FILM REVIEW: BALLERINA (15) ESP RATING: 3.5/5

It’s pleasing to proclaim that this isn’t The Bourne Legacy of the John Wick series.

With reports of re-shoots and production issues, this spin-off from the tagged ‘World of John Wick’ is more than a worthy addition to the franchise canon.

And – as mentioned above – fortunately Ana De Armas’ (Knives Out) ballerina-trained assassin Eve Macarro, is far more serviceable than the Jeremy Renner-led Bourne entry. As just one example.

It does admittedly open as a very familiar vengeance tale. Eve’s father – trying to give her an upbringing from his shady past – is found by Gabriel Byrne’s (The Usual Suspects) The Chancellor, the leader of a dangerous cult of assassins based in the Austrian Alps and his team, and is murdered.

She escapes, gets discovered by Ian McShane’s enigmatic owner of the New York Continental Hotel, Winston Scott, and then gets mentored by Anjelica Huston’s The Director, who heads the Ruska Roma, an organisation of ballerina assassins.

Fast forward a dozen or so years, Eve is now completely trained as a lethal killer – with several months of missions under her belt – but when she kills a ‘cultist’ with links to the assassination of her father, she goes ‘off piste’ to track them down. Directly disobeying the direct orders of the Ruska Roma, due to a longstanding truce between them and the Cult.

This leads to Eve – in a very female John Wick fashion – tracking down the group via Prague, and inflicting her own brand of brutal revenge. Which does include some really impressive action set-pieces, and some very inventive killings in the process. You’ll never look at a grenade or a flamethrower in quite the same way again.

And talking of Wick, Keanu Reeves does make a cameo (he’s in it for no more than five minutes total) for continuity purposes – or to at least raise the profile of the movie – but doesn’t detract rom de Armas, who you do end up rooting for. Deadly, despite her girl-next-door appearance.

Due the sensationally-iconic original film, which spawned three very well-received sequels – this is actually set between parts three and four – Ballerina comes a shade behind John Wick 2 (arguably the weakest of the four previous Wick films, which is open to conjecture), but does enough to earn plenty of plaudits – and be a worthy series entry in its own right.

Whether de Armas’ likeable Eve will pirouette into another standalone outing – or even appear in John Wick 5 – only time will tell, as she strived to reach a very high bar that had been previously set.

But she definitely gave it a ‘bloody good go’ with this admirable outing.

ESP Rating: 3.5/5

Gavin Miller

Showcase Cinema De Lux Peterborough & ODEON Luxe Peterborough, Out Now

Cast: Ana De Armas, Gabriel Byrne, Ian McShane, Anjelica Houston, Norman Reedus, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Lance Reddick & Keanu Reeves

Running Time: 2 Hrs 5 Mins

Director: Len Wiseman

Film Review Venue: Showcase Cinema De Lux Peterborough

For all the latest film information & showtimes at Peterborough’s Showcase Cinema De Lux & ODEON Luxe cinemas go to www.showcasecinemas.co.uk and www.odeon.co.uk