Today’s quick review: The Prince. When his daughter Beth (Gia Mantegna) disappears from college, Paul Brennan (Jason Patric), a small-town mechanic, travels to New Orleans to track her down. With the help of Angela (Jessica Lowndes), Beth’s party-loving friend, he manages to get a bead on her last known location. But his search catches the attention of Omar (Bruce Willis), an enemy from Paul’s past who will stop at nothing to see him dead.
The Prince is a budget action movie about a man who’s forced to revisit his violent past to rescue his daughter. The Prince follows in the footsteps of other action movies, escalating from an open-ended search for a missing girl to a one man war against all the forces a crime kingping can bring to bear. However, the movie’s execution falls well short of its ambition, let down by flaky writing, sloppy action scenes, and a weak protagonist.
The Prince’s greatest weakness is its protagonist. In spite of repeated attempts to build Paul up as a legend, a violent killer who terrorized New Orleans for years before changing his ways and settling down, Paul’s reputation never feels justified. Jason Patric is a better fit for the firm but kind everyman he starts the movie as than the cold-blooded killer the movie tries to make him. This one mistake means that the film’s plot never clicks.
The Prince also runs into other issues. Its cast features a few familiar faces, including Bruce Willis, John Cusack, and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. But there’s precious little material for them to work with, and their few scenes in the film don’t contribute much. The action scenes are similarly disappointing. The Prince sticks to basic gunplay and a bare minimum of hand-to-hand combat, but even these stunts are executed loosely.
Check out The Prince only if you’re interested in flawed budget action movies for their own sake. The Prince attempts to follow a standard action formula, but it has neither the characters nor the script nor the action to make the formula work. The result is an action flick that attains mixed results in a few areas and strong results in none. Most viewers would be better off with another entry into the genre, including some budget picks.
For a better-executed crime drama about a small-town man with a dubious past, try A History of Violence. For a harder-hitting action thriller about a man trying to rescue his daughter, try Taken. For a much more stylish action movie about a retired killer, try John Wick. For a budget crime movie with a similar cast, try Set Up.
4.6 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 4.0 for a weak lead and poor all-around execution.