Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 31 minutes, Director – Vicky Jewson
After breaking down in the woods on the way to a competition, a group of ballet dancers are taken into an inn run by a criminal enterprise, from which there may be no way out.
It would be easy to find issue with Pretty Lethal’s ballet actioner. It is with almost any slice of pure genre entertainment. But, what’s the point in doing so when the aim is to simply have a good time, and one is certainly had in this bloody slice of B-movie genre schlock.
From the moment that creates the sudden turn in the opening few minutes to the title card and beyond there’s a string of giggle-inducing thrills throughout as a group of young American ballet dancers find themselves stranded in the Hungarian woods after breaking down on the way to a competition. Taking refuge in a gothic inn, which seems like more of a nightclub mixed with a hotel, one gunshot leads to a fight for escape and survival (and Uma Thurman doing an accent).
There’s a consistently entertaining energy to the action led by the characters, at times scattered around the building in very different circumstances. While Millicent Simmonds casually eats snacks from behind a desk watching her friends on CCTV, having flirted with one of the mob members trapping the group, the likes of Avantika and Maddie Ziegler (pitched as the lead of the troupe) are amusingly battling giving away information with one under the influence of a truth drug.
Director Vicky Jewson leans into an overplayed style that tries to turn multiple dials up for a blown out entertainment flick. Amounting to plenty of giggles from the characters as they fight or try to get out of various situations and some flinch-inducing swipes and stabs when it comes to the action, certainly wearing a blood-coated 15 rating with pride. It all builds up to a delirious dance fight which could well, and perhaps should, act as the grand finale, or close to it. It certainly feels aimed as such, despite there being 20 more minutes of the run-time left. 20 minutes which can’t quite reach the heights of what has come before, especially right before, and feels as if it just doesn’t have the same energy, and is almost somewhat coasting. A shame for a film that has been riding rather high on energy and pure enjoyment for so long, it almost just seems to run out of steam, tired out from its grand highlight dance fight whilst trying to figure out how to wrap up its unresolved points in the moment.
But, for genre thrills, and spills, there’s plenty to enjoy within what comes beforehand in Pretty Lethal. It’s a welcome surprise that may not quite stick the landing, but has a good number of chuckles and gleeful splatter in an action film that’s aware of itself. It’s exactly what you’d hope for from a film about ballet dances facing the mob. Great fun.
While it might not quite stick the landing, Pretty Lethal is an entertaining, splattery surprise with plenty of giggles along the way. An energetic slice of joyous genre schlock.
Just A Little Bit Random 