Popular reviews

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  Review by Bryan Espitia 🎄 ★★½ 12

  “You point a gun at my pussy and then ask me to bed?”

  Poetry

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★

  All due respect to the great Martin Campbell — the now-77-year-old New Zealander whose fine-tuned approach to action filmmaking at the studio level has resulted in “The Mask of Zorro” and two different (yet equally operatic) James Bond reboots that each outclassed their respective sequels — but there’s no excuse why a movie in which Michael Keaton plays a winkingly merciless henchman named Rembrandt should be as bland as “The Protégé.” The same could also be said of a revenge thriller in which Jackie Chan is hellbent on killing Pierce Brosnan, or a massive Green Lantern adaptation in which Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively fall in love before our very eyes while saving the universe from a bulbous-headed Peter Sarsgaard.…

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  Review by Nakul ★★★½

  The Protege is a low-key banger. A total fuckall plot elevated by strong direction & a charismatic cast. Martin Campbell's still got it & he sure knows how to stage the hell out of an action scene. Maggie Q kicks ass and Michael Keaton goes full Michael Keaton, he's a delight to watch the entire time.

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★

  Admittedly incoherent but you still got Campbell's incredibly sturdy, unfussy violent action tying together the bugs like the attempt at witty romance or its uncertain, tentative approach to politics and trauma. Plus Maggie Q and Keaton are great.

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★ 4

  Martin Campbell as a director has had his ups and downs. When he gets it right, the result is simply fantastic (The Mask of Zorro, Goldeneye, Casino Royale), but when he gets it wrong, the result is rather mediocre.

  And in many ways, that is the case with this film. It's not that it's bad, as the performances (especially Maggie Q) are very good. The action scenes are extremely well choreographed, which is noteworthy considering how much of the film depends on them. This film is equally stunning in terms of cinematography, and in many ways it reminds me of South Korean cinema.

  Even though there is the occasional good twist that surprised me, at the end of the day,…

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  Review by David Chen ★★★ 1

  Me before watching this movie: Well, the reviews on this haven’t been great but at least I heard that Michael Keaton and Maggie Q have decent chemistry.

  Me after watching this movie: I wish for Michael Keaton and Maggie Q to be my mommy and daddy please

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  Review by ❄️ Cammmalot ❄️ ★★★½ 2

  This film is a solid action-packed 90 minutes of watching Maggie Q walk over a shark tank on a tight-rope in high winds…

  Oh, and Michael Keaton plays the shark!

  
  Cinematic Time Capsule – 2021 Ranked

  2021 U.S. Release Schedule

  Cinematic Trailer Count – 2021

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  Review by Branson Reese

  They cut my scene where I pulled a gun on Maggie Q and demanded to know whether or not she was tall because it "wasn't in the script" and I "didn't know they were filming."

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  Review by Rosie ★★★

  Martin Campbell’s recent action flick was better than expected, it has that 90s late-night action sensibility with a modern take. Starting Maggie Q as Anna, an orphan from Vietnam who was taken under the wing of a hitman, Moody played by Samuel L. Jackson and trains her to be an elite assassin. Anna seeks vengeance when she found Moody slaughtered. While tracking down the culprit she encounters a charming criminal mastermind, Rembrandt played by Michael Keaton, and from there begins their deadly games of wits. Q (last seen in Death of Me) was way better in these types of action roles. The banter between her and Keaton was fun. Even though Jackson had a smaller role, he made good use of…

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  Review by Joshua Arispe ★★½ 4

  Am I suppose to believe Maggie Q would find Michael Keaton attractive?

  
  Not going to lie, this movie did have some snappy dialogue.

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  Review by Dan McCoy ★★★½ 3

  A lot of critics’ reviews are dinging this one for not doing anything all that special, but I think they’re forgetting how special not doing anything special IS these days. In 2021, how often do you get to see a non-franchise, stripped down actioner like this released to theaters?

  I’m not making an argument for mediocrity— I’m making an argument for competence. Sure, the basic plot could’ve been spat out by an action movie AI, and the last third of the movie severely loses steam, but Martin Campbell is the definition of a sharp journeyman action director, and a film starring Maggie Q, Samuel L. Jackson, and Michael Keaton has, by its nature, plenty of electricity to spare.

  Look, I…

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  Review by Mister Cap ★½ 8

  Lord Helmchen hat mir vor ein paar Tagen indirekt nahe gelegt, dass wenn ich nicht bald bessere Filme sehen sollte, es wahrscheinlich besser für meine geistige Gesundheit wäre,  mein Hobby zu wechseln. Nun ja, da hätte wir nun also meine nächste 1,5 Sterne Bewertung für einen Film, beim dem erneute ein Kampfweib im Zentrum der - nicht vorhandenen - Story steht.

  Diesmal dargestellt von der 50 kg (habe ich im Internet recherchiert) "schweren" Maggie Q, die wie üblich in solchen Filmen, reihenweise zwei Meter große Hünen mit einem Schlag ins Land der Träume schickt. Auch wenn diese Hengste im Rudel auftreten, ist es für die zierliche Madama Q kein Problem, diese flachzulegen.

  In der Zwischenzeit gibt es nun schon jede…