A Bloody Good Time
Summary
Pretty Lethal is exactly what you want from an 87 North film with some decent kills and imaginative fight scenes. It’s too bad Daniel Bernhardt doesn’t show up as he usually does appear in every 87 North in some capacity, but this sis still entertaining with Uma Thurman stealing the show.
Plot: An action-packed thriller where five ballerinas, stranded in a remote forest on their way to a dance competition, take shelter at an unsettling roadside inn run by Devora Kasimer and must weaponize their elite training to survive.
Review: Ballerinas in action movies seem to be the in thing at the moment with last year’s entry into the John Wick franchise and now Prime Video’s Pretty Lethal.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when you see 87 North involved you know there will be imaginative set-pieces, great choreography and graphic violence.
It also usually means Daniel Bernhardt will show up at some point, so I spent the entire runtime waiting for him to appear but alas, he is nowhere to be seen here. I guess he was in Ballerina last year so maybe he just wanted to do something not ballet related.
Anyway, despite the absence of Daniel, Pretty Lethal is a fun time with a group of mostly insufferable teenage girls (played by Iris Apatow, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Avantika and Maddie Ziegler) who can’t really stand each other. They go on a trip to Hungary for a ballet contest, but their bus breaks down and they are forced to stop at an Inn. It’s run by Uma Thurman’s Devora Kasimer who at first welcomes the girls, but things soon take a dark turn, and they will have to use their skills to survive.
What I liked about this movie (which strangely wasn’t really used much in last year’s Ballerina) is that the girls actually use their ballet skills to defeat their opponents giving us some imaginative fight scenes and gruesome kills. The choreography is impeccable as you’d expect from 87 North and it’s all kept under 90 minutes.
Pretty Lethal looks gorgeous with nice set design, especially for the Inn which looks like it belongs in the world of John Wick.
There are some nice music choices too with a cool update of Rhythm is a Dancer which I always loved in the 90’s.
I’m enjoying the films of Vicky Jewson who also directed Close starring Noomi Rapace, so I look forward to seeing what she does next.
Overall, Pretty Lethal may not have any Daniel Bernhardt (boo!) but it still has plenty of imaginative beatdowns, violent kills and a huge bodycount (yay!) making it one of the better streaming movies of late. Recommended!