June 17, 2025 • 11 mins
🔫🩰 In this episode of The Rank Podcast, John returns to his Action Movie Rankings with a look at one of the most anticipated spin-offs of the year — 2025’s “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” starring Ana de Armas and featuring a special appearance by Keanu Reeves as the legendary John Wick himself!
John breaks down the high-octane choreography, the sleek assassin lore, and how Ballerina expands the ever-growing Wick-verse. Does it deliver the same stylish, gun-fu thrills fans have come to love? Or does it pirouette a little too far from the original formula?
Tune in as John ranks where Ballerina lands among the greatest action flicks and whether Ana de Armas can carry the assassin torch with grace and grit.
E-mail your fan questions, comments, and suggestions to TheRankwithJohnandZac@protonmail.com.
Support the show by becoming a patron at Patreon.com/TheRankPodcast.
For up-to-date rankings, check out The Rank's website at TheRankwithJohnandZac.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
But it's well known that the John Wick series has excellent
action sequences and great fightchorion.
So the question going into this was, without the Keanu Reeves
charisma and physicality, will it work?
And I can give a rousing kind of.
(00:31):
Welcome back to the rank. I'm John and today we're going
to be ranking ballerina or the official title from the world of
John Wick Ballerina starring Anna de Armas, written by Shay
Hatton and directed by Len Wiseman.
If you're enjoying these rankings or just like the idea
of getting a review of an actionmovie based on it being an
action movie, please consider subscribing and or following
liking and reviewing. And please put any of your
(00:53):
questions, comments, or suggestions into the comments or
e-mail the show. And if you super duper
likeitconsiderbecomingapatron@patreon.com/theRank podcast where you can get
access to all of our archived episodes.
Now let's get started with the Potent Notables quickly.
Before I get into it, I want to say that I will refrain from any
spoilers, but in case I make a mistake, spoiler alert, I guess
(01:15):
I'm going to really attempt not to.
Let's go to the Pope Notables. So as always, we start the Pope
Notables with the movies financials.
It came out this past weekend. So for its first weekend at
garner $24.5 million domestically and $26 million
internationally for a worldwide total of $50.5 million.
And this is against a budget of $90,000,000.
So don't know if it's going to make its money back.
(01:37):
We might not see Anadaramus in aseat.
Guess we'll see. The film actually takes place
between three and four of of theJohn Wick series.
Now the original release date was June 7th, 2024.
So in order to film more action sequences, the date was pushed
to June 6th, 2025. Now there was a story that went
out about this that said that Chad Stehelski did the reshoots
(01:58):
and that he reshot most of the film because he disapproved of
Len Wiseman's original cut and that the reshoots took place in
Prague for two to three months without Wiseman's involvement.
Now according to Chad, this was just additional photography and
he and Wiseman were both upset about the rumors.
Wiseman said, Quote, we as in him and Stahlsky, we're both
frustrated about it. It's a really frustrating thing
(02:18):
to hear such claims, and it happens more today than it did
back in the day. There was additional shooting
because the studio loved the movie.
We had to take out some scenes from the script originally
because we just didn't have the resources or the schedule.
Lionsgate then really believed in the early cut of the movie
after we put it together. So it was an exciting
opportunity to go back and add more to the film.
But when the press hears about that and the reports become
(02:38):
whatever they are, it always hasa negative connotation.
But I'm just so glad that we were were able to go back.
End Quote. Of course, it was The Wrath that
reported this in October 2024 about the reshoots and potential
issues between Stahlsky and Wiseman.
But anyway, they reported that Stahlsky was more or less ghost
directing the film during reshoots instead of helping
Wiseman as earlier official reports mentioned.
