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Not a fan, the story was all over the place and unbelievable. I love Henson as an actor, but this movie is better left for cable and not worth the price of a movie ticket.

Pretty lame movie. An assassin with a heart of gold? Meh. The only good scene in this is the assault set to Tina Turner's "Proud Mary". They must have pulled most of that scene for the trailer that peeked my interest in his film in the first place. And the music is another bright spot! Other than that, yeesh.

"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-"

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.

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.

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.

I have NEVER checked my watch so often in a movie!

I know most movies are not what we expect but this one was way off the mark. I absolutely LOVE Taraji! She's a great dramatic and comedic actress but totally unbelievable as an action heroin. The script was all over the place which caused the acting to suffer and I still have no clue where they were trying to take this from the beginning. I really REALLY wanted to like this movie but there is absolutely nothing to like about it. It came off as low budget, and half written.

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.

It's like film from the 90s but with female protagonist, who shoot all enemies from the first shot and don't get wounded from over9000 shots at her. overall it good movie for 90 but C- for 21 century

TPHenson, BBrown and JWinston were all great. PERFECT ! I don't see why the hate and low rating for Proud Mary. TPH kicked ass. I absolutely love Brown from HTGAWM but I am not to familiar with Winston but he was bad ass too. I hope to see this kid in more films. Overall, this movie is a 10+ stars for me. Haters, please write and be the lead character in a movie and see how many likes/dislikes your movie gets. Than maybe you will think twice before criticizing someone writing, directing and acting.

Even though the plot was somewhat thin and not really believable the acting and the action made up for the shortcomings of the writing. As many of the performances were simply archetypes of villains and bad guys it deems Taraji P. Henson always make her screen time really quite interesting and the direction of the action sequences were done exceptional well. The only real shortcomings with the cliched story line. To sum it up I figure if I can suspend disbelief an hour and forty-five minutes with unbelievable storylines for the likes of Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron or Scarlett Johansson why not suspend belief for Taraji P. Henson.

Love Ms Henson. The movie was slow and unfocused. Should have had mob family located in realistic place. Boston really??

The writers and director should have watched a few more movies with Pam Grier as female lead. Maybe even watch domino or the female assassin from John Wick 2.

Characters were weak and one dimensional. Hope sequel is better researched and more character development. Will be watching ?!$

The problem with trying to do a straight-faced homage to the Jack Hill/Pam Grier movies of the 70s (most notably Coffy and Foxy Brown) where a lady could have an exuberant name, take on the bad dudes by herself and have a funky soundtrack to accompany her actions is that a) those movies were either trying to not take themselves too seriously, unlike Proud Mary that thinks it's a legit dramatic/tragic effort, and b) you need a collaboration that works on all three fronts - powerful leading lady AND a decent script AND a director who knows what he/she is doing. This only has one of those in Taraji P Henson, who is not only game for this kind of movie but has done the training necessary for a character who kills a lot of people with guns and some fight choreography. She and a couple other actors are left floundering (notice I only said a few, and that's being kind) by a director who is the opposite of talented.

I'm too lazy to look up who wrote this both half-baked and simultaneously over-cooked story of a mob assassin who kills the father of a boy, turning him an orphan (I can hear Black Dynamite, a character this world really needs now more than ever, yell now "NOT THE ORPHANS! THEY HAVE NO PARENTS!") and then she looks after him a full year later once the boy has, uh, fallen under the dominance of a Russian mobster so then mob-war ensues that's kind of her fault in a lot of ways... but the director? Oh, Babak Najafi had only been on my radar due to a delayed viewing of the sequel London Has Fallen, and in part because some - not all but some - of that had some inspired insanity. It appears though when he doesn't have everything handed over to him the hack in him comes out ten-fold, and the worst part is the dull sensation that washes over you as you slump further in the chair taking in what should or could be a deliciously trashy (or, hell, a legitimately *good*) vehicle for Henson.

