Movie Review: The Prodigy

The Prodigy (2019) 

Directed by Nicholas McCarthy

Written by Jeff Buhler

Starring Taylor Schilling, Jackson Robert Scott, Peter Mooney, Colm Feore 

The Prodigy is the latest in a long line of uninspired horror movies with an okay premise that falters in overly familiar execution. It is not merely that The Prodigy is predictable this horror movie from cult horror director Nicholas McCarthy (At the Devil’s Door) is insultingly predictable. The Prodigy is directed as if the film was made specifically for audiences so bereft of common sense that they need every last detail spelled out for them. 

The Prodigy stars Taylor Schilling of the Netflix hit Orange is the New Black as Sarah. As we meet her, Sarah is pregnant and on her way to giving birth to her first child. Crosscut with Sarah’s trip to the birthing center is the escape of Margaret (Brittany Allen) from the lair of a serial killer named Edward Scarka. Edward is known for cutting off women’s hands before murdering them and hiding their bodies. 

Scarka isn’t aware that his latest victim has escaped until he happens to see police approaching his door. At that moment, Edward’s strips nude walks out of his cabin in the woods to confront the cops and essentially commits suicide by cop. This happens just as Sarah welcomes her son Miles into the world and by some crazy movie magic, the soul of the serial killer leaps into the body of baby Miles without anyone noticing. 

At an early age, Miles (Jackson Robert Scott) demonstrates traits well beyond his years, but it is not until he turns 8 years old that his parents notice that he is not the loving young boy he once was. The serial killer has begun to come forward in Miles subconscious leading to him trying to kill his babysitter and eventually turning his evil eye to his extended family. Colm Feore then pops up as a doctor whose existence is predicated on delivering exposition for those in the audience who may nod off for part of The Prodigy and need a character to spell out and reiterate the plot. 

The imagery in The Prodigy is as insultingly simple minded as the script. Early on director McCarthy uses the image of Edward’s face split by makeup or mirrors to underline his dual nature. In case you need cliffs notes in the middle of the movie, Miles has one blue eye and one brown eye as further film school underlining of the kid’s dueling personalities, killer and kid. Perhaps this won’t be perceptible to those that don’t see many movies but if you see movies regularly it may be hard to stifle your groaning and simultaneous eye roll. 

I am struggling to find positive things to say here. I know people complain when I am just negative but there really isn’t much good to say about The Prodigy. It’s clean looking, it has solid if unspectacular cinematography. That’s something. When director McCarthy isn’t overdoing images of duality, he does cut a professional looking scene throughout The Prodigy. I have no qualms about praising The Prodigy for its crisp visuals. That however, is, sadly, not remotely enough for me to recommend the movie. 

Taylor Schilling is perhaps the other element of The Prodigy that is passable. Schilling is good at looking haunted and terrified. I guess it is fair to say that she doesn’t let the script insult her character’s intelligence. Sure, she makes mistakes but nothing a good rewrite of a couple of scenes could not have fixed. Had the film perhaps relied more on her abilities and less on telling instead of showing, she might have elevated the material. 

The Prodigy is not the kind of abomination that makes me hate going to the movies. Is that me saying something nice? The Prodigy is more harmlessly forgettable than it is offensive. Again, I can’t tell if I am being condescending or kind here. 

Movie Review: The Punisher

The Punisher (2004) 

Directed by Jonathan Hensleigh 

Written by Jonathan Hensleigh 

Starring Thomas Jane, John Travolta, Rebecca Romijn 

Release Date: April 16th, 2004 

Published April 15th, 2004 

Previous to Avi Arad’s days as CEO, Marvel Comics made a number of bad deals involving the film rights to its comics. The Fantastic Four was sold to Roger Corman's production company (yes that Roger Corman). Do we want to remember those awful Captain America and Spiderman TV movies? Ugh. And who can forget 1989's The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren? Well most people have forgotten that, thankfully. Now The Punisher has a new life on film and the best that can be said is that it's better than the Dolph Lundgren version.