(03:00):
Based on what multiple sources said, Wiseman wasn't even
brought back on set while they were filming reshoots in Prague,
and Stahlsky directed all the reshoots himself, which lasted
for three months. This also ended up causing
issues with Stahlsky's Highlander reboot starring Henry
Cavill or Cavill. It was delayed in the
development on it had to be pushed back for five months due
to all the problems with Ballerina and Stahowski's
(03:20):
involvement in reshooting and changing what turned out to be
most of the film. The delays lasted for so long
that Cavill ended up accepting the role in Voltron for Amazon
MGM, so since this ended up clearing his schedule enough to
do another project. Lionsgate however, denied this
and claimed how Wiseman only left due to some serious health
issue, but later returned to work with Stahelski on reshoots,
(03:40):
which they said lasted for only one month, despite other news
reports which all mentioned actors working on reshoots
between March and June of 2024. But who knows the truth?
But it was Len Wiseman's first time directing a feature film in
13 years, so maybe he was just rusty, I don't know.
Apparently there were a lot of action scenes in the script that
didn't make the final cut, including a shower scene that
would have ended up in a nude fight scene with Anadarmus.
(04:03):
Also, there were supposed to be a scene where Eve was supposed
to infiltrate a cult of retired assassins living in a remote
retirement community, which would have ended up with her
killing about 200 of these dangerous old fogies.
Actually, the original script's body count was 1400.
Of course, it wasn't originally written as a John Wick spin off
and the lead character's name was Rooney.
Still, 1400. That's quite the body count.
(04:24):
It was meant to be sort of satire.
Anyway, those are the potent notables.
Let's go to the movie overview. So we get the first cinematic
spin off of the John Wick serieswith this.
Now, Zach and I ranked the firstJohn Wick and we haven't done
any of the others yet, but it's well known that the John Wick
series has excellent action sequences and great fight
courtyard. So the question going of this
was without the Keanu Reeves charisma and physicality will
(04:46):
work and I can give a rousing kind of.
So the fight choreography and the action sequences are top
notch, as you would expect, But I don't know that I bought
Anadarmus physicality in this, at least not all the time.
The movie really wants you to get behind Eve macro Anadarmus
character painstaking. So they're pushing a ton of lore
at you and spending a lot of time on origin too much time.
(05:08):
It's interesting because they'reso intent on driving home Eve's
motivation, but they sort of gloss over the lore of the Ruska
Roma and only give hints as the Eve's relationship to it.
I assume this is because the Ruska Roma is more broadly
talked about in Chapter 3 Parabellum, but I haven't seen
that in a long time and I don't remember it well enough to move
past it here. I will say they do enough with
it that you get the gist, so it's fine.
(05:29):
The villain portion of things though, is entirely undefined.
The villain is the head of some tribe or cult, but we don't know
their name. I guess they're just named after
the town they're in some shot. I never really got that.
I also didn't understand their motivation or reason for being.
It was just all so I'll defined They spent so much time
establishing Eve's motivation that it seemed to be hoping that
(05:49):
we wouldn't care about the villain's motivation.
But I spent a good portion of this movie wondering why he, the
villain, was doing anything thathe was doing.
Like what was the purpose of thecult?
Why were they created? What is their ethos?
And I felt like the movie was saying back to me, dude, don't
you see that she's beating people up with ice skates?
Why do you fucking care, touché?And to a certain extent, the
movie's right. By and large, though, I was
(06:10):
entertained. And what else can you really ask
for? The ending?
If they had actually let the ending be, the ending was
satisfying. Of course they had to set up the
sequel, though I doubt there will be 1.
Even that blatant bit of commercialism wasn't that bad.
More like an eye. But let's go to the rank and see
how it did a wank. So the rank is where I ranked
the movie based on 10 categories.
(06:31):
Story, acting, originality, action sequences, film
coherence, hero appeal, villain appeal, slash hatred, supporting
characters appeal, the final showdown, and my rank.
I rank it on a scale of one to five, one being the worst, five
being the best, and the first category is story, which I gave
a 3 1/2. The base story is a good one.
Kids see something terrible, grows up being trained to be a
fighter, and vows vengeance on the person who committed the
(06:52):
terrible act when she was a kid.We get a bunch of world building
here that is so obviously tryingto set up sequels that it's kind
of annoying. You can set up sequels while
still telling a complete story. Story's not bad, but not great.
Let's go to acting, which I gavea three.
In general, I have liked Anna deArmas and the things that I've
seen her in, but she felt a little uneven in this one.
