June 2025 - Ian Thomas Malone

‘Ballerina’ review: excellent choreography proves there’s life left in the John Wick franchise

The John Wick franchise has relied on a fairly simple premise that has become quite convoluted with each passing entry. “All this over a dog,” has become short form for the ethos of the whole series. And for the most part, it’s worked, aided greatly by superb choreography and Keanu Reeves’ dedication to his craft.

From the World of John Wick: Ballerina tests the series’ formula in a major way. What is John Wick without John Wick? Set during the events of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, the film tries to gently ease its audience into its world without its major hero at the helm.

The plot is quite perfunctory. Eva Macarro (Ana de Armas, replacing Unity Phelan, who portrayed the character in Parabellum) seeks revenge on The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), who killed her father, Javier (David Castañeda). Eva is a student at the Ruska Roma organization under the tutelage of the Director (Anjelica Huston). Eva goes rogue after the Chancellor, pitting titans of the High Table against each other.

De Armas brings a lot of charm to a largely empty role. Eva’s only substantive relationship in the movie is with the Director, limiting the effectiveness of Byrne as the villain. Franchise mainstays Winston Scott (Ian McShane) and Charon (Lance Reddick, making his final on-screen appearance since his 2023) provide limited mentorship in crowd-pleaser roles.

At times, the movie feels pieced together from various strands of plot. Norman Reedus makes a limited appearance that seems more destined for another spinoff. Catalina Sandino Moreno’s role as one of The Chancellor’s bodyguards contains more complexity than was needed for such a small role. Veteran director Len Wiseman seems more than aware that his film lacks much heart at the center, but he never really commits to a vision beyond the boilerplate revenge tale.

The film does deliver on the action. Not all of the sequences are up to John Wick standards, but there are a few genuine standouts amidst the lean 125-minute runtime. The film never shakes the sense that it could have produced a better product with a few more passes at the script, but aside from a few janky special effects sequences, Ballerina manages to deliver a satisfying experience for fans of the franchise. The action is fun. There are too many flamethrowers and grenades, but many of the stunts are a joy to behold on the big screen.

Keanu Reeves is also effectively deployed. This isn’t his movie, but John Wick gets a little bit more to do than just a standard cameo. The film manages to give him a few moments without leaving its audience desperate that he doesn’t play a bigger role.

Ballerina is not a great movie, which is a shame, because the pieces are certainly there. The story just isn’t strong enough to deliver an experience on par with the mainline franchise. The film is leaps above the terrible Peacock prequel, The Continental. It’s an enjoyable time at the theater. The franchise hasn’t completely figured out the formula to thrive without Reeves, but it’s a worthy start.

‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ review: a satisfying, underwhelming conclusion to a franchise that deserved better

Written by Ian Thomas Malone, Posted in Movie Reviews, Pop Culture

The Mission: Impossible franchise has defied all Hollywood conventions for the past thirty years, the rare television adaptation to vastly outshine its source material’s cultural staying power. From the franchise’s fourth entry, Ghost Protocol, onward, Tom Cruise’s passion project has grown from a bankable action series into one of the world’s biggest franchises. Cruise’s obsession with topping himself in defiance of all aging norms is practically worth the cost of admission.

There has been a mission along the way that Cruise has not exactly chosen to accept while continuing Ethan Hunt’s adventures into his sixties. Part of the charm of the original series was its ensemble nature. Each mission needed a team. The team mattered.

The Mission film series has always had its ensemble somewhat baked into its DNA, with Ving Rhames’ Luther Stickell aiding Hunt in every iteration of the franchise (though he was limited to a cameo in Ghost Protocol). The franchise has invested more heavily in its supporting bench as it’s rolled along, most notably Simon Pegg’s Benji, who first joined the team as a minor played in Mission: Impossible III. The latest release, Final Reckoning, purportedly claims to be the final entry, containing numerous callbacks to every one of its seven predecessors.

Final Reckoning has two glaring issues that it struggles to overcome. Mission has always been Cruise’s vehicle, but the supporting cast is nearly irrelevant, leaving Hunt on his own for much of the exceedingly bloated 170-minute runtime. The supporting cast is greatly expanded even as the film finds relatively little for any of them to do. Only Hayley Atwell’s Grace truly rises above the label of window dressing. The film does carve out an attempt at a special moment for one key player, falling short due to the ridiculous nature of the narrative.

While the film is a direct follow-up to Dead Reckoning Part One, Final Reckoning takes the franchise’s lore way too seriously. There are far too many clips of previous films that bog the first act down in exposition. There’s certainly middle ground to be had between the relative stand-alone nature of the early entries and its greater lore it has built over the first two installments.

At times, Final Reckoning’s plot borders on incoherent, rarely aided by the extremes that director Christopher McQuarrie goes to explain the stunts. Cruise’s other recent big tentpole Top Gun: Maverick spent a lot of time diligently explaining its mission. The implausibility of Ethan’s stunts here are not really helped by the extent to which the film decided to educate its audience on every rule he was naturally bound to ignore. Here, Mission: Implausible gives way to Mission: Farcical.

The Entity continues to be an empty shell of a villain. The method to combat the all-powerful AI hardly passes any kind of smell test. The Entity’s human ally, Gabriel (Esai Morales), receives little character development beyond his meager introduction in Dead Reckoning Part One. This film has a weird way of simultaneously having too much going on and dragging its feet toward an inevitable end.

There are some redeeming qualities. While the stunts represent Cruise’s insatiable need to top his own absurdity, there’s no denying that the results are top-tier blockbuster entertainment. The film’s sloppy execution undercuts its suspense, but it’s still a sight to behold on the big screen.

A certain sense of suspension of disbelief is required to enjoy a franchise like Mission: Impossible. Responsibility for maintaining that balance falls on the film more than the audience. The longer Final Reckoning meanders, the more you’re bound to question the sheer nonsense that lies at the heart of an AI program that’s powerful enough to take over the world’s nuclear arsenal, that can only be stopped by a 60-year-old man and a few of his versatile buddies. This film doesn’t play to its character’s strengths at all.

The film’s saving grace lies in its ability to wrap up a franchise with relative grace. Thirty years in, Mission: Impossible is showing its age. There is ample entertainment value to be had here, but Final Reckoning is not a particularly good movie.