Ana de Armas dazzles in Ballerina as Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan reboot the Karate Kid

Ana de Armas take centre stage in Ballerina – from the John Wick ‘universe’ – as Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio attempt to reboot the Karate Kid franchise.

With a smart and successful reboot of a family-friendly fighting franchise and a high-octane action spin-off, it’s all thrills at the movies this week.

Ralph Macchio, Ben Wang and Jackie Chan in Karate Kid: Legends.

KARATE KID: LEGENDS (PG)

Director: Jonathan Entwhistle (feature debut)

Starring: Ben Wang, Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley.

***

A thumping good time awaits

Few filmgoers will have any problem falling for Legends, a fast-paced and family-friendly addition to the Karate Kid canon.

Just as it is both a reboot and a reunion, Legends also maps out a refreshing way forward for the long-running franchise as it enters its fifth decade.

The new Karate Kid is Li Fong (played by Ben Wang), a talented young martial arts enthusiast who has just moved to New York City to start a new life.

Back home in Beijing, Li was a rising star in a private karate academy run by the all-knowing Mr Han (Jackie Chan, reprising his role from the 2010 KK instalment featuring Jaden Smith).

However, after a tragedy in the family, Li was forced to renounce his love of unarmed combat to placate his stressed-out mother.

Of course, it isn’t long before our young hero is forced to take a stand and defend himself against a thoroughly unlikeable adversary, Connor (Aramis Knight).

It just so happens Connor is not just another high school bully picking on a newly arrived student. He is also the reigning champ of The Five Boroughs, an annual karate tournament that carries a big cash prize for the winner.

Karate Kid: Legends is a family-friendly blend of old and new.

Without the knowledge of his mum and with a pressing need to help out his new girlfriend (Sadie Stanley) and her debt-ridden dad (Joshua Jackson), Li begins training up for a longshot tilt at the Five Boroughs crown.

This is all the excuse needed for Mr Han to fly in from China to assist his former protege in any way he can. Without giving too much away, Han’s arrival also brings the original Karate Kid himself, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), back into the world of martial arts after many years of exile.

While the newcomer Wang is a likeable enough presence in his own right, Legends hits all the right notes a Karate Kid movie should once Macchio and Chan are fully embedded in the tale.

It all culminates in the kind of uplifting climactic smackdown that the series has long been renowned for, a fist-pumping finale that earns the right kind of goodwill to justify further instalments to come.

Karate Kid: Legends is in cinemas now.

FROM THE WORLD OF JOHN WICK: BALLERINA (MA15+)

***

General release.

This John Wick spin-off zips backwards to a grey area somewhere between the tumultuous events chronicled in Chapters 3 and 4. That means Keanu Reeves’ cool, calm and collected title character is still very much alive and ready for action in Ballerina.

However, John Wick is not the driving force here. That honour falls to a new character named Eve Macarro, played by Ana de Armas (best known for her prominent roles in the Bond movie No Time to Die, and the blockbuster murder-mystery Knives Out).

Eve is an aspiring classical dancer who is compelled to learn the mystical assassin traditions of the secret Ruska Roma sect after her father is murdered.

Ana de Armas pictured on the red carpet at a Los Angeles screening of Ballerina. Picture: AFP

Ana de Armas stars as Eve in Ballerina. Picture: Murray Close

Once Eve is fully trained and her avenging-angel mode is activated, she moves into the same shadowy world prowled by Mr Wick and his ilk. Eve’s ultimate destination is an Alpine village occupied exclusively by retired contract killers now attempting to live relatively ordinary lives.

It is here she will go toe-to-toe with the dudes that killed her dad, while John Wick mysteriously keeps a watchful eye on the looming showdown.

The high standards of immaculately composed camera work and spectacular stunt choreography forged by the John Wick franchise are maintained impressively enough here.

An elaborate open-air fight sequence involving massive flamethrowers is almost worth the price of admission in its own right.

MOUNTAINHEAD (M)

**1/2

Now streaming on MAX.

Been wondering what acclaimed showrunner and writer Jesse Armstrong will do next, now that his hit series Succession is over? Well, the famously prolific Armstrong has already completed a movie in staggeringly fast time. The Mountainhead screenplay was dashed off in a fortnight, shortly after Donald Trump was re-elected. Shooting was completed three months later. The set-up constructed here could just as easily have been used for a stage play. Four ultra-rich titans of the technology sector (Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith and Ramy Youssef) have gathered at a fancy mountaintop compound to sink some beers, play some poker and compare their current bank balances. The card game never gets started. All hell has broken loose right around the world due to some glitchy AI software which has just been launched by one of the guests. Rather than showing any contrition for flooding the globe with a deluge of dangerous deep-faked videos, the quartet turn their devious minds to making even more money from the chaos unfolding across multiple continents. Though impeccably written and acted, this movie’s continued thrusts at a timely and telling satire of current events seem to miss their mark. Compared to the sharp dexterity of Succession, this is a bluntly repetitive affair.

Steve Carell stars in the Jesse Armstrong-directed drama, Mountainhead.

Originally published as Ana de Armas dazzles in Ballerina as Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan reboot the Karate Kid