She wasn't bad or anything, but she just seemed rather average.
(07:14):
And on top of that, and I love him, but Keanu was just not a
great actor. No way everyone else is good.
Like fine to good. Gabriella Byrne being villainous
always works. Originality.
I gave a 2 1/2. So as far as action movie
plotting goes, it's just not original at all.
It's a spin off and it stands onits own for the most part.
But I do think they're expectingyou to have seen other John Wick
(07:35):
movies to be fully immersed, which takes points away.
So why is it a 2 1/2 and not lower?
Because they were very innovative with their action
sequences and the way they killed the bad guys.
It felt inventive and creative and worthy of a higher
originality sport. But I'll get into the action
sequences more deeply in the next category, which is action
sequences, which I gave a four and a half.
(07:56):
The action sequences were excellent, unique and inventive.
They utilize unique weapons and they have a lot of fun with them
in the fight choreography. The only detraction on this is
that there were times when they were a little too inventive with
the choreography. Like it's neat the way they
worked it out, but the psychology of actually doing it
makes no sense at all. Also, again, Anadarmus doesn't
(08:16):
have the best physicality for for these action sequences.
It's not terrible or anything and I I'm not like saying oh and
Armis is the worst. 4 1/2 is still a really good score, but
that's why the that's why it's not a 5.
Let's go to the next category, which is film coherence.
I gave film coherence a 2.25. It wasn't necessarily poor
coherence because the through line of the plot was entirely
understandable. However, we spend way too much
(08:38):
time on Origin here. Her motivation is too clearly
defined and could have been handled with short flashbacks
instead of the 1st 40 minutes ormore of the movie.
We also get the hero's motivation hammered into us, but
we get none of the villains motivation.
You're just left to say, well, Iguess he's the bad guy because
he does bad things, but I'll discuss that more and villain
appeal, which is not the next category.
Next category is hero appeal, which I gave a three.
(09:01):
I felt sort of ambivalent about Eve.
There were definitely a few times where I was like, oh damn,
she's a badass, But for the mostpart I was just sort of enjoying
the sequences more than the character.
Like she could have been anyone and I would be into the action
still. It's not like Anna has no
charisma. She's still charismatic, but
there's just there just wasn't aton there for this one.
So let's go to Villain Appeal Slash Hatred, which I gave a
(09:22):
3.25. It's actually really similar to
Hero Appeal in that it felt a little block.
However, Gabriel Byrne does menacing really well, so that
engaged me just the littlest bitmore than.
So let's go to Supporting Characters Appeal, which I gave
a 3.25. John Wick is there, so I'm
unwilling to go under this score, but him showing up at all
is the only reason this isn't lower.
(09:42):
I'm recording this a few days after I watched it, and I can't
remember basically any supporting characters except for
John Wick and the goon with the manly jawline who participated
in one of the coolest action sequences in this movie.
Well, I guess it was the hottestaction sequence in this movie.
Now, if you've seen it, you'll know why I said that.
Anyway, Yeah, above 3 because ofJohn Wick.
And that's about it. So let's go to the final
(10:03):
showdown, which I gave a four. So if the final showdown is just
Eve versus Gabriel Byrne's character, then it might be a
little lower because there's just not much there.
But it's a very satisfying showdown.
And if you consider it the finallong action sequence, it's
probably higher than a four. So I met it in the middle with
and when. So let's go to my rank, which I
gave. I gave the movie a 3.25.
(10:25):
I don't know, maybe my expectations were too high.
It wasn't bad or anything, it just felt very generic.
It just never got me super into Eve, and because I wasn't
actively rooting for her, it washard to get super invested in
the movie. Still though, the action is a
lot of fun. So basically what I'm saying is
if you want to go turn your brain off and just enjoy some
cool action sequences, this is the movie for you.
(10:46):
So that puts the total for Ballerina at 32.5, which puts it
in the tier. Meh.