Instead we get a vision that doesn't have any vision, as Najafi edits like he's worried we'll lose interest so it's rapid even when the more boring conversations are happening (sometimes with a rather one-note Danny Glover as Mary's boss, who I hadn't seen in a while but could tell a ton of this was ADR'd, badly), and the adverse inevitably happens and interest gets deflated very quickly. Maybe he knows there's not much here, a script that sorely needed some work to liven it up or to make it less of a pseudo uh black Batman origin story in the guise of a female action flick. He leaves his actors for themselves too to do what they can, and how one can tell is that everything with Henson and the boy Danny (Winston) is markedly more natural and emotional than everything else (ie Billy Brown as Tom, who is mostly a wooden presence). Even given some cool looking locations in the Boston city area, a change of pace from the usual Louisiana landscapes for these cheap genre fare, is given the short shrift with his shooting and editing.

I know it sounds like I'm going after a flmmaker for a product that doesn't mean much and should just be enjoyed as dumb popcorn fare, but that's precisely the point. Take Henson out of this (Glover could be optional either way) and this is some direct to video piece of drek that isn't enjoyable as schlock until the final ten minutes when the title track comes up and we see lots of insane bullets and cars and people getting killed happen. No one wants to really be here aside from the two leads, and that makes it all the more painful. I'm sorry, but for all of the support I want to give Henson, she needs people around her that actually care about what they are doing (again, for as silly as Hill/Grier projects of the 70's, there was some attention to craft going on) and can give her something that rises above mediocrity.

That actually makes it worse, since the marketing and even the opening credits give the impression of a decent homage. It's a conflicting emotion one is left with: on the one hand, you want something like this to have some success so she can get more roles like this or has more opportunities to expand what she can do (Empire won't be on the air forever, and as solid as she is in Hidden Figures it's not all she's capable of). On the other hand, if this movie tanking means that Najafi is a little closer to being run out of Hollywood to go back to directing the Iranian direct-to-video crap he was doing before, that's fine too. So... ugh.

A not very good remake of Leon: The Professional with Jean Reno from 1994. What ever happened to original works rather than the "safe" unoriginal remakes that often produce far less box office reciepts than the originals and yet keep getting produced!

Anyway, more in the style of modern action movies which produce more "as if" moments and unbelievable action sequences, not to mention more bullets than any weapon can hold in a single load, thrown in with a few dramatic moments and one-liners.

Definitely not on my Sat afternoon rewatch list.

With its opening title scenes and killer 1970s R&B soundtrack, Proud Mary is aiming to be an updated homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s.

Mary (Taraji P Henson) is an assassin who takes out takes out a bookie who has debts. She leaves his teenage son Danny alive. One year later Danny is working as a drug mule for a gangster called Uncle who is abusive towards him.

Mary has been a keeping an eye on him. One wonders why did she never place him in care with someone who would look after him. Mary ends up killing Uncle and this starts a feud with a Russian mob and her own boss, Benny (Danny Glover) who is blamed for Uncle's death.

Proud Mary is a dreary action film with a banal script. It never gets exciting even when people are shooting at each other. Taraji P Henson is no Pam Grier.

REVIEW - PROUD MARY

Saw the title of this film and was intrigued as the title is the same as one of the songs that I love "Proud Mary" so obviously I thought they have used this song to hang the story of the film on, right?

Wrong.

Whilst the story is of interest and (don't get me wrong) this is an enjoyable film the premise just doesn't sit right and actually spoils the whole thing.

A female orphan being adopted (taken in) by a mob family and trained to be a contact killer(don't worry I'm not giving anything away) suddenly having a conscience and turning her back on.............

Worth seeing, but save it for a rainy evening when nothing else is on, you will enjoy it but not as much as other films in this genre like 'Death Wish, John Wick' or the hugely awaited The Equalizer 2.

Rating 6 out of 10

Here's what's good about this movie:

• Taraji Henson
• the marketing
• the premise
• unfortunately, that's it

The writing and the directing are just so passionless. Everything is bland and empty. I sincerely think its creators should be screened and treated for depression, because they clearly have nothing in their lives that brings them joy. It feels like they have been trying to leave the industry but were contractually obligated to make five more films before they did, and this was the fourth.

Watching this film, you will get the distinct impression that they never smiled a single time during its making. And neither will you during its watching.

