24 October, 2014

The Prince review

Genre: Action, Gangster, Drama, Thriller.
Starring: Jason Patric, Bruce Willis, Jessica Lowndes, John Cusack, Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, Don Harvey, Rain, Gia Mantegna, Jesse Pruett, Didi Costine, Bonnie Sommerville, Tim Fields, Johnathon Schaech, Andrea Burns, Jim Bennett.
Year Of Release: 2014
Certificate: 15 (UK)
Runtime: 91 Minutes
Director: Brian A Miller
Synopsis: "When his daughter is kidnapped, a retired assassin is drawn back into the life he gave up. To rescue her, he must confront his former rival." IMDB










The film revolves around Paul (Patric) a single father who finds out his college daughter Beth (Mategna) has unexpectedly disappeared, he takes help from her school "friend" Angela (Lowndes) to track her down. Finding himself fighting off countless bad guys with the finesse of ALL action movie heroes before him. After all his ass kicking and gun slinging he works his way up to a man called The Pharmacy (50 Cent) who has been supplying drugs to young women stuck in that world. He is merely a stepping stone to the real "big baddie" because you know Action flicks have to have one. The real villain is Omar (Willis) who is in turn the crime boss who wife and daughter were killed twenty years previously by Patric himself, they were blown up in a car intended for Omar. 

Decades later Omar is still hell bent on getting Paul for what he done, Paul enlists the help of his former colleague Sam (Cusack) who shows that he has also not lost ability to tear things up when needed. After meeting up with his old colleague that is when the proverbial poop hits the fan, resulting in two vastly over the top shoot outs, which I personally enjoyed I love some good over the top action.

However, all the action scenes in the world couldn't make up for such a shoddy script and below par acting displays. The script relied A LOT on the charisma of Jason Patric, turns out he didn't have any at all he was a bland, boring monotone "hero" who you never actually sided with. Unfortunately John Cusack doesn't get the screen time he needs and deserves, it says a lot when the only acting performance that wasn't below par came from 50 Cent the man who isn't even an actor by trade. Everybody else was sub par especially Gia Mantegna, Jessica Lowndes and Jason Partic.

Overall, the film could be considered a "popcorn flick" in the sense that it has no character development, indulging story, over the top action and "blockbuster" names who do not try. The film is complete with a list of overly used cliches and stereotypes;
  • Bad guy gone good,
  • Lost loved one,
  • Invincible "hero",
  • Unlikely sidekick,
  • Bid baddie who talks instead of doing his deed,
  • An Asian who happens to know martial arts,
  • The "hero" is wounded in the final "battle".
Talk about yawn, the film goes from bad to worse as the half assed script scrolls on by without anybody caring for sensibility or even the real world. I would personally avoid it at all costs, unless you are a Partic fan (which I only have to assume some people are considering he gets lead roles) while the film will fill the void if you're looking for a senseless action flick then maybe go here if ALL choices are out the window.

3/10




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