The Yoker. It's actually just below Mission
Impossible 2, which I'm shocked by and just above Jason and the
Argonauts. So thanks for listening and or
watching. If you'd like to see a list of
our action movie rankings, you can do that on our website at
the rank with John and zach.com.Remember to subscribe, review
(11:06):
and comment and please consider supporting us on our Patreon
site at patreon.com/the Rank podcast where you can access all
the archived episodes. Anyway, this Dom?
(11:31):
As always, the potent notable start with the movies
financials. Fuck.
I didn't rewrite this from Mission Impossible.
I'm a fucking moron. Take three now, according to
Chad, froze up again.
But it's well known that the John Wick series has excellent
action sequences and great fightchorion.
So the question going into this was, without the Keanu Reeves
charisma and physicality, will it work?
And I can give a rousing kind of.
(00:31):
Welcome back to the rank. I'm John and today we're going
to be ranking ballerina or the official title from the world of
John Wick Ballerina starring Anna de Armas, written by Shay
Hatton and directed by Len Wiseman.
If you're enjoying these rankings or just like the idea
of getting a review of an actionmovie based on it being an
action movie, please consider subscribing and or following
liking and reviewing. And please put any of your
(00:53):
questions, comments, or suggestions into the comments or
e-mail the show. And if you super duper
likeitconsiderbecomingapatron@patreon.com/theRank podcast where you can get
access to all of our archived episodes.
Now let's get started with the Potent Notables quickly.
Before I get into it, I want to say that I will refrain from any
spoilers, but in case I make a mistake, spoiler alert, I guess
(01:15):
I'm going to really attempt not to.
Let's go to the Pope Notables. So as always, we start the Pope
Notables with the movies financials.
It came out this past weekend. So for its first weekend at
garner $24.5 million domestically and $26 million
internationally for a worldwide total of $50.5 million.
And this is against a budget of $90,000,000.
So don't know if it's going to make its money back.
(01:37):
We might not see Anadaramus in aseat.
Guess we'll see. The film actually takes place
between three and four of of theJohn Wick series.
Now the original release date was June 7th, 2024.
So in order to film more action sequences, the date was pushed
to June 6th, 2025. Now there was a story that went
out about this that said that Chad Stehelski did the reshoots
(01:58):
and that he reshot most of the film because he disapproved of
Len Wiseman's original cut and that the reshoots took place in
Prague for two to three months without Wiseman's involvement.
Now according to Chad, this was just additional photography and
he and Wiseman were both upset about the rumors.
Wiseman said, Quote, we as in him and Stahlsky, we're both
frustrated about it. It's a really frustrating thing
(02:18):
to hear such claims, and it happens more today than it did
back in the day. There was additional shooting
because the studio loved the movie.
We had to take out some scenes from the script originally
because we just didn't have the resources or the schedule.
Lionsgate then really believed in the early cut of the movie
after we put it together. So it was an exciting
opportunity to go back and add more to the film.
But when the press hears about that and the reports become
(02:38):
whatever they are, it always hasa negative connotation.
But I'm just so glad that we were were able to go back.
End Quote. Of course, it was The Wrath that
reported this in October 2024 about the reshoots and potential
issues between Stahlsky and Wiseman.
But anyway, they reported that Stahlsky was more or less ghost
directing the film during reshoots instead of helping
Wiseman as earlier official reports mentioned.
(03:00):
Based on what multiple sources said, Wiseman wasn't even
brought back on set while they were filming reshoots in Prague,
and Stahlsky directed all the reshoots himself, which lasted
for three months. This also ended up causing
issues with Stahlsky's Highlander reboot starring Henry
Cavill or Cavill. It was delayed in the
development on it had to be pushed back for five months due
to all the problems with Ballerina and Stahowski's
(03:20):
involvement in reshooting and changing what turned out to be
most of the film. The delays lasted for so long
that Cavill ended up accepting the role in Voltron for Amazon
MGM, so since this ended up clearing his schedule enough to
do another project. Lionsgate however, denied this
and claimed how Wiseman only left due to some serious health
issue, but later returned to work with Stahelski on reshoots,
(03:40):
which they said lasted for only one month, despite other news
reports which all mentioned actors working on reshoots
between March and June of 2024. But who knows the truth?
