Director: Babak Najafi
Writer: John Stuart Newman, Christina Swegal, Steve Antin (Screenplay)
Starring: Taraji P Henson, Billy Brown, Jahl Di’Allo Winston, Neal McDonough, Margaret Avery, Xander Berkeley, Rade Serbedzija, Danny Glover
Plot: Mary (Taraji P. Henson) is a hit woman working for an organized crime family in Boston, whose life is completely turned around when she meets a young boy whose path she crosses when a professional hit goes bad.
Tagline – Execute with style.
Runtime: 1 Hour 29 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Basic Action
Story: Proud Mary starts when Mary (Henson) performs a hit, leaving the son of the victim alive, one year later, Danny (Winston) the same boy has fallen into the life of crime, with Mary watching over him until she needs to rescue him.
When Mary takes out the man behind the abusing Danny, she starts a war between her own gang led by Benny (Glover) and Luka’s (Serbedzija) one she must hide the truth from before needing to fight back against the people she once trusted.
Thoughts on Proud Mary
Characters – Mary is a hitwoman, she lives the high life between jobs, but she won’t take out kids, this has led to her needing to watch over one kid she refused to kill, she sees the same in Danny as she had, being left to fend for themselves. She wants to give Danny the life he deserves after knowing what could happen to him in the life of crime. Tom is the former boyfriend of Mary’s co-worker and raised with Mary, he is loyal to his father Benny, while trying to keep the business together, we don’t get much else out of this character. Danny is the loose end for one of Mary’s hits, he is left to fall into the life of crime before Mary takes him in to show him a normal life, one he should have been having.
Performances – Taraji P Henson looks the part here, she brings us the beauty assassin character well, but she is clearly too emotional at times for a cold-hearted killer. Billy Brown is the typical family matters in the killer’s circle, he doesn’t bring anything fresh to the performance. Jahi is good in the kid role, he does everything needed without looking out of place.
Story – The story here is a hitwoman that wants out of the life of crime after facing the reality of what she has been doing to children caught in the crossfire and of course she isn’t allowed to leave that easily. This is everything we have become used in a story, we have seen these movies escalate in quality in recent years, see John Wick for this, but this one is one that just never gets going enough to make us care about the decision. If you do want to see the basic story this will check the boxes without being the stand out on of any years.
Action/Crime – The trailers makes this feel like a full blown action movie, well this is wrong, we get moments of action sure, they are fun just not often enough for a movie that feels like it should be way over the top. We deal with the crime world throughout the film as we see how the people operate in this world.
Settings – New York City, the setting of choice, it is one I always say looks amazing for a backdrop, this shows how the criminals will be fighting for control of it too.
Scene of the Movie – Even though I hated the music, mostly because it is in an advert in England, the shoot-out is fun.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Shopping, in an action movie, no thank you.
Final Thoughts – This is a standard action movie that doesn’t offer anything new to the genre, it has basic moments of action even if Taraji P Henson does bring us the highlight of the film.
Overall: Easy to watch basic action movie.
Rating