Taraji P. Henson is a beast but this movie was an atrocity!

Taraji deserves better material!!

With all of the negative review i was expecting Proud Mary to be a flop thats why it's always best to take what critics say with a grain of salt. Sometimes you just gotta watch it for yourself and make your own decision, with that being said I'm glad I watched the movie any way. I thought the storyline was good, it kept my attention all the way through, no other actress could have played that role but Ms. Henson.

As in my title I'm bias for Taraji, otherwise I would have given this a 2 for action and soundtrack. Script was sad and predictable. Was a 70's style movie that they must have tried to bring back to this era like a throwback, lol.

Good casting who must have owed a favor to somebody. Definitely a cable or video only movie.

This is honestly one of my favorite movies. Everyone that left a low rating is basically saying this role doesn't fit taraji... just because she hasn't played this type of role before doesn't mean she can't. She played this role VERY well.. Loved this.

Proud Mary (2018)

This is an action thriller film that follows successful hit-woman 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. It stars Taraji P. Henson, Billy Brown, Danny Glover, Neal McDonough, Xander Berkeley, Margaret Avery, and Jahi Di'Allo Winston. The film received negative reviews from critics and only grossed $21 million, but those who did watch the film generally enjoyed it. This film was misjudged by Hollywood critics like most films are today. Gone are the days a film can be what it is without it being criticized for its genre's tropes. This need for films to be everything but what they are is destroying film making. Filmakers are trying to hard to please everyone, but the actual people who watch the films. This is an action film and nothing more. A pretty good action film as well. Let it be that simple.

Proud Mary (1 out of 5 stars).

Proud Mary is an action thriller film that is not proud of itself. Taraji P. Henson is a talented actress. With her trying to make a film trying to be an awesome bada** assassin and trying to be the next John Wick type of film. However, Proud Mary fails almost at everything being an action film and all.

The plot follows Mary (Taraji P. Henson) a hitwoman that is working for a crime family. She assassinates a guy leaving a boy to be orphaned. A year later, she tracks down the boy and tries to protect him from the crime family itself.

The plot is horrible. Well there is not much of a story. It does borrow elements from better movies like The Professional. An assassin that befriends with a young kid and tries to protect them kind of movie. There is not much of a story. Besides we learn Mary works for a crime family. And she assassinates and is trying to protect the kid. John Wick had a better-orchestrated plot than this film. And that is not saying much cause those movies just had a simple plot set up and giving the rest of the movie an excuse for its great action. Even Proud Mary fails with the action.

The action and shoot out scenes are repetitive and boring. Does not look like Taraji P. Henson did not need much of training since there was nothing creative about those fight scenes. It was all basic and generic. This is supposed to be that types of movie were plot is thin and the action stands out. But it never takes off to being exciting.

The script and direction was horrible at having a strong narrative with its story. It just feels like all these scenes of Mary assassinating people and fighting bad guys were just random and did not serve a purpose to the story. The editing was bad. It did not help build the thrills or excitement with the action scenes.

Taraji P. Henson was flat and one-dimensional. Her character saving the boy and trying to help him fails at building any character. The film also lacked in character development with her and every other character in the movie.

Overall, Proud Mary is a terrible film. The action is horrible. The plot is tedious. The characters are boring.

I do not recommend the film at all. If you are looking for a movie with a bada** female action star I will say watch Atomic Blonde instead. This film tries too hard to be the next James Bond, Bourne movies, John Wick, or Atomic Blonde. While Proud Mary is the worse at being an action movie.

Don't go to Boston, it's an ugly city and there's not even one policeman anywhere, to intervene when shots are heard... And, there is this black lady, Taraji P. Henson, she call herself Proud Mary, she can shoot you... She has already shot about 100 men all armed to teeth, just to stay with a teenage black boy to whom she felt guilty for killing his father. And her car is enchanted, does not explode when is thrown by hundreds of bullets, as in many other movies... Without the eponymous song by Tina Turner (which is actually composed by John Fogerty) and Temptations' Papa Was A Rolling Stone, the movie would not be attractive at all. But, I have to say this too, the music does not fit at all with what we see on the screen.