But it was Len Wiseman's first time directing a feature film in
13 years, so maybe he was just rusty, I don't know.
Apparently there were a lot of action scenes in the script that
didn't make the final cut, including a shower scene that
would have ended up in a nude fight scene with Anadarmus.
(04:03):
Also, there were supposed to be a scene where Eve was supposed
to infiltrate a cult of retired assassins living in a remote
retirement community, which would have ended up with her
killing about 200 of these dangerous old fogies.
Actually, the original script's body count was 1400.
Of course, it wasn't originally written as a John Wick spin off
and the lead character's name was Rooney.
Still, 1400. That's quite the body count.
(04:24):
It was meant to be sort of satire.
Anyway, those are the potent notables.
Let's go to the movie overview. So we get the first cinematic
spin off of the John Wick serieswith this.
Now, Zach and I ranked the firstJohn Wick and we haven't done
any of the others yet, but it's well known that the John Wick
series has excellent action sequences and great fight
courtyard. So the question going of this
was without the Keanu Reeves charisma and physicality will
(04:46):
work and I can give a rousing kind of.
So the fight choreography and the action sequences are top
notch, as you would expect, But I don't know that I bought
Anadarmus physicality in this, at least not all the time.
The movie really wants you to get behind Eve macro Anadarmus
character painstaking. So they're pushing a ton of lore
at you and spending a lot of time on origin too much time.
(05:08):
It's interesting because they'reso intent on driving home Eve's
motivation, but they sort of gloss over the lore of the Ruska
Roma and only give hints as the Eve's relationship to it.
I assume this is because the Ruska Roma is more broadly
talked about in Chapter 3 Parabellum, but I haven't seen
that in a long time and I don't remember it well enough to move
past it here. I will say they do enough with
it that you get the gist, so it's fine.
(05:29):
The villain portion of things though, is entirely undefined.
The villain is the head of some tribe or cult, but we don't know
their name. I guess they're just named after
the town they're in some shot. I never really got that.
I also didn't understand their motivation or reason for being.
It was just all so I'll defined They spent so much time
establishing Eve's motivation that it seemed to be hoping that
(05:49):
we wouldn't care about the villain's motivation.
But I spent a good portion of this movie wondering why he, the
villain, was doing anything thathe was doing.
Like what was the purpose of thecult?
Why were they created? What is their ethos?
And I felt like the movie was saying back to me, dude, don't
you see that she's beating people up with ice skates?
Why do you fucking care, touché?And to a certain extent, the
movie's right. By and large, though, I was
(06:10):
entertained. And what else can you really ask
for? The ending?
If they had actually let the ending be, the ending was
satisfying. Of course they had to set up the
sequel, though I doubt there will be 1.
Even that blatant bit of commercialism wasn't that bad.
More like an eye. But let's go to the rank and see
how it did a wank. So the rank is where I ranked
the movie based on 10 categories.
(06:31):
Story, acting, originality, action sequences, film
coherence, hero appeal, villain appeal, slash hatred, supporting
characters appeal, the final showdown, and my rank.
I rank it on a scale of one to five, one being the worst, five
being the best, and the first category is story, which I gave
a 3 1/2. The base story is a good one.
Kids see something terrible, grows up being trained to be a
fighter, and vows vengeance on the person who committed the
(06:52):
terrible act when she was a kid.We get a bunch of world building
here that is so obviously tryingto set up sequels that it's kind
of annoying. You can set up sequels while
still telling a complete story. Story's not bad, but not great.
Let's go to acting, which I gavea three.
In general, I have liked Anna deArmas and the things that I've
seen her in, but she felt a little uneven in this one.
She wasn't bad or anything, but she just seemed rather average.
(07:14):
And on top of that, and I love him, but Keanu was just not a
great actor. No way everyone else is good.
Like fine to good. Gabriella Byrne being villainous
always works. Originality.
I gave a 2 1/2. So as far as action movie
plotting goes, it's just not original at all.
It's a spin off and it stands onits own for the most part.
But I do think they're expectingyou to have seen other John Wick
(07:35):
movies to be fully immersed, which takes points away.