Thomas Jane is the new Frank Castle, a special forces trained FBI Agent who has just wrapped up his final case with his own faked death. Unfortunately, in a case where he hoped no one would be killed, a mobster’s son was taken down. The mobster, Howard Saint (John Travolta) is of course none too pleased with this and sets out to find the man responsible. With little effort he finds Castle is not really dead and sets out to kill him, and at his wife Livia's (Laura Elena Herring) suggestion, kill Castle's entire family as well.

Saint sends his top thug Quentin Glass (Will Patton) and a large goon squad to Puerto Rico where the entire Castle clan, cousins, and uncles, and grandparents, and so on and so on, all just happen to be gathered. The gang kills the entire family then chases down Frank's fleeing wife and child and brutally run them down. Then it's Frank's turn as he arrives just in time to see his wife and child die and then get the living crap kicked out of himself by the bad guys. In typical bad guy fashion, rather than just shooting Frank in the head the baddies plot an elaborate torture that Frank manages to escape. Well if they did the smart thing there would be no movie.

Castle does survive and soon is back in Tampa ready to make Howard Saint pay for killing his family. Along the way Frank hooks up with three oddballs who share a rundown tenement apartment building with him. They are Joan (Rebecca Romijn) a waitress with a taste for the wrong kind of man, Bumpo (comedian John Pinette) an effeminate overweight chef and Spacker Dave an overly pierced slacker. They try to draw Frank into their circle but other than protecting them from evil, Frank has little interest in them.

Frank's sole focus is an overly elaborate revenge on Howard Saint. If it weren't overly elaborate, again there would be no movie, but this is quite unnecessarily melodramatic and prolonged. The revenge involves Saint, his wife and Quentin Glass, a simple misunderstanding, and a fake fire hydrant. Where does one even acquire a fake fire hydrant? I'm not sure but it seems quite handy, unless there were an actual fire. It's all very melodramatic until the final 10 minutes when it devolves into a massive crunching bore of gunfire and the unnecessary use of way too much C4 explosive.

Director Jonathan Hensleigh obviously learned a lot from scripting Armageddon and producing Con Air for Jerry Bruckheimer. He learned how to use massive explosions to grand excess. He learned that you can never under-use gunfire and that a movie doesn't have to make sense as long as you kill, maim or explode someone every other scene. Not that this approach doesn't have it's moments but as every Bruckheimer movie shows, the formula grows tired quickly and so it does become quickly tiresome in The Punisher.

To the credit of Thomas Jane, The Punisher's belligerence is seemingly not his fault. Jane's performance is perfectly calibrated to the films dark, humorless tone. Jane's Punisher is brooding, tough, and without a trace of wit. Which seems to be exactly what the movie was going for if you watch all that surrounds his performance. Jane sells the character all the way even as he is forced to become less and less human and more of a horror film cartoon. Rambo crossed with Jason Vorhees.

John Travolta is wearing his Swordfish toupee which means he is in sneering bad guy autopilot. Nothing new for Travolta who grows more and more bored with each subsequent role these days. Hopefully his return to playing Chilli Palmer in Be Cool will revive his love of acting. In The Punisher Travolta gives up about half way through and figuratively rolls his eyes through the final 45 minutes of the film.

As bad as this movie truly is I must admit that I enjoyed some of it's over the top violence. The films major, one on one, fight scene between Tom Jane and pro wrestler Kevin Nash, the seven footer simply called The Russian in the film, brings the film’s only light moments as Jane marvels at the size of his opponent and his own numerous failed attempts to hurt the big man. It's kinda fun but it's been done, Stallone made beating up the bigger man a staple of his act back in the mid-eighties.

The film’s final violent set piece looks like an attempt to burn whatever remained of the film’s budget. I swear, it's as if they were told they had to spend a certain amount and nothing less