Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Proud Mary Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 7, 2018

Proud Mary’s opening title sequence and its supporting music hearken back to a 1970s styling, but the movie is otherwise a film of modern construction, set in the present day, and entirely forgettable. It’s a generic, paint-by-numbers ride through stale action and unimaginative relationships, namely the hitman (or, here, hit woman) who gains a conscience and dedicates her life to saving a boy who she left homeless, hopeless, and abandoned following a hit on his parents. The film offers nothing of dramatic interest. Action is stale. Characters are forgettable. The movie is competently put together and doesn’t overextend its stay, but other than the relative novelty of a female hit woman, whose maternal instincts kick in where she’s otherwise a cold-blooded killer, there’s nothing here worth watching.

Danny (Jahi Di'Allo Winston) is a young boy dealing drugs, living a dangerous life, carrying a gun, and getting involved with seedy people who would just as soon see him dead. The boy is starving, and even if he uses pennies on the dollar of the drug money to feed himself, his handler, Uncle (Xander Berkeley), beats him. Severely. The boy passes out in an alleyway after chasing down his stolen bag, only to be discovered by Mary (Taraji P. Henson), a professional hit woman whose actions a year earlier left him orphaned. When she discovers he is being badly beaten and realizes his life path is taking him towards a dark dead end, she intervenes, kills Uncle, and sets off a chain reaction of events that will put her, the boy, and everything she knows in jeopardy.

The film is slow, action is relatively sparse in the early goings, and what action comes is executed and photographed with little concern for creativity. It’s one of those movies where the hero, or heroes, shoot up a house full of people, accurately hitting their mark every time, while the bad guys flail around and shoot up the walls but never the good guys. Sure, a flesh wound of little lasting consequence may get in the way in order to humanize an otherwise robotic killing machine, but the entire thing is penned straight out of Action 101. That’s much of the film’s problem. There’s never any real emotional connection with the characters. The audience can believe that, from a raw humanitarian perspective, Mary comes to care for Danny. But the script offers little incentive for the character to dig deep and little reason for the audience to become involved and root for the good guys other than good prevailing over bad. The film never can achieve success framing itself as either the story of a surrogate mother to a boy she left an orphan or as a run-and-gun Action film. It does neither well, simply plowing through the motions of building a vacuous, rote story and photographing blandly executed gunplay with little consequence for any of the characters beyond crude script maneuverings. The film is never daring, takes no risks, and plays out exactly as one would expect after ten minutes of exposition.

Henson is fine in the role, a little stiff and never truly selling the despair that has come to shape her life, impacted by countless experiences in violence and countered by the hope of saving a life rather than taking one. She "caught in a life she doesn't want" and yada, yada, yada. The audience doesn’t get much background on her beyond the hit on Danny’s family and some brief exposition in a scene with her handler, played by Danny Glover, who seems disinterested, tired, and unwilling to give life to a character as written in a script that gives him little with which to work. There are no bright spots in the movie, no performances that ignite a fire or give life to this dullard of a movie that simply goes through the motions.

Proud Mary Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Proud Mary features a good looking, complex, highly agreeable 1080p transfer. The image is delightfully firm, revealing high-yield detailing across the board. Facial textures are, of course, the standout. They're intimately revealing, whether pores, stubble, or perfect skin manicured by makeup. Environments are likewise precise, whether warm, richly appointed homes or rough urban textures. Colors are well pronounced, full and vibrant, with enjoyable subtleties and pop as necessary. Skin tones appear spot-on accurate. Black levels are pleasantly deep, particularly many of the film's nighttime exteriors or even shadowy daytime locales, such as under a large bridge when Mary guns a character down. The image is largely free of any significant blemish. Sharp-eyed viewers will note an example or two of very insignificant background aliasing, but banding and even noise are largely inconsequential. This is a very good new release image from Sony.

Proud Mary Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Proud Mary features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Surrounds are used extensively to deliver the opening title music, with particular attention paid to support lyrics. Music is aggressive, too, featuring the expected range and fidelity of a new release track, with fluid, accurate spacing and adequate low end support weight. Surrounds additionally carry various examples of city din, such as passing elevated trains, traffic, and even small and insignificant but enjoyable elements like buzzing fluorescent lights in Mary's bedroom closet or seaside environmental effects as heard around the 30-minute mark. Gunfire is prominent. Automatic weapons fire hits in hard bursts, popping with good low end intensity and zip. A shrieking car alarm pierces the stage in the final act. Dialogue is fine, featuring flawless performance in terms of clarity of delivery, placement, and prioritization.

Proud Mary Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Proud Mary contains three featurettes. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code is included with purchase.

• Mary's World (1080p, 5:34): A plot recap and character exploration.
• The Beginning of the End (1080p, 5:46): A closer look at the film's action scenes.
• If Looks Could Kill (1080p, 3:57): Another look at the title character, with emphasis on wardrobe and her firearms collection.
• Trailers (1080p): Pitches for Sony's digital cameras that were used in the making of Proud Mary (1:33) and trailers for some other Sony films on Blu-ray.

Proud Mary Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Proud Mary offers nothing of interest. The stock story lacks intensity, the characters are thrown onto the screen with no imagination, acting is bland, action is tiresome. Sony's Blu-ray is much more competent, featuring high-end video and audio. A few extras are thrown in for good measure. Skip it.