Action films can be at their best when the subject is the most ridiculous. The latest film Pretty Lethal looks to fuse dance with action with the help of John Wick director David Letitch’s production company 87North. The film stars Iris Apatow, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds, Avantika, Maddie Ziegler, Michael Culkin, Lydia Leonard and Uma Thurman from director Vicky Jewson, but does it deliver the action fans expect or the ballet performance fall flat?

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Pretty Lethal follows five ballerinas, on their way to a prestigious dance competition who are barely on speaking terms when their bus breaks down in a remote forest. With no other options, they reluctantly seek shelter at an unsettling roadside inn run by Devora Kasimer, a reclusive former ballet prodigy. From the moment they arrive, something feels wrong—and their worst instincts prove right. As the situation turns deadly, the fractured team must set aside rivalries and weaponize years of brutal training, turning grace, discipline, and even pointy shoes into tools for survival.

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The idea of this film is simple and not unfamiliar with the new addition being ballet dancers. They give us just enough to know who these people are and their relationship, before inadvertently throwing them into this seedy location and their violent destiny. These are some secret badass agents with awesome fighting skills, but what they have is the tortures and skill of ballet that they take full advantage of in some fun ways.

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There are some elements of comedy here that make it all the more entertaining, but it tries to be as serious as this film can be. They made sure to keep it as grounded as possible in the fighting with all the ballerinas getting their asses handed to them while figuring out how to use their dance skills to fight back. Of course, none of them would have been able to keep fighting through a lot of the punishment they