June 6, 2025

Spoiler-Free Review: From the World of John Wick: Ballerina

Spoiler-Free Review: From the World of John Wick: Ballerina
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"I'm working on it." Jeff and Garret have just checked into The Continental and they're ready to offer up a quick, SPOILER-FREE review of From the World of John Wick: Ballerina to let you know whether you should see it, stream, or skip it!

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You know, a couple of weeks ago, Garrett, we had

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some options for this weekend and you presented this movie

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as one of those options for us to check out.

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And when I called you up and I said, hey,

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is it you know you told me I had a choice.

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I think in your best john Wick, you said you

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still do. So let's talk about Ballerina from the world

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of John Wick.

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Eve mccarl what brings you here? I'd like to go

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hunt him. You have no idea what you just walk into.

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You don't have to do this.

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You can still me why didn't you leave? I'm working

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on it.

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See how y'all doing. I'm Jeff Johnson with Garrett Gibson,

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welcoming you back to the box office for the film

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by Podcast. Excited to talk about this one. An assassin

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trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma organization sets

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out to seek revenge after her father's death. Garrett, did

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this one just blow the doors off us?

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Or what it really did? There's so much NonStop action

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in this film you kind of forget you're not watching

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an actual John Wick film, because you know, you get

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the Keanu, you get the exact same action, and honestly,

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a pretty solid storyline, so a very.

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Solid story Yeah yeah.

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All right, so it blow us away.

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So for that you mentioned Keanu. For those that haven't

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checked into the Continental recently, let's just clarify something. This

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movie is taking place in between John Wick Chapter three

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Parabellum and John Wick Chapter four, So, uh, you know,

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very clever cameo with Keanu Reeves. But is cameo the

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right word, Garrett, because cameo implies like we see a

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quick scene, a quick shot, and I love I almost

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spoil it, but I love the shot, the first shot

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that we saw of him.

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Saying yeah, yeah, te time.

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Back to the third movie. But he's kind of in

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this what he's got.

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Like two three, maybe four scenes, Yeah, we might get

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about i'd say all together five to eight minutes the

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screen time of him. And I'm okay with it.

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Definitely okay with what Lynn Wiseman has done here. He's

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directing this one. You know, you're watching this movie and

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you're you're quick to just imagine this is probably Chad

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Stahelski again, but it's not. It's Lynn Wiseman who gave

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us the Underworld series. I think the last big movie

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he gave us was Lift re or Die Hard and

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after that he's done some TV. What'd you think of

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Lynn's direction here?

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I think didn't skip a beat on this film Compared

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to the other john Wick films in this universe. I

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think it delivered. I think it touched on all the

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vital aspects, a good storyline, NonStop action, and honestly, a

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great revenge film. I've got to tell you, I think

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it delivered on all those aspects.

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Well, it's one of those things where these movies are

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always fueled by a vengeful act, right, Yes, and you

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think we're tired of it, but we are absolutely not

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tired of it. Eve's storyline, played to perfection by Anna

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di Armis.

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Yes, absolutely.

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I'll tell you something, man, The little hint of her

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capabilities that we saw in No Time to Die really

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prime the pump for her to have her own movie here.

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All I can tell you, look, with all love and

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respect to Keanu, I would be okay with john Wick

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ending at chapter four and giving us two, maybe three

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more movies of honest character, maybe even a team up

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with Keanu at some point. What do you think?

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I think you're right. I think she absolutely nailed this role.

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She's definitely coming into her own at this point in

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time of her career. And if they did decide to

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in john Wick with Chapter four completely, no prequels, no,

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nothing like that, and decided to just run with her

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character Eve, I would love it. I would watch two, three,

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I would even watch four films with her in it,

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because she's that believable in this role. She delivered on

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every aspect and I couldn't be more pleased.

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Ian McShane is back playing Winston. I love this guy.

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I love his character and it's just the right amount

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of Ian McShane for this movie. Would you agree?

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I would agree, And just his character Winston over the

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five films that he's been in now just extraordinary. I

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think this is one of those characters that real captures

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his acting capabilities and it feels like that role is

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tailor made for him. So yeah, now it's always a

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pleasure just to see him in one of these films.

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I'll tell you another pleasure and a little heartbreaking at

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the same time. We get one more moment with Lance

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Reddick's character Sharan at the front desk. I kind of

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forgot that he had filmed this before his passing, so

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I was excited when he when he shows up, and

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then it brought it all back to me. I was like,

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oh man, yeah, we lost we lost this man. But

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great to see him. Great to see Angelica Houston. Tell me,

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tell me about tell me a little bit about the

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director here, Angelica Houston. Oh she.

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I'm gonna start by saying she's gorgeous as always, aging, fantastic.

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But her acting in this film series reminds me of

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why I fell in love with her as a kid

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at while she was playing more Titsha and everything was

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growing up. So it's one of those things where it

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just brings me back to her great acting capabilities. I

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gotta say she gives enough of an almost leading role

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in this film. Every time she's on the screen, she

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kind of steals the scene, and I've got to say

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I fell in love with her all over again.

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Yeah. As she's playing the director of the Ruska Roma Organization,

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you know, we're taking these little girls, We're creating ballerinas.

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We're also creating assassins. Dude, I don't care if you're

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talking Black Widow, Red Sparrow. You know ballerina, Like I love,

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like a school for girls to go training to be badasses.

