Bullet Points: The Protégé
Hollywood and the world of action entertainment have been feeling “The John Wick Effect” for the past few years. Sure John Wick is not the first ever anti-hero assassin in movie history, but Riggs and Murtaugh weren’t the first “buddy cops” either. It isn’t always about who is first, it is about who hits at the right time.
John Wick hit at the right time and it is no surprise that other movies want in on that success. In this year alone we have seen Nobody, Gunpowder Milkshake and now the Martin Campbell directed, The Protégé, all thanks to “The John Wick Effect”…
- An Assassin is Born: The movie begins in Vietnam back in 1991. Moody (Samuel L. Jackson, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard), an assassin who is hired to kill bad people, finds someone has already done his work for him. That someone was a young girl named Anna. Moody gets Anna out of Vietnam and trains her in the art of assassination… The movie jumps ahead 30 years and we see Anna (Maggie Q, Mission: Impossible 3) and Moody in action. Their target is “The Butcher of Bucharest” and this mission in Romania helps further establish the bond Maggie has with Moody, who is essentially her second father, and the level of action and bloodshed that will continue through the rest of the film.
- The Start of an Interesting Relationship: Few people know that Maggie is an assassin (or by the time they figure it out it is too late), but in the every day world Maggie is a cat lover and the proprietor of a vintage book store in London. It is the book store where we meet Michael Rembrandt (Michael Keaton, Spider-Man: Homecoming)… Rembrandt comes in looking for a gift and the sparks between Rembrandt and Anna are apparent from the start. Both Anna and Rembrandt are intrigued by one another, but before we can figure out exactly where this interesting relationship is headed, Maggie’s world gets flipped upside down. Maggie stops by Moody’s place after work for a visit and quickly realizes something is very wrong… Moody had some uninvited guests and Moody is now dead!
- Full Circle: It becomes obvious to Anna that whatever Moody was last working on got him killed and she makes it her mission to finish the job Moody started and more importantly to find out who ordered the hit on Moody. This takes Anna back to where it all started for her… Vietnam. At this point, The Protégé could have easily become a paint by numbers revenge movie, but there’s more than one interesting twist thrown in, including Michael Rembrandt… Rembrandt was not just a book store patron that was hitting on Anna, he is connected to whoever killed Moody and the interesting relationship between Anna and Michael Rembrandt gets even more interesting.
The Protégé delivers across the board… The action is intense and will get your adrenaline pumping. On more than one occasion at the screening I attended, the graphic fight scenes received a huge reaction from my fellow theater goers…. The cast is strong with Maggie Q adding to her already impressive action resume, Samuel L. Jackson adding to his already impressive action legacy and then there’s Michael Keaton. Has Michael Keaton ever performed poorly in anything? If he has, I have not seen it… Keaton’s Michael Rembrandt is the most compelling character in the entire movie and proves to be a real x factor… Again, The Protégé did not settle for what could have been a run of the mill, paint by numbers revenge story, instead it overachieves without overkill.
I feel like I am overachieving every time I provide some Bonus Bullet Points…
- Familiar Face: Robert Patrick of Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Zero Tolerance fame plays Billy Boy, the head of a motorcycle club in Vietnam and an old friend of Moody and Anna.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Samuel L. Jackson play with a drone, then The Protégé is the movie for you.
- Memorable Quote: “You point a gun at my pussy and then you ask me to bed?” – Anna
- Soundtraxx: Isaac Hayes’ “That Loving Feeling” is featured in one of the more memorable scenes in The Protégé. This was not the first time the music of Isaac Hayes was featured in a movie starring Samuel L. Jackson. Who could forget Isaac’s biggest hit, “The Theme from Shaft”, in 2000’s Shaft reboot!?
- Words of Wisdom: “Technology, it’s gonna fuck us all one day.” – Moody
