Proud Mary (2018)

Just have to register my low vote because of the waste of time I spent watching this. Yes, it's tough to follow Panther, but even if I didn't watch that first, this movie, to me, is exactly why Parkland School violence happens. Strong contention? When you devalue human life, and in this case it doesn't matter white, black, young or old, life becomes devalued in the real world. IMHO. Maybe not overt, but little bits and everyone involved thinks the hugging and happy ending is sweeter because the survivors love. All life is valuable and you think, oh, it's just a movie with no effect or affect on the world. Time to reconsider that we can make a better world. Lawson di Ransom Canyon

Fmovies: Action adventure.

Taraji P. Henson is an assassin (Mary) for one of two rival gangs, she completes a hit but feels regret for the youngster she makes into an orphan and takes him under her wing. The start is positive, looks like a retro 70's film, but almost immediately abandons that idea and quickly goes downhill.

The action scenes are dull, the plot is formulaic, and the acting is wooden. For instance, the hit-woman's gunshot wounds magically seem to vanish, there are several gunfights where thousands of bullets are flying around but all miss, basically seen it all before.

What starts well enough loses all potential. Looks like an amateur project. Go and see 'you were never really here' instead.

REVIEW - PROUD MARY

Saw the title of this film and was intrigued as the title is the same as one of the songs that I love "Proud Mary" so obviously I thought they have used this song to hang the story of the film on, right?

Wrong.

Whilst the story is of interest and (don't get me wrong) this is an enjoyable film the premise just doesn't sit right and actually spoils the whole thing.

A female orphan being adopted (taken in) by a mob family and trained to be a contact killer(don't worry I'm not giving anything away) suddenly having a conscience and turning her back on.............

Worth seeing, but save it for a rainy evening when nothing else is on, you will enjoy it but not as much as other films in this genre like 'Death Wish, John Wick' or the hugely awaited The Equalizer 2.

Rating 6 out of 10

Proud Mary fmovies. The problem with trying to do a straight-faced homage to the Jack Hill/Pam Grier movies of the 70s (most notably Coffy and Foxy Brown) where a lady could have an exuberant name, take on the bad dudes by herself and have a funky soundtrack to accompany her actions is that a) those movies were either trying to not take themselves too seriously, unlike Proud Mary that thinks it's a legit dramatic/tragic effort, and b) you need a collaboration that works on all three fronts - powerful leading lady AND a decent script AND a director who knows what he/she is doing. This only has one of those in Taraji P Henson, who is not only game for this kind of movie but has done the training necessary for a character who kills a lot of people with guns and some fight choreography. She and a couple other actors are left floundering (notice I only said a few, and that's being kind) by a director who is the opposite of talented.

I'm too lazy to look up who wrote this both half-baked and simultaneously over-cooked story of a mob assassin who kills the father of a boy, turning him an orphan (I can hear Black Dynamite, a character this world really needs now more than ever, yell now "NOT THE ORPHANS! THEY HAVE NO PARENTS!") and then she looks after him a full year later once the boy has, uh, fallen under the dominance of a Russian mobster so then mob-war ensues that's kind of her fault in a lot of ways... but the director? Oh, Babak Najafi had only been on my radar due to a delayed viewing of the sequel London Has Fallen, and in part because some - not all but some - of that had some inspired insanity. It appears though when he doesn't have everything handed over to him the hack in him comes out ten-fold, and the worst part is the dull sensation that washes over you as you slump further in the chair taking in what should or could be a deliciously trashy (or, hell, a legitimately *good*) vehicle for Henson.

Instead we get a vision that doesn't have any vision, as Najafi edits like he's worried we'll lose interest so it's rapid even when the more boring conversations are happening (sometimes with a rather one-note Danny Glover as Mary's boss, who I hadn't seen in a while but could tell a ton of this was ADR'd, badly), and the adverse inevitably happens and interest gets deflated very quickly. Maybe he knows there's not much here, a script that sorely needed some work to liven it up or to make it less of a pseudo uh black Batman origin story in the guise of a female action flick. He leaves his actors for themselves too to do what they can, and how one can tell is that everything with Henson and the boy Danny (Winston) is markedly more natural and emotional than everything else (ie Billy Brown as Tom, who is mostly a wooden presence). Even given some cool looking locations in the Boston city area, a change of pace from the usual Louisiana landscapes for these cheap genre fare, is given the short shrift with his shooting and editing.

I know it sounds like I'm going after a flmmaker for a product that doesn't mean much and should just be enjoyed as dumb popcorn fare, but that's precisely the point. Take Henson out of this (Glover could be optional either way) and this is some direct to video piece of drek that isn't enjoyable as schlock until the final ten minutes when the title track comes up and we see lots of insane bullets and cars and people getting killed happen. No one wants to really be here aside from the two leads, and that makes it all the more painf

"Proud Mary" (R, 1:29) is an action thriller with a mainly African-American cast. Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson stars in the title role as a hit-woman with a hardened heart of gold.

When she carries out orders to take out a man who was heavily indebted to her small but powerful Boston crime family, she learns that he had a tween son who is now an orphan. She spends the next year secretly following Danny (Jahi Di'Allo Winston) around town as he lives on the streets and works for an abusive local drug dealer (Xander Berkeley). At an especially vulnerable moment for Danny, Mary steps in and struggles to break through his defenses to help him and become his protector. But she also inadvertently drags him into a brewing gang war between her family (headed by Danny Glover and Billy Brown) and a group of eastern European criminals (headed by Rade Serbedzija, perhaps best known as the villain in "Taken 2").

This genre movie is fairly formulaic, with little to distinguish it from similar films, but it's also fairly well-done and fans of the genre (and/or the very accomplished cast) will probably find it entertaining. "B-"

Love Ms Henson. The movie was slow and unfocused. Should have had mob family located in realistic place. Boston really??

The writers and director should have watched a few more movies with Pam Grier as female lead. Maybe even watch domino or the female assassin from John Wick 2.

Characters were weak and one dimensional. Hope sequel is better researched and more character development. Will be watching ?!$