Proud Mary

I mean, it's not the best thing ever, but have you seen the state of action movies today? This is above average in many ways.

A little abbreviated, like the studio messed with it, cut out something and there was nothing left to pad it out. I mean, was Neal McDonough really in it for 30 seconds? Seems like he wouldn't show up but for real work so there's a whole extra movie in there we didn't get to see.

Some weird editing. Two conversations were filmed as over the shoulder from each POV and flipped for each character, sometimes every few seconds!

But overall above average for the action, verging on Very Good for the main dramatic tension. Not least because they do NOT over explain. Who is the main character, really? Who cares! It works.

So, 1 and 2 and 3 star ratings, with minimal reviews? This seems like it was a campaign of hate instead. It's not remotely deserving of such a low rating, at all.

I saw no other political issues, so... racist? Not sure, but it's not that bad at all.

Killer Mary (Taraji P. Henson) takes out a target but guilt forces her to leave his son Danny alive. It's one year later. Danny is working for abusive criminal Uncle. Mary has been watching him from afar. She tries to come to his rescue but the situation gets out of hand with Uncle. She massacres Uncle and his crew. She does not tell her boss Benny (Danny Glover) who wants to avoid a gang war with Uncle's criminal gang led by Luka, Uncle's nephew. Benny's son Tom is more aggressive.

Henson proves herself to be a solid action lead. The movie lacks good tension and top directions. There are good actors here. There are so many that some of them are no more than cannon fodder. This movie needs to kick it into a higher gear. It's constantly dragged down by a melodrama of guilt and parental instincts. I wonder if the kid had died, this wouldn't a better pure revenge story. She's a better killer than a mom anyways.

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.

While Taraji P. Henson shines as the lead role, Proud Mary is simply a thinly written, chopily edited, and overly predictable action film.

What started off as a classic, nostalgic feel, is now every other action film cliche that we have seen countless times.

Again, Taraji is really the only actress who was able to save this film.

"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-"