Proud Mary Review

R: Violence

Screen Gems

1 Hr and 26 Minutes

Dir:  Babak Najafi | Writers: John S. Newman, Christian Swegal

Cast: Taraji P. Henson, Billy Brown, Danny Glover, Neal McDonough, Xander Berkeley, Margaret Avery

INTRO: Hey SONY I know you should feel ashamed for releasing certain movies but out of everything, you decided not to promote “Proud Mary”? If anything you shouldn’t have promoted “The Emoji Movie” last year. It’s always Black Screen Gems films that you decide to not give any focus towards.

This movie only had the one trailer that was attached to nearly every film since July. I can’t play “Proud Mary” by Tina Turner without thinking of this trailer. You only had that one trailer, one cool poster, and a synopsis. They didn’t screen this film for critics nor did SONY release any footage from the movie. Why did they do this? BECAUSE BLACK SCREEN GEMS ARE KNOWN TO DO THIS!

The studio is called Screen Gems which is a subsidiary of Sony, but whenever they release a film geared towards the African American demographic, I call them Black Screen Gems. Only Black people go out to see them, and SONY ends up being very happy in the end despite what critics say. Ever since 2014’s “No Good Deed,” Black Screen Gems have only relied on their audience for money opposed to critic reviews because Black people will practically see anything as long as a Black actor they recognize star in it. They had “Obsessed,” “The Perfect Guy,” “When the Bough Breaks,” the list goes on. 

But this doesn’t look like a bad movie right? It’s only a January movie released by Black Screen Gems that's not the same synopsis as every fucking film they've released since 2011. 

Mary is a successful hitwoman working for an organized crime family in Boston. However, her life is completely shifted when she meets a young boy whose path she crosses when a professional hit goes wrong, and she leaves the boy orphaned.

THE GOOD

DON’T DO TARAJI LIKE THAT

I’m going to start off by admitting one thing that really irks me at the moment. This isn’t a terrible movie. It is nowhere close to being good, and it barely passes being rentable but what really pisses me off is that out of all movies, Black Screen Gems decided to hide this. They have a bankable star, and you know what? She carries this film. Taraji P. Henson is this movie. The woman has proven herself throughout her entire career that she can sell a film. Henson’s performance may not be one of the best of her career, but it is good enough to keep you entertained throughout for something that is relentlessly dull. Giving this woman who is full of charisma and knows how to turn the dial to 10 a gun is a fantastic idea. When she kicks ass and shoots up people, its fun to watch.

THE BAD

THAT POSTER WAS A LIE

If you’re walking into this movie thinking you’re going to get a blaxploitation film in the same vein as "Jackie Brown" or "Black Dynamite," you are so wrong. If you’re going into this looking for an action-packed thrill ride, sorry to say that shit ain’t in here until the final ten minutes. What you have here instead is a crime drama that is neither exciting nor interesting. It's just there. We’ve seen stories like this done before and done much better. As I said, it's just dull. Even with the blood and R-rated violence its nothing new or unique. The action is well choreographed, but there are far too few action sequences to make an impression.

THIS BAD BOY AIN’T WORTH IT

Originally you would think this would be like “John Wick” where its a hit woman who has to do one more job or has one last score to settle. Nope, its about her protecting this little orphan boy who she saves and takes under her care. The problem is, is that the boy whose name is Danny is the worst. This kid isn’t innocent; he's a little shit. The actor who portrays him does an okay job, but his character is really unlikable. He constantly steals, lies, curse, and most of all has terrible urban renditions to preexisting music to follow him around. We see how much abuse this kid has taken being under mob boss before Mary comes in to save him, but yet he still decides to act like a little shit.

I’m not one to promote child abuse, but Danny does not take enough beatings to learn from his mistakes. Everything that he's told goes in one ear and out the other. When Mary saves him, he just acts like an ungrateful asshole by disobeying her rules. Don’t mess with Taraji kid; she will get that broom and beat your ass with it. 

Because of Danny, the plot kicks off where Mary starts this mafia feud by killing a relative to a rival mafia group. Everything was all balanced and at equilibrium until Mary kills Uncle (that is the mobster’s name for some reason) and saves Danny. Then right when her mafia family is like we need to find the people who killed this guy so they won’t target us, Mary just sits in a chair sweaty and looking guilty as hell.

Throughout the film, you’re thinking all this mafia shit were people are tortured, killed, and shot at all for this crap child?  All Danny does is just keep testing this woman’s patience? If he were written with some charm, then we would understand Mary’s motivation. After a day with him and all the trouble he causes, you would just drop this kid off at an orphan shelter because of his terrible attitude. 

WELL THIS COULD’VE WENT TO TV

Why can’t I shake the feeling that this was shot in less than 20 days and then reshoots were done in one and were shot with a Canon T3 cameras? In so many scenes where you see Mary sitting at a desk, a Canon camera is just there while you know that it was most likely used whenever their Panavision rental lease was up. There are often occasions where the shots would switch in and out of picture quality in several moments that it's evident that it's done out of filling in missing shots opposed to a stylistic decision. 

This is an hour and 30-minute film, and it takes the final 15 minutes to become the trailer that it teased to be. Proud Mary plays, and Mary finally kicks some ass. I know you see that stylistically amazing poster with Mary and that afro but she never even has an afro throughout this movie. Everything in the trailer is literally everything you see in the trailer is the movie’s ultimate climax. It finally becomes cool too little too late and that's disappointing.

Don’t make your synopsis your plot twist. The summary reveals how Mary was an orphan taken by this mafia family and trained to be a secret weapon. The film, on the other hand, plays out as if we didn’t know this so when there is a confrontation, they play it as if it is a plot twist that Mary was, in fact, an Orphan. Mary becomes emotional as the music blares and you're just sitting there going, “I already knew this. Why are you playing it off as if this should be this extravagant layer of your story?” And then you remember, Sony didn’t give a shit about this movie.

LAST STATEMENT

“Proud Mary” is a lame and cheaply made Black Screen Gems film that won’t probably work for its demographic due to its slow pacing and dull execution. It shows Henson is a great action star but this movie isn’t worthy of her amazingness. And hey Screen Gems/SONY next time when you decide not promote one of your releases make sure it’s for a movie that is actually terrible other than something that is just meh. Save your shitty marketing for a film that deserves your shitty marketing. 

Rating: 2/5 | 41%

Rating: “Proud Mary” by Tina Turner plays while Mary kicks ass.