The first spin-off movie from the world of John Wick was released this weekend. Ballerina featured Ana de Armas as Eve, a character that appeared originally in John Wick: Chapter 4.

This film is a prequel to John Wick: Chapter 4 as Keanu Reeves appears in the film as John Wick and, of course, he “died” in the last John Wick movie.

According to IMDB, “An assassin trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma organization sets out to seek revenge after her father’s death.”

So I like this movie. I love Ana de Armas and the action is really great. My problem with Ballerina is the same I have with the John Wick franchise. There is just so much fighting and shooting that it, at times, becomes sort of repetitive. There are some moments that the action can become boring. Most of it is great, but it feels as if I could use some more breaks during the runtime.

And that is a minor gripe. I think most of this is really solid and, as I said, I like the characters and the story.

The cast is great. Along with Armas and Reeves, we get other John Wick performers such as Ian McShane, the late Lance Reddick, and Anjelica Huston. We also have Gabriel Byrne, Norman Reedus, Ava Joyce McCarthy and Catalina Sandino Moreno.

The movie gave us another viable franchise to use in the John Wick universe. Who knows how long Keanu Reeves’ body can hold up to do this type of action, but Ana de Armas could definitely hold her own.

3.8 stars

June 6

The June Swoon documentary day continued.

Since I am heading out to see Ballerina later this afternoon, I figured this would be a good day to use Wick is Pain as the June Swoon 4 film.

The doc details the creation, filming, and the inside stories behind the filming of the John Wick franchise. Keanu Reeves is sprinkled throughout the doc with his thoughts on what was going on. Many times, you can see the excitement of Reeves over the imagery or action on the screen.

The doc goes into detail on the death of the dog in the first film and how it almost did not get made because of all of the struggles and challenges.

The spent a lot of time with the stuntmen of the series. There was an insane footage shared of a certain fall where the stuntman, Jackson Spidell, landed on his head and then had to do it again.

John Wick director Chad Stahelski, who was Reeve’s primary stunt double earlier (including The Matrix), is included heavily in the thoughts.

This is a lot of fun and fans of the John Wick franchise should love this documentary.

3.75 stars

June 5

A Working Man is just about what you would expect from a Jason Statham movie. He plays basically the same character he has played for many years now. That being said, a good revenge/one-person army thriller can be decent, especially if you know what you are getting, and this one is not terrible.

It’s not great either though.

According to IMDB, “Levon Cade (Statham) left his profession behind to work construction and be a good dad to his daughter. But when a local girl vanishes, he’s asked to return to the skills that made him a mythic figure in the shadowy world of counter-terrorism.”

I actually had some hopes at the beginning of the movie. They dropped a couple of ideas that made me think this might be more than just what I was expecting. Some character bits that, if expanded upon, could make this a surprise. Unfortunately, those bits were dropped as quickly as they were mentioned, and it absolutely went straight into the kind of movie that we have seen countless times.

Jason Statham is good in this type of role, but there is almost nothing new here. David Harbour appeared in the film, but his role was really small. Still, you can never go wrong with David Harbour.

There was a major plot thread left dangling, probably leaving it open for a potential sequel. However, that does not make it as satisfying as it could have been.

This is disposable entertainment and that can be okay at times. Again, if you are after that kind of movie, you could do worse than A Working Man, which felt like a poor man’s John Wick.

2.5 stars

June 3

I remember watching this as a kid. Press Your Luck was always a fun game show and anyone could do it. However, the world had no idea exactly how truthful that statement was until Michael Larson proved it to the world.

Larson was an unemployed ice cream truck driver who loved Press Your Luck. It started as what appeared to be an insanely lucky streak of avoiding the Whammies, but soon was revealed as something more.

In this biopic of one of the most infamous moments in game show history, The Luckiest Man in America provided us with the story of that day of tapings in 1984 that cemented Michael Larson as a notorious game show contestant who found the key to winning against the “Big Board.”

Larson had memorized the patterns of the board after months of research and he was putting those skills to test on the TV program. As he was winning at a consistent basis, the executives looked to prevent him from destroying their show.

Paul Walter Hauser played Michael Larson, showing surprising depth to the man. The film looked at Larson’s failed marriage and his relationship with his daughter as ways to show his motives for pulling this scam.

Walton Goggins played Peter Tomarkin, the host of the show. David Strathairn played Bill, a TV executive on the game show. Both of these actors were great in support of Hauser.

This is a fascinating true tale that I wonder how much is hyperbole and how much is true. Either way, this was an enjoyable character study of one of the most outrageous moments in Daytime TV history.

3.85 stars

June 1, 2025

I added a new component to the June Swoon this year. In order to spice things up, and because there were a number of films that I have missed this year so far, I decided to add a film from 2025 each day to the June Swoon 4 DailyView so that I would be watching a movie I missed from 2024 AND a movie I missed from 2025. The first of these is on Peacock called Black Bag,

Starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, Black Bag is a spy thriller featuring a married couple George and Kathryn, who worked separately in black ops and espionage while being tightly connected.

Both Blanchett and Fassbender are great in this movie and their chemistry is undeniable. The story itself has plenty of twists and turns as they try to uncover a plot to steal a top-secret software program code-named Severus. Kathryn is a suspect in the case and George has to investigate the case.

I really enjoyed the way this progressed. It was not your typical spy thriller with the gunfights and high action moments. This was a smart, thinking person’s spy story uncovered with intelligence and manipulation. I found that to be very creative while still being extremely suspenseful and entertaining.

Pierce Brosnan was here too, but his role is small and he was underused in the story. When Brosnan was on screen, he was excellent.

There is a series of scenes with a lie detector which is about as great of a scene as you are going to get. I was riveted through that entire moment of the movie and the climax of the mystery paid off big time too.

This is an excellent film and I am pleased that I finally was able to seeing it.

4.3 stars

I hated this movie.

I had heard so many positive comments about Friendship, the film starring actor, comedian and screenwriter Tim Robinson. Word of mouth of the A24 comedy was out of this world. It has 89% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I hated this movie.

Craig (Tim Robinson) meets his new neighbor Austin (Paul Rudd) and immediately falls hard for him. Craig wanted to be Austin’s friend and he went to some crazy steps to make it happen. However, he was not good at the interpersonal skills.

Probably the biggest reason I hated this movie was because of the protagonist. Craig was so unlikable as a character that I just did not find funny. It was cringy. I believe that is the way the comedy is meant to be, but I just did not like it at all.

I mean, I love Paul Rudd. I like Kate Mara. I like Jack Dylan Grazer. The cast was solid.

I found myself hoping this would be over. I was looking at my clock throughout the film. I just did not have any fun in this movie.

1.3 stars