one of the key appeals of these films is to see an action star like him, commit to doing some jaw dropping stunts, whilst also getting to see him kill folks, via any means necessary. In this instance, given that he has quite a few people who are out for his blood in a bid to land that 14million dollar jackpot, it gives returning director Chad Stahelski scope to once again gleefully find ways for Wick to creatively finish off his pursuers. The direction is once again imperious and in a series that has already produced mesmerising action scenes, fights involving dogs, horses and other methods ensure that the bonkers factor has been turned up to eleven.

Alongside Reeves, the familiar presence of Ian McShane’s Winston, is suave as ever. The real scene stealers in this new instalment are the women. Halle Berry, who leapt at the opportunity to be a part of the franchise, plays Sofia, a femme fatale with a connection to Wick’s past. Though she frustratingly doesn’t have a great deal of screen-time, when she is on screen, she damn well makes her presence known. Likewise for Asia Kate Dillion, a cold and ruthless representative of the High Table, who’s there to ensure that John Wick pays the penalty for his actions. Unfortunately, as the film is so top heavy with action, that the surrounding story lacks the deeply personal element that the first two films had in abundance. As such, the moments in between the enthralling actions scenes where the bullets/knives aren’t raining down on the bad guys, do feel a little tedious.

The lack of real emotional drama gives the other two films the edge over Parabellum. However, in spite of this being not as strong as the other two films, you have got to give the plaudits to Stahelski and the stunt teams of these films. The action scenes have been its big selling point from the very first film, and in this respect, they have consistently delivered. Furthermore, for an actor who is now well into his fifties, you’ve also got to hand it to Reeves for committing himself to the role that has reaffirmed him as one of the best action stars working today. If you want peace, prepare for war, or at least some bloody good action scenes, because that’s what Mr Wick, suited, booted, significantly bloodied and bruised, will give to you.

Packed to the brim with thrilling action scenes, but a significantly weaker story bereft of the emotional drama of the previous films prevents this sequel from firing on all cylinders.

2010-2019, Film Review

Hellboy (2019)

Posted on April 19, 2019July 17, 2019 by Martin: Through the Silver Screen

**Image is property of Lionsgate, Summit Entertainment and** **Millennium** **Media**

Hellboy – Film Review

Cast: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, Thomas Haden Church

Director: Neil Marshall

Synopsis: When an Ancient evil sorceress seeks to establish a dark and terrible dominion over humanity, the task of stopping her falls to the one and only Hellboy…

Review: Reboots are all the rage in Hollywood these days, but when any effort is made to reboot a franchise, it can be a very tricky minefield to negotiate. If done right, there’s potential to win an army of new fans to a franchise. On the other hand, when done badly, it serves as a painful reminder to why sometimes a reboot should never have come to fruition, and instead should have stayed in (development) hell where it belongs.

Having been previously brought to the screen on two occasions by Guillermo del Toro, the opportunity for the visionary director to complete his trilogy never materialised. As a result, we now have a new iteration of the half man, half demon, with David Harbour stepping into the horns, vacated by Ron Perlman. We find ourselves in present day with the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (BPRD) under the stewardship of Professor Bruttenholm (McShane) who, along with Hellboy find themselves in the middle of a supernatural war. The villainous Blood Queen (Jovovich) seeks to subject humanity to the darkness under her tyrannical rule, and of course, the task of stepping up and taking her down, falls to our Demon friend.

**“Not even a gun this big can save this shitshow!”**

By far and away, the saving (of sorts) grace of this film is David Harbour’s take on Hellboy. He tries his best, through all his red make-up, to be charismatic and humorous. It’s just a shame then than that the film surrounding him is just a complete catastrophe. From the get go, the screenplay is shambolic, with seemingly no thought whatsoever given to structuring it in a coherent manner. We’re introduced to this supernatural conflict, via some exposition of the quite vulgar variety. From there, the plot just zips along from scene to scene with no time to actually work out what is even happening and why. Furthermore, for the overwhelming majority of the dialogue, the delivery is completely atrocious. The writers seemed to have been playing a game of how many times can we say the word “fuck”, with no nuance, or any particular reason why. It becomes very tiresome very quickly, and this is all within the first act of the film!

Harbour’s performance is the best of a very bad bunch, which is frustrating because there are actors here who have proven themselves to be better than this diabolical material, but when the screenplay is this atrocious, that doesn’t help matters. For instance, Ian McShane has proven himself capable in franchises like John Wick, here you can just tell how much he is phoning it in, likewise for Milla Jovovich’s villain who’s as generic as they come, and there’s a monstrous villain with a Liverpudlian accent. It all just makes no sense whatsoever and defies logic how all of it got approved in the first place. Sasha Lane is another talented actor who has proven her talents in other projects. There is intrigue to her character, but when the execution is just so extremely sloppy across the board and there’s next to no development to these characters, you don’t give a salty shit whether they live or die.

There’s various different ways that violence in films can be accomplished, you can go for the aesthetic route (see the works of Quentin Tarantino) or you could do what the filmmakers here do and go horror film-esque gore, with copious amounts of blood and limbs getting severed left, right and centre. They seemingly making the decision to see just how many people they can kill in two hours and in the most gruesome fashions. It’s just gratuitous and serves no purpose to the advancement of the story, and neither does some of the abysmal CGI. Extremely choppy editing, and the action scenes are migraine inducing, which given Neil Marshall’s portfolio, including two masterfully directed episodes of Game of Thrones, leaves so much to be desired.

Everything about this film should serve as a strong reminder studios that if you’re going to take on a reboot, make sure that you do it right, because otherwise the world is going to be filled with more grotesque abominations like this. For fans of this character, there’s always del Toro’s films to fall back on, and based on this monstrosity, it’s a hell of shame that he was never given the chance to complete his trilogy.

