darkreignn

When "Ballerina" was announced, fans had one big question: Will the action measure up to "John Wick"? The answer is a resounding yes - and honestly, I could end the review right there.

What can I say? "Ballerina" delivers. Plain and simple. If you're showing up for stylish, bone-crunching, beautifully choreographed action, then you're in the right place. This time, instead of watching John Wick creatively eliminate his enemies, we follow Eve - played by Ana de Armas - as she carves her own bloody path. And trust me, she holds her own. With action sequences that are just as slick, stylish, and punishing as anything in the franchise, "Ballerina" proves it belongs in the Wick universe.

"Ballerina" touts a simple plot: Someone wrongs Eve, and she wants revenge. Familiar? Yes. Effective? Sort of. I feel like the first part of this film doesn't work as well as it wants to, especially with its paper thin plot. With pacing that is simultaneously too fast and too slow, the first act struggles to find its footing. The pacing is oddly uneven, rushing through important emotional beats that should make us care about Eve's mission, yet lingering too long on setup that isn't nearly as compelling as the film seems to think it is. The plot feels paper-thin in the early goings, offering just enough to push Eve from scene to scene but not enough to really invest us in her journey. Sure, we get a few action sequences sprinkled throughout the first half, but nothing in that stretch really stands out or hits with the kind of flair you'd expect from a John Wick-adjacent movie. It's not bad, exactly - just kind of... there. You get the sense that the movie is holding back, biding its time until it can finally cut loose. And when it does, thankfully, it kicks into gear.

As soon as Eve arrives at a specific location, "Ballerina" turns from action thriller to a borderline horror movie where Eve must go up against hordes of enemies that will stop at nothing to wipe her off the face of the earth. And as such, Eve will stop at nothing herself. At this point, "Ballerina" features some of the most breathtaking scenes of action I've seen in a long time. Samurai swords, flamethrowers, plates, knives - if it exists, Eve weaponizes it, and it's glorious to watch.

Again, what can I say? If you're looking for action, you'll find it here in what will probably be 2025's best, most stylish action film. If you're looking for story, that's where "Ballerina" kind of falls flat. But let's be real - you're not looking for story. I had a lot of fun with this as a pure vehicle for spectacular action, and if that's what you're looking for, you found it.

The first trailer for "Karate Kid: Legends" had a certain je ne sais quoi that has unfortunately proved to be misleading; teasing a sort of serious and dramatic tone that focused heavily on intense kung fu training and tournament style martial arts fight sequences, the actual film is instead a mishmash of, well, everything. Combining coming-of-age drama, teenage romance, and older adult mentorship - while also attempting to flip the script by having its young protagonist step into the role of mentor himself - before ultimately remembering it's supposed to be a Karate Kid movie and shifting gears into a more familiar kung fu training arc, followed by a last-act tournament, "Karate Kid: Legends" has a lot of narrative threads pulling in different directions, and while each concept has potential, they don't weave together into a cohesive or satisfying whole. In one word this film would be unfocused.

Let's talk about the main component of this film: teenage romance. Groan. I was extremely disappointed and slightly annoyed that the majority of this film revolved around the uninteresting will-they-won't-they romantic drama between our main character and his maybe/maybe not love interest. I genuinely enjoy coming-of-age stories (they might be my favorite genre), but this one felt awkward and unengaging. It's not that a Karate Kid movie can't explore young love, but when that subplot overshadows the martial arts - the franchise's very foundation - it feels like a bait-and-switch.

Layered on top of that is your standard-issue teen drama: the cliched, obligatory bully, the schoolyard conflicts, the emotional growing pains. We've seen it all before, and the film doesn't offer much new to the mix. The bully, in particular, feels like a plot device inserted solely to justify a tournament later on - a tournament that, frustratingly, gets very little attention until the final 15 minutes.

And that's the real letdown. When the movie does finally deliver on its martial arts promise, the fights are solid - well-edited, impactful, surprisingly violent, and clearly performed by talented fighters. But they're often delivered in montage form, flying by too quickly to leave much of an impression. The few extended sequences we do get are fun, but too sparse to satisfy the buildup.

I don't know. I really wanted to like this. I thought I would like it. But what I got was something far more juvenile and watered-down than expected - a film that feels less like a continuation of the Karate Kid legacy and more like a lightweight teen drama with a few punches thrown in. Maybe a rewatch will soften my view, but on this first go, I walked away disappointed.

Horror: the genre that everybody loves to hate. With every release of a new gore and guts slasher picture or paranormal thriller or psychological terror, the reviews pour in, and the reviews are - usually - always negative; for examples from this year alone, see "The Woman in the Yard," "Wolf Man," and "The Monkey," just to name a few. Well, it's a new month, a new week, and a new day, which can only mean one thing - a new horror film released. And yes, the reviews aren't good. But is "Until Dawn" really as bad as people say? Yes, and no. "Yes," in the sense that the film feels like it's pulling from a hat full of horror tropes - jump scares you can see coming from three miles away, characters who make questionable choices, and a series of scenarios that are as familiar as American cheese on apple pie. But "no," because - somehow - it isn't a total trainwreck. There's a certain scrappy energy running through the movie, and even when it's predictable, it's at least entertainingly predictable. It's the kind of film where you can practically feel the director whispering, "Look, I know this isn't high art, but just go with it, okay?"

There's nothing spectacular about Until Dawn - even its Groundhog Day-style premise has been beaten to death (and honestly, done better) in countless horror movies before it. Still, there's an undeniable charm to the whole time-loop hook, enough that I can't pretend I didn't have a pretty good time with this, generic as it may be. What can I say? There's just something fun about watching characters get killed in increasingly violent ways, only to respawn with even more desperation to survive the next round. The characters aren't anything special or particularly memorable here, but they are fun to watch die over and over again, and in this specific movie, that's really all that matters.

The characters are also somewhat intelligent compared to other films of the same genre; for example, at one point a character realizes that each night in the loop exhibits a different type of horror - a neat little twist that prevents things from getting too stale. From slasher shenanigans to paranormal thrills, from hyper violence to quiet terror, director David F. Sandberg clearly knows and enjoys the horror genre, and in "Until Dawn," he really gets a good opportunity to showcase his skills across a range of classic horror tropes. And what can I say? I quite enjoyed watching everything that the film had up its sleeve - it really throws all but the kitchen sink at its viewers, and I couldn't shake the feeling that, ultimately, this movie wanted to entertain horror fans, and as a horror fan, I was entertained.

Despite all the praise I've given, however, "Until Dawn" still doesn't quite rise above being just an "okay" experience. While I will certainly buy this film on 4K and watch it again as a sort of guilty pleasure viewing experience, the movie never quite manages to transcend its familiar formula. It does a solid job at playing with its time loop premise and delivers some decent thrills, but the fact that the movie delivers so much of everything horror means that "Until Dawn" never really settles into any one idea long enough to leave a lasting impression. There's a lack of space for the scares or characters to truly breathe, which makes it feel more like a checklist of horror moments than a coherent experience. That said, "Until Dawn" is still a fun, if familiar, ride that horror fans can appreciate - and believe me, there is a lot to appreciate it. If you're in the mood for a fast-paced, bloody good time with some clever moments, I'd still say it's worth a watch, even if it's not one of the genre's best.