'Proud Mary' Review

Proud Mary sets its sights on Mary, a hit woman working for one of Boston's biggest crime families, as she crosses paths with a young boy after an assassination gone wrong. The encounter then changes the course of both their lives as Mary adopts Danny to protect him from Boston's most dangerous mob families.

Proud Mary was one of the new films released last weekend you may not have heard of before visiting this review, and trust me when I say it was for good reason... Screen Gems, a division of Sony Pictures, notoriously made the decision not to heavily market Proud Mary. You'll probably see this point brought up in almost any internet review for the film you choose to read, but I went to YouTube to demonstrate just how minimal the marketing was for Proud Mary. My findings were one trailer that came out five months ago and two vignettes released last week. That's it. When you consider that the studio also didn't hold any advanced screenings for critics and really restricted the number of theaters playing the film last Thursday night, things don't look good. Screen Gems was making absolutely no effort to promote this film.

Therefore, it should come at no surprise that this movie was a major melodramatic mess... Babak Najafi, the director best known for London Has Fallen, haphazardly helmed the flick which also features a lousy script from John Stuart Newman, Christian Swegal, and Steve Antin. Plot points weren't provided with proper set-up so the story was rather jumbled and I cannot stress to you enough how terrible all of the dialogue was, which the stilted line delivery from the phoned-in actors certainly didn't do any favors. From a technical standpoint, the edit's composed of plenty of quick cuts and the camerawork was rather pedestrian. Thankfully, there wasn't much shaky-cam... but the forced inclusion of numerous transition scenes showing Mary entering, exiting, or driving a vehicle were tedious to say the least.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of all though was Proud Mary's lack of energy or clear focus. This is supposed to be an action movie for goodness sake! However, there are maybe three action sequences total that all failed to impress me whatsoever and each one was horribly mismatched to an upbeat Motown song. The songs didn't really mesh well with the action occurring onscreen, so when they're incorporated, it's seemingly for the purposes of featuring a fun, peppy song in the background. I don't mind Najafi going for a '70s Motown style if he had committed to it, but that idea lasts all of about four minutes during the film's opening credits. It's almost entirely forgotten afterwards.

As for the cast, their lifeless performances and stale line delivery will probably go down among the worst of the year. Taraji P. Henson is an actress whom I know to be capable of delivering a solid performance (just look to Hidden Figures as evidence), and while she certainly elevates this flick when compared to her costars, she comes across as dull and dreary when all is said-and-done. She's trying to play a tough persona, but the character's actions suggest otherwise and so her character's personality is virtually non-existent and the audience is left looking at her vacant expression. I don't like to chide child actors, but Jahi Di'Allo Winston was noticeably inexperienced and his character was a bit annoying. Meanwhile, Billy Brown, Danny Glover, and Neal McDonough are hardly worth mentioning due to either how laughably abysmal their acting was or how little they had to do in their lacking screen-time. 

The title may tell us Mary is proud, but it's really no wonder that Screen Gems wasn't. Proud Mary is an excruciating watch that I can't in good conscious suggest anyone ever see. It's truly a shameful use of an hour and half.

Film Assessment: F