THE PROTEGE (2021)

THE PROTEGE (2021)

Tagline: We Are All Programmed to Survive

(Action, Thriller, John Wick’s Sister) [R]

Our Past is never where we left it, we all have scars. If you stare at them long enough you will remember how you got them.

In this one, Anna who is just a young scared girl with a gun in her hand is rescued by a well-known assassin named Moody. With Moody as a bit of a father figure, Anna ends up becoming an assassin herself, but when Moody is killed, she decides to take revenge. To do this she must travel back to Vietnam where she was found by Moody. 

First off, this film is directed by the guy that directed CASINO ROYALE and is put out by the studio that produced JOHN WICK. Needless to say, that was enough for me to check this out, but I also like Samuel L Jackson and Maggie Q in most things they in so that helped. 

Second off, there is a little flea in this house right now and I am going to take that sucker out. It will not know what hit it. I have already given it 3 warnings to just go over to another side of the room and leave me alone…but no…no…this bug had to make it personal. 

Acting-wise Anna is played by Maggie Q. Maggie is probably best known for other roles, but my favorite movie she’s in is LIVE FREE DIE HARD. She has always been good in action roles, but she kills it in this thing regarding believability. I will say her method of accomplishing her goals actually seems to be to just get caught by the bad guys and live long enough to jack stomp them. Michael Keaton (best known for being Batman in a few movies )plays a man named Rembrandt, who is basically a complex character that cleans up messes left by his bosses among other things. Moody is played by Samuel L. Jackson who is probably my favorite character in this. The rest of the acting is pretty solid. 

It’s pretty clear that Maggie Q and Michael Keaton have no problem taking on action roles, stunt doubles or not. This movie really works in the action department when it does action. I will say though, that this isn’t a straight-up all-action, all-the-time flick. It’s shot more like a 007 movie only without all the cool cars. I think the biggest difference between a B-movie and something like this is that the scale just feels grander. The lighting, score, and pacing all work for the most part and you can feel the tension rising with the stakes. 

One of the weak points with this is the fact that when it’s slow it just really drags. It clocks in at 1 hour and 49 minutes but feels every bit of 2.5 hours.  This movie does have some twists but it’s not enough to save what is ultimately bland storytelling with a fairly cliché revenge story. 

Overall this one is not going to end up in my bottom 10 movies of 2021. It falls into the “pretty solid” territory. We do get some decent writing here and there which pushed this up to a 4 out of 7 for me.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF FOURTEEN FILMS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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