So why is it a 2 1/2 and not lower?
Because they were very innovative with their action
sequences and the way they killed the bad guys.
It felt inventive and creative and worthy of a higher
originality sport. But I'll get into the action
sequences more deeply in the next category, which is action
sequences, which I gave a four and a half.
(07:56):
The action sequences were excellent, unique and inventive.
They utilize unique weapons and they have a lot of fun with them
in the fight choreography. The only detraction on this is
that there were times when they were a little too inventive with
the choreography. Like it's neat the way they
worked it out, but the psychology of actually doing it
makes no sense at all. Also, again, Anadarmus doesn't
(08:16):
have the best physicality for for these action sequences.
It's not terrible or anything and I I'm not like saying oh and
Armis is the worst. 4 1/2 is still a really good score, but
that's why the that's why it's not a 5.
Let's go to the next category, which is film coherence.
I gave film coherence a 2.25. It wasn't necessarily poor
coherence because the through line of the plot was entirely
understandable. However, we spend way too much
(08:38):
time on Origin here. Her motivation is too clearly
defined and could have been handled with short flashbacks
instead of the 1st 40 minutes ormore of the movie.
We also get the hero's motivation hammered into us, but
we get none of the villains motivation.
You're just left to say, well, Iguess he's the bad guy because
he does bad things, but I'll discuss that more and villain
appeal, which is not the next category.
Next category is hero appeal, which I gave a three.
(09:01):
I felt sort of ambivalent about Eve.
There were definitely a few times where I was like, oh damn,
she's a badass, But for the mostpart I was just sort of enjoying
the sequences more than the character.
Like she could have been anyone and I would be into the action
still. It's not like Anna has no
charisma. She's still charismatic, but
there's just there just wasn't aton there for this one.
So let's go to Villain Appeal Slash Hatred, which I gave a
(09:22):
3.25. It's actually really similar to
Hero Appeal in that it felt a little block.
However, Gabriel Byrne does menacing really well, so that
engaged me just the littlest bitmore than.
So let's go to Supporting Characters Appeal, which I gave
a 3.25. John Wick is there, so I'm
unwilling to go under this score, but him showing up at all
is the only reason this isn't lower.
(09:42):
I'm recording this a few days after I watched it, and I can't
remember basically any supporting characters except for
John Wick and the goon with the manly jawline who participated
in one of the coolest action sequences in this movie.
Well, I guess it was the hottestaction sequence in this movie.
Now, if you've seen it, you'll know why I said that.
Anyway, Yeah, above 3 because ofJohn Wick.
And that's about it. So let's go to the final
(10:03):
showdown, which I gave a four. So if the final showdown is just
Eve versus Gabriel Byrne's character, then it might be a
little lower because there's just not much there.
But it's a very satisfying showdown.
And if you consider it the finallong action sequence, it's
probably higher than a four. So I met it in the middle with
and when. So let's go to my rank, which I
gave. I gave the movie a 3.25.
(10:25):
I don't know, maybe my expectations were too high.
It wasn't bad or anything, it just felt very generic.
It just never got me super into Eve, and because I wasn't
actively rooting for her, it washard to get super invested in
the movie. Still though, the action is a
lot of fun. So basically what I'm saying is
if you want to go turn your brain off and just enjoy some
cool action sequences, this is the movie for you.
(10:46):
So that puts the total for Ballerina at 32.5, which puts it
in the tier. Meh.
The Yoker. It's actually just below Mission
Impossible 2, which I'm shocked by and just above Jason and the
Argonauts. So thanks for listening and or
watching. If you'd like to see a list of
our action movie rankings, you can do that on our website at
the rank with John and zach.com.Remember to subscribe, review
(11:06):
and comment and please consider supporting us on our Patreon
site at patreon.com/the Rank podcast where you can access all
the archived episodes. Anyway, this Dom?
(11:31):
As always, the potent notable start with the movies
financials. Fuck.
I didn't rewrite this from Mission Impossible.
I'm a fucking moron. Take three now, according to
Chad, froze up again.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.