Review: The Prince

Jason Patric plays a widowed mechanic who worries when his college age daughter (Gia Mantegna) stops answering his calls. Eventually he decides to find out where she is, getting in contact with a college acquaintance (Jessica Lowndes), who informs daddy of a few unpleasant truths about his seemingly innocent daughter. Seems she’s gotten herself mixed up with the local drug scene (50 Cent plays a sleazy drug dealer) in New Orleans, so Patric has Lowndes show him around some of the seedier joints in town hoping to find out where she is. The trail leads to New Orleans criminal bigwig Bruce Willis, who has a personal vendetta to score with Patric that goes back a while. You see, Patric used to be an assassin, a very effective one. Rain turns up as Willis’ effeminate-looking Korean henchman, Jonathon Schaech is a gun store owner, and John Cusack turns up as one of Patric’s associates from the old days.

 

There’s a whole lotta slummin’ goin’ on in this direct-to-DVD 2014 action/drama from director Brian A. Miller (the terrible corrupt cop movie “Caught in the Crossfire”) and screenwriters Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore (who collaborated on the story for “San Andreas”). I don’t know how the fuck John Cusack, Bruce Willis, and Jason Patric ended up in something like this, but it plays like a dusted-off late 90s-early 00s Steven Seagal/Dolph Lundgren cheapie that someone has attempted to shine up via the casting of slumming A-grade (or B-grade in Mr. Patric’s case) stars.

 

Patric’s the leading man here, which probably had its positives and negatives for him. On the one hand, he’s the face of a bad film. On the other hand, he probably got the most money for it. Patric doesn’t immediately seem like a tough guy brooding action hero-type to me (or perhaps anti-hero is the better term here), but as a concerned dad he’s certainly appropriate casting. Despite playing an assassin, he’s quite sympathetic and relatable. He also looks to be in better shape than a lot of genuine action stars I could name. I would’ve preferred Michael Biehn or Scott Adkins in the role, though perhaps the former is too old, and the latter should be starring in better things than this. At any rate, Patric is a lot better here than you’ll likely expect him to be, and it’s probably one of the better performances I’ve seen him give (Faint praise alert!). And why the fuck is he billed third? He plays the main character, and his two higher billed male co-stars are barely in the damn thing! Weird.

 

Co-star Jessica Lowndes is really something in this. She’s entertainingly vacuous and obnoxious without being so annoying you want to turn the damn thing off. She’s hilariously bratty. After a whopping 30 minutes, Bruce Willis turns up as essentially the bad guy (though most sane people would agree that he kinda has a good motivation for revenge, too much so to actually hate him), looking old, shockingly thin, and rather small-looking. It’s quite disconcerting, actually. Was he ill at the time? He’s got himself a first-class ticket to Paycheck City here, not putting in any effort whatsoever with his performance. It looks like he really doesn’t want to be there and he’s the only one in the cast who isn’t at least trying. Bravo to John Cusack, however, who after about 50 minutes turns up and unlike Willis, bothers to give an actual performance. His performance is weird, distracted, and offbeat, but not in any scenery-chewing Nic Cage kinda way. This is simply how Cusack clearly sees his character. He’s quietly nervous and distracted (maybe even shell-shocked by something in his past, just my guess), and it’s actually pretty interesting to watch, even if it’s a wasted effort given the size of his role and the quality of the film. I’d rather he give a damn than simply phone it in, it’s not his fault the film is flimsy. You end up wanting to see a film about him, not this film. Good cameo too, by Jonathon Schaech as a gun store owner. Where the fuck did his career go? Korean dancer-actor Rain seems to be speaking phonetically, and although I’m not sure if he has martial arts skills or not, he looks skilled enough. However, Patric clearly isn’t skilled, so their fight scene is awfully short and unenjoyable. It makes Mr. Rain’s entire appearance in the film seem pointless given he can’t really act, and he looks like such a pussy for not lasting long in a fight. Meanwhile, director Miller and his cinematographer Yaron Levy (the latter did better work on “Fright Night II” and “Getaway”) are way too lens flare-happy for my liking, which lends it even more of a Steven Seagal vehicle-vibe. I’m sorry, but lights don’t have that effect naturally, it just makes your film look stupid.

 

Patric’s good, bratty Lowndes and quirky Cusack are even better, but this is a flimsy, simplistic excuse for a film. It’s really not much of anything, kinda like Bruce Willis’ performance. His entirely blank performance, the presence of 50 Cent in the supporting cast (creepy and doing much better work than he did in the terrible “Freelancers” and “Frozen Ground”), and the listing of eleventy billion producers say it all, really. BTW, how long until we get a low-rent equivalent of “The Expendables” featuring all of the once-prominent dramatic/mainstream actors now slumming in direct-to-DVD shit? (Nic Cage, John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Cuba Gooding Jr, Val Kilmer, Bruce Willis, Forest Whitaker, Aaron Eckhart, John Travolta, Ron Perlman, Rutger Hauer, etc. Shit, that’s a depressing list isn’t it?)

 

Rating: C-