Best movie of this year hands down!

Pretty Good

Blistering performances.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The women loves the little boy just because he is black like she is, and she trust him only because he is black like she is. She wants to avenge anything that has been done to him just because he is black like she is. She let him stay alone in her apartment without even knowing him, trusting him just because he is black like she is. She kills 3 guy right from the start, in which one is pretty dangerous, only because the boy is black like she is. Etc etc etc.. I am not surprised, but I don't like it.

The performances are much better than this lazy, derivative, script deserves.

When I first saw the ads for "Proud Mary" just before its theatrical release, I thought that it was do pretty well at the box office, since the time seemed right to bring back the Blaxploitation genre that thrived for several years in the 1970s. Instead, the movie did sluggish business. After watching the movie, I think I know why it didn't do so well with audiences, though it doesn't boil down to one reason. One reason may be that it was a production by Screen Gems, which has made one bad movie after another over the years; maybe audiences by now associate Screen Gems with bad movie making. Another reason might be that there's very little action in the movie, particularly in the first half. (And what action there is doesn't ever get above a routine level at its best). There's also no sex or real nudity showcased.But I think the real reason for the movie's downfall is the writing. Certainly, the story has a whole bunch of elements that will be very familiar with most audiences. (And the telling of the story is somewhat choppy at times, showing strong indications that important plot and character details were cut down in the editing room.) But even worse that that the characters in the story are unmemorable. There is no character that you'll particularly care about or be interested in. This includes Mary, who comes across as a grumpy figure who almost completely hides her past and feelings. Since there were no engaging characters, I simply didn't care who did what or who felt like whatever. The actors do try their best, but even they can't bring much life to their characters. I'm pretty sure that when they saw the end results, they weren't exactly proud.

In the bonus segment of the DVD of "Proud Mary," actress Taraji P. Henson described her character Mary as "a killer who becomes human." The strength of the film is the transformation of a trained killer to a sensitive and caring human being.One of the film's producers indicated the goal of the film was to depict "a complicated crime family." One shortcoming of the script was that the Spencer crime family and the others really weren't that complex. Indeed, the character developments lacked the multiple layers of Sonny Corleone, Tom, Michael, and Fredo of "la famiglia" in "The Godfather."After Mary, the most intriguing character is Tom, the "Sonny" character, who is being groomed to take over the Spencer crime syndicate from the aging don, Benny Spencer (Danny Glover). Tom's character had some of the sensitivity of Proud Mary. It is too bad that they had such a failure to communicate. Tom might have been the dad the little boy Danny never had.The film locations around Boston were one of the highlights of the film. By contrast, the interior scenes with the different mob families were routine and full of the standard film violence of the family crime genre."Proud Mary" was a throwback film to the Tommy Gibbs characters of actor Fred Williamson in the 1970s. The relationship of Mary and the teenage boy Danny was touching well acted. The young actor who played Danny was excellent. One could imagine a sequel to the film that plays like a road picture with Mary and Danny traveling across the country along the lines of "Harold and Maude."