Ballerina (2025) – Review

2025   •   Lionsgate  

Rated:  R   

Length:  2 hr  4min 

Action ~ Thriller  

Director:  Len Wiseman 

Writers:  Shay Hatten and Emerald Fennell.

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

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Revenge dances to its own deadly rhythm.

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Official Trailer

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Ballerina (2025) – Review

Ballerina drops you right back into the neon‑soaked, rules‑heavy assassin underworld, but this time through the eyes of Eve Macarro (Ana de Armas), a Ballerina raised and weaponized by the Ruska Roma. After witnessing her assassin father die in a violent confrontation tied to a mysterious cult known only through its enigmatic leader The Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), Eve grows up as both performer and killer, honing her grace onstage and lethal precision off it. Years later, a chance lead reveals the people responsible for destroying her family are still operating from the shadows, protected by a fragile truce with the very underworld that trained her. That discovery turns Eve’s life from routine contract work into a deeply personal mission of payback.

Defying orders to stand down, Eve goes rogue and follows a bloody breadcrumb trail across Europe, from smoky nightclubs to Continental hotel corridors where every smile hides a silencer. Along the way she crosses paths with hardened operators who either want her dead or want to use her, including a hunted ex–special operative whose own secrets are tied to the Chancellor’s network. Each encounter forces Eve to balance cold, professional efficiency with the raw, unresolved grief that has been simmering since childhood. The more she digs, the clearer it becomes that this cult doesn’t just make killers, it remakes entire lives in its own image.

Her vendetta doesn’t stay quiet for long. By going after the Chancellor, Eve risks shattering a carefully maintained peace between rival factions, which puts a target on her back from both the cult and her own side. That escalation pulls in familiar faces from the John Wick saga, including Winston Scott (Ian McShane) and the Director (Anjelica Huston), who understand exactly what kind of war she is about to start if she keeps going. Caught between the formal rules of the High Table world and the messier obligations of loyalty and blood, Eve has to decide whether revenge is worth burning every safe harbor she has left.

Everything builds toward a last stand in a picturesque European stronghold where assassins lurk behind every postcard view and Eve is outnumbered but unwilling to back down. With the clock ticking and innocent lives now bound up in her fight, she turns her ballet‑trained body into a blunt instrument, improvising her way through gunfights and close‑quarters brawls that feel like violent choreography. By the time she finally comes face‑to‑face with the Chancellor, the question isn’t just whether she can kill the man who destroyed her family, but whether doing so will free her from this world, or carve her name into its legend the way John Wick’s once was.

If you’re into sleek, bone-crunching action and the brutal elegance of the John Wick Universe, Ballerina is absolutely worth the watch, delivering stylish set pieces, moody visuals, and tightly choreographed fights that keep escalating as the story kicks into gear. Ana de Armas anchors it all with a fierce, fully committed turn as Eve, proving she can carry an R‑rated action film on her own, she’s fluid and convincing in combat, mixes vulnerability with steel, and feels both dangerous and emotionally grounded wherever she’s at on screen.

Ballerina (2025) – Review by Bobby @ Streaming Movie Night

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Movie Stills

Ballerina (2025) – Review © 2026 Streaming Movie Night