Ballet dancers fighting for survival sounds thrilling on paper. But “Pretty Lethal,” now streaming on Prime Video, fumbles a genuinely fun premise with lazy writing, wasted talent, and a third act that collapses under its own weight.
A Wild Premise That Actually Works at First
Five young ballet dancers travel to Budapest for the performance of their lives. Their bus breaks down, a stranger offers help, and they end up trapped inside a sprawling hotel filled with dangerous, shady characters.
It is as simple as that. And for a while, that simplicity is the film’s biggest strength.
Director Vicky Jewson wastes no time getting the story moving. The hotel setting has a genuinely unsettling, dystopian quality. The action sequences are crisp, well-staged, and surprisingly inventive for a film of this budget level.
The central hook is undeniably fun: ballet training translates into brutal, elegant combat. Think “John Wick” energy filtered through pointe shoes and punishing physical discipline. When the dancers start using their bodies as weapons, including knives tucked into the ends of ballet slippers, the film earns every bit of its pulpy charm.
Pretty Lethal Prime Video ballet action film 2025
Maddie Ziegler Leads a Cast That Deserves Better
The young female cast is genuinely the best thing “Pretty Lethal” has going for it.
Maddie Ziegler plays the group’s unofficial leader, a scrappy, blue-collar dancer carrying a chip on her shoulder. She anchors the film with enough presence to keep viewers invested even when the script lets her down.
Lana Condor plays the spoiled frenemy of the group, and the push-pull dynamic between the two carries real chemistry. Millicent Simmonds, known for her breakout role in “A Quiet Place,” gets a brief romantic subplot before everything spirals into chaos.
Here is a quick look at the main cast and their roles:
| Actor | Character Role |
|---|---|
| Maddie Ziegler | Unofficial group leader, scrappy dancer |
| Lana Condor | Spoiled frenemy of the group |
| Millicent Simmonds | Romantic subplot, “A Quiet Place” alum |
| Uma Thurman | Devora, mysterious hotel owner |
| Tamás Szabó Sipos | Crime kingpin’s son |
The women share genuine on-screen chemistry, and the film earns their likeability early. There are no lazy “chosen warrior” shortcuts here. These dancers are frightened, outnumbered, and fighting with what they have.
Uma Thurman Is Wasted in a Role That Goes Nowhere
This is where “Pretty Lethal” commits its most frustrating mistake.
Uma Thurman plays Devora, the inscrutable owner of the Budapest hotel. She is a former dancer herself, which sets up a fascinating dynamic with the trapped young women. The potential is obvious and enormous.
Thurman barely gets room to breathe, let alone command the screen the way the role demands. Devora gets swallowed up by a clunky subplot involving a crime kingpin and his reckless son, a storyline that drifts aimlessly through the second act before trying to matter in the third.
Casting Thurman, the iconic star of “Kill Bill,” in an action film about deadly women and then giving her almost nothing to do is, frankly, a cinematic waste. It is the kind of miscalculation that haunts an otherwise watchable film.
Where the Film Falls Apart
The second act builds genuine momentum. The chaos is entertaining. The battle sequences have style.
Then the screenplay makes a critical error.
“The film decides to keep piling up the odds against the dancers’ survival, and what follows becomes hard to believe even by B-movie standards.”
Instead of finding clever ways to escalate the tension, the script leans on sheer volume. More enemies. More danger. More plot. But none of it is earned. By the time the third act arrives, any internal logic has completely evaporated.
A sharper script could have saved everything. A few smarter twists, a meatier character for Thurman, and a story that trusted its own premise would have lifted “Pretty Lethal” from forgettable to genuinely great.
The bones of a cult action classic are buried inside this film. The genre setup is inspired. The cast has the talent. Even the visual style is there.
What is missing is a screenplay willing to do the work.
“Pretty Lethal” is exactly what critics call solid streaming fodder. It is the kind of film you can enjoy on a lazy evening, not demand too much from, and move on without thinking about again. It is fun while it lasts, just not as fun as it should have been. For fans of Maddie Ziegler or anyone craving a female-led action film with real physical energy, there is enough here to justify the watch, but do not go in expecting “John Wick.” Go in expecting a rougher, less polished version of a great idea that never quite got the script it deserved.
What do you think? Did “Pretty Lethal” deliver for you or did it miss the mark? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.
