lojitsu
Here's The Lowedown on "Proud Mary" (R - 2018 - US)...I am the mothering type!Genre: Action/Crime
My Score: 5.9Cast=7 Acting=6 Plot=5 Ending=8 Story=3
Violent=8 Pace=4 F/X=7 Crime=7 Twist=4An orphaned girl is adopted into one of the strongest organized crime families and becomes their best killer. When a sanctioned hit leaves a boy alive, Mary decides to abandon her family in order to right her wrong."What part about don't go into my room didn't you understand?" I love Taraji P. Henson and she was good in this film...but the film itself was not rollin...rollin...rollin on the river (de-do do do do). The story lacked any substance and there was no character development...plus not enough violence to counter it. It was pretty good for what it was, but I can't recommend you go searching for it.
viewsonfilm.com
A hitwoman decides to leave a life of killing after joining an organized crime family in Boston, MA. Said hitwoman also attempts to look after a young kid who's being terrorized by the nasty thugs he works for. That's the gist of Proud Mary, my latest review. After an opening credits sequence that's a homage to blaxploitation films everywhere, "Mary" reeks in terms of familiarity and forced habitualness. It descends into becoming a totally stock mob thriller. "Mary's" got cool cars but it has risible one-liners. It's got eccentric guns but it takes itself way too earnestly. Finally, "Mary" is violent but its violence doesn't completely sting. All the carnage and duality feels half-assed at best. Heck, there's no visual poetry or ferocity as birds in flight. Bottom line: Proud Mary ain't no downtown Foxy Brown.Proud Mary's lead is Taraji P. Henson. She's visibly beautiful, she's a terrific actress, she's bad in black, and she has that apparent Pam Grier screen presence. However, Taraji is not an action star. "Mary's" director (Babak Najafi) knew this early on and that's why he films Proud Mary's fighting sequences so shoddily, so sloppily, and without clarity. When Henson's Mary Goodwin takes out 10-15 guys in "Mary's" final act, you don't believe it's possible and furthermore, you believe the stunt double did all the work. Henson, an Oscar-nominated trouper and someone coming off a cinematic hit a la Hidden Figures, needs to have a long talk with her agent concerning "Mary". She needs to decide whether or not to bring down the anvil and fire this person.All in all, Proud Mary has chintzy dialogue, two or more main characters that fade in and out, a barely resonant Neil McDonough, a tedious midsection, and Tina Turner's 1971 hit song being played as an obvious ploy. As a mediocre version of a female John Wick, a neutered version of this year's Accident Man, and a flick that borrows its plot line from 1994's The Professional, "Mary" sadly earns its January release date. This disposable movie is nothing to be "proud" of. Rating: 1 and a half stars.
rodrig58
Don't go to Boston, it's an ugly city and there's not even one policeman anywhere, to intervene when shots are heard... And, there is this black lady, Taraji P. Henson, she call herself Proud Mary, she can shoot you... She has already shot about 100 men all armed to teeth, just to stay with a teenage black boy to whom she felt guilty for killing his father. And her car is enchanted, does not explode when is thrown by hundreds of bullets, as in many other movies... Without the eponymous song by Tina Turner (which is actually composed by John Fogerty) and Temptations' Papa Was A Rolling Stone, the movie would not be attractive at all. But, I have to say this too, the music does not fit at all with what we see on the screen.