A dreadful, incoherent screenplay combined with ridiculously excessive violence, ensures that this reboot is a mess of satanic proportions that belongs in the deepest depths of cinematic Hell.

2010-2019, Film Review

John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)

Posted on October 17, 2017June 10, 2025 by Martin: Through the Silver Screen

**Image is property of Lionsgate, Summit Entertainment and Thunder Road Pictures**

John Wick: Chapter 2 – Film Review

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio, Laurence Fishburne, Common, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, Ruby Rose

Director: Chad Stahelski

Synopsis: John Wick now seeks to retire from the assassin lifestyle. However, after taking what he hopes to be one last mission, it places a rather large bounty on his head.

Review: There is just something about Keanu Reeves as an action star that just ticks all the right boxes. You look at his portfolio with the likes of Speed and The Matrix immediately jump to mind. Perhaps more recently, though, was his reinvigorating turn as the hitman you dare not cross with, John Wick. Managing to be something more than just your stereotypical hitman being a badass, the first film was a breath of fresh air into a genre that was rapidly becoming a bit stale, and so it was no surprise to see Keanu suit up as the Bogeyman (as he’s affectionately known) once again.

This time, thankfully for all the animal lovers out there. no one is after his pets. Instead, John plans to retire, but a debt he owes to a former associate, D’Antonio (Scarmacio) drags him back into the assassin underworld once more. Things go even further awry for John when he finds out that a large bounty has been put on his head, which means John must go after those who have got him in this sticky situation while trying to not get killed by the swarms that are now hot on his trail. For a while, things look as though maybe going down a similar path that the sequel walked. Though soon enough there are bullets flying and people dying, the plot manages to keep things fresh and moving along at an energising pace.

**Time for you all to say your prayers…**

With former stuntman Stahelski returning to direct, this time sans David Leitch, the action is once again filmed to look as elegant and extremely stylish as possible. Given that Wick is a man of few words, who prefers let bullets and fist do the talking for him, and in true sequel style, there is plenty more action. By consequence, more bullets and the blood will flow, and the blood CERTAINLY flows all right with Wick’s aim always on point throughout. For those who love action films, these action scenes are just so enthralling.

As spectacular as he was in the first film, Reeves is once again in spectacular form as the eponymous hitman, it’s a role he commits to and it’s evident he’s having a blast throughout. Riccardo Scamarcio as D’Antonio gets the job done as your new sort of slimy, untrustworthy associate, and Ian McShane as the suave Continental owner Winston remains as enjoyable to watch as he invariably is. And of course, the ever-great Laurence Fishburne has a small but significant role to play, bringing about a glorious Matrix reunion.

With the inner workings of this underground hitman bubble explored in more detail, it was refreshing to see the sequel not just retread the original film step by step, and try to freshen things up, as a sequel should. Though there are elements that do feel very familiar, it is hard to complain when you have an action star that commits to the role like Reeves does. Do not mess with the Bogeyman, cos he will come for you, and he WILL take you down if you piss him off.

As action packed as its predecessor, and just as stylish in terms of the slick action scenes, and Keanu Reeves being a complete and total badass, what more could you want?

2010-2019, Film Review

John Wick (2015)

Posted on February 9, 2017June 10, 2025 by Martin: Through the Silver Screen

John Wick – Film Review

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Alfie Allen, Michael Nvqist, Adrianne Palicki, Bridget Moynahan, Dean Winters, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, Willem Dafoe

Directors: Chad Stahelski and David Leitch

Synopsis: John Wick is a former hitman who after falling in love seeks to leave the profession behind. After a brutal attack by some gangsters that takes those closest to him, he decides to suit up and take revenge.

Review: Cinema is not exactly short of complete badasses who can and will come after you, and kill you without mercy should you mess with them. The likes of James Bond, Ethan Hunt and Jason Bourne, or the Bride from the Kill Bill movies are a few names that might come to mind. Yet back in 2015, another name was added to that list of characters, who you dare not cross, this man’s name, is John Wick. Cross him at your peril, especially if you harm his pets, as he will rain a few hundred bullets in your direction.

john wick

Keanu Reeves is no stranger to the action genre, what with The Matrix being arguably the most notable thing on his CV to date, and he’s a fitting choice to play this awesome badass hitman. He handles the stunts superbly well and as a protagonist, you just want to root for him and see him waste the bad guys. And, for first-time directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, themselves former stunt men, they know and fully understand that you came here to see Wick waste some bad guys, and they certainly deliver the goods. The action is directed superbly well, and the stunt work is faultless. What’s more, there’s no shaky camera work of any kind. It’s all in the frame and all there for you to watch in all of its bloody glory as the bodies pile up.

Visually, the film is super stylish and everything is very well made, the lighting in some scenes is exquisite and it is edited together seamlessly. It is gripping stuff to watch, even if certain aspects of the plot are so paper-thin. This is not an in-depth character study, this is just a good old-fashioned action flick, in which you throw popcorn in your face and enjoy the action. That being said, besides Wick, there’s not a great deal of character development, and there definitely could have been some more meat on the bones of these characters, their motivations, and why they do what they do.

The acting is functional from everyone involved except for Keanu of course, who stands out as a cut above the rest, as he should. But again, this is no Oscar-bait movie driven by its screenplay, this is not what you came for. You come to see one man fight bad guys, and that is what you get. What’s more, with this fantastic introduction to this sort of hitmen underworld of hitmen hotels, bars and doctors etc might all sound ridiculous and dumb, but it most certainly is not! With Stahelski returning for the movie’s sequel and Leitch going off to direct the sequel to Deadpool, there’s plenty more to come from these two, and plenty more from Mr Wick too!