Killing strangers so we don't kill the ones that we love

BALLERINA

2025

Directed by Len Wiseman and/or Chad Stahelski

Written by Shay Hatten

Spoilers: high (for nerds, anyway; for non-nerds who can already guess what could go wrong with an action movie smooshed into a preexisting intellectual property, moderate)

Yeah

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4

2023

Directed by Chad Stahelski

Written by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch

Spoilers: moderate

Tears of a clown

BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN)

2020

Directed by Kathy Yan

Written by Christina Hodson

Spoiler alert: moderate

Under the Table and dreaming

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3—PARABELLUM

Show of hands, who loves the John Wick movies for their conversations?  Oh, really?  Way more than I would've thought.

2019

Directed by Chad Stahleski

Written by Derek Holstad, Shay Hatten, Chris Collins, and Mark Abrams

Spoiler alert: mild

Something robust

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2

A worthy-as-hell sequel to a movie that I can never quite tell if I slightly underrated or not.

2017

Directed by Chad Stahelski

Written by Derek Kolstad

With Keanu Reeves (John Wick), Ian McShane (Winston), Lance Reddick (Charon), John Leguizamo (Aurelio), Laurence Fishburne (The Bowery King), Peter Stormare (Abram Tarasov), Claudia Gerini (Gianna D'Antonio), Common (Cassian), Ruby Rose (Ares), and Riccardo Scamarcio (Santino D'Antonio)

Spoiler alert: I think moderate, but reasonable minds may differ

But a cat would have run away and survived, obviating much bloodshed

JOHN WICK

John Wick is not quite great, but much of it is almost perfect, and it's so damned close to greatness, it makes me want to explode.  Just like Keanu's head there.

2014
Directed by Chad Stahleski and David Leitch
Written by Derek Kolstad
With Keanu Reeves (John Wick), Bridget Moynahan (Helen Wick), Michael Nyqvist (Viggo Tarasov), Alfie Allen (Iosef Tarasov), Willem Dafoe (Marcus), Ian McShane (Winston), Lance Reddick (Charon), John Leguizamo (Aureilo), and Adrianne Palicki (Ms. Perkins)

Spoiler alert: mild