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That's gonna work it. I don't care what movie it is, right, You're.

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Right, everyone wants to see this new wave that we're

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getting now that we're out of that classic eighties nineties

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kind of Arnold and Sevester and all that kind of stuff.

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Now we're experiencing this new badass wave of his kick

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ass chicks, and I am all for it, I've got

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to tell you. And especially with the direction that they're

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getting in films like this, Oh, it's not going to

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stop brother.

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Women like Anadi Armus showing us exactly why strong is

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the new sexy. Can't get enough of it now. Listen,

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I watched plenty of trailers for this movie to get

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you know, I was all excited for it to come out,

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and I don't recall a single second of the Big

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bad in this movie even being referenced one time, So

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you know, I don't want to spoil it out, you know,

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because I know it was a pleasant surprise for me.

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But damn great to see him back on the screen

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after all this time, right, it really is.

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Honestly, I haven't seen him in much as of late,

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and then he just kind of nails this bad guy

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role and it's not something you typically see him in

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all of it. Yeah, it's one of those things that

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I think without them saying anything in the trailer, it

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just helps it that much more along to where you're right, Uh,

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you know, I don't kind of want to see it.

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He might not be that believable. No, he is freaking believable,

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and he nailed the role.

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Yeah. Well, and this isn't the only person to do

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this with, because there's a there's a side character. There's

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a little subplot with a very popular guy who again

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I didn't see him in the trailer. I didn't hear

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about him being in the movie, And just the right

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amount of screen time for this guy, and again I

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was pretty pleased.

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I think you hit the nail right on the head. Again, Jeff.

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It's one of those things where you don't get a

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lot of screen time of them, but I think it's

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just the right amount that just compliments his film.

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So well, well, I'll tell you what's really complimenting this film.

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You know right away that you're in the John Wick

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world because the cinematography by Romaine le cerbus Is is gorgeous.

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When you think about some of these scene locales that

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we're looking at and then the Tyler Bates score is there.

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Thou and I love it kind of dabbles it kind

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of he kind of dabbles back into the John Wick

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score here and there, but he's also giving Eve her

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own theme and her own, her own storyline. And it

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put me right at home in this universe. I knew

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for a fact, I'm in the I'm in John Wicks world.

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It's just Eve's time now. These movies they always have,

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Like I mentioned, Tyler Bates, he's always got He's always

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given us a great score of these films, but they

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also have some great artists on the soundtrack. How awesome

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was it to hear Evan Essence blarin at the credits?

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That was actually pretty cool. Yeah, it's one of those

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things that kind of takes you back because it's been

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a while since you've heard Evan Essence if you're not,

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you know, huge Evan Assence Lincoln part and then that

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just takes you back to the early two thousands right there.

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Soon as it fires up.

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Yeah, fight like a girl from Evanescence featuring k Flay.

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As soon as we have theater I found on Spotify

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and can crank it up great song. Great song. So

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stay for the credits. You're gonna like it. You're gonna

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you're gonna have a good time with it. Absolutely love

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that you mentioned the action is just over the top.

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It's uh, but I gotta I gotta point something out here. Man.

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We're so used to the gun fu you know, like

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the close quarters you know, fire six shots and then

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use the butt of the gun. We've seen it time

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and time again. Truth truthfully, I'll never get sick of it.

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But this movie is it is it basically all bets

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are off for any anything that you can pick up

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and use as a weapon. I'm talking duct tape, I'm

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talking ice skates.

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What definitely is. I don't think there's one household it

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on that they skip past it in this one. When

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they're fighting, whether it's kitchen, you know, the restaurant, whatever,

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they're picking it up and using it and it it

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also makes me smile. There's a lot of scenes in

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this where something gets used and I just had to

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look at you and just chuckle real quick because it's yep,

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it's comical, but it's also freaking awesome action. It's you know, brutal,

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and I don't I don't have any other words to

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say other than I enjoyed it thoroughly.

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I walked out of there thinking, if there wasn't a

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single knife in my kitchen, I now can think of

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like fifteen, maybe twenty five kitchen items that I can

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turn into a lethal weapon. Weapon. Now I love that

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speak of leath the weapons. Will we ever see a

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movie that gets more creative with grenades?

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Oh my gosh, now no, I don't think so. Yeah,

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there's a there's a heavy usage of grenade grenades in

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this film.

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Creative grenade.

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Yeah, very creative, and it's not something we've seen a

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lot and the John Wick films or anything. So you know,

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the first time, the second time, you're like, oh man,

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that's pretty cool, and then it just keeps going and

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it's like.

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Whoa what Yeah, yeah that four? Like that fourth creative

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grenade kill You're like, just keep serving them, keep tossing those,

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because I am loving everything you're doing. Man.

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Uh.

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Ballerina from the World of John Wick is in theaters

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this weekend. Garrett, we haven't even pretended to keep people

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in the hook. Obviously, stream it, see it, skip it,

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you got we gotta we gotta tell me. I want

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to see this one right.

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I would walk, run, ice, skate, I don't care how

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to get to this film. I would go check it

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out in theaters.

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We've been enjoying the Baba Yaga for four films, and

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now it's time for the Kiki Mora to take her

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rightful place on the silver screen. And we we're here

229
00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:55.639
for it.

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00:12:55.720 --> 00:13:03.399
We love it and give five like a girl, fight

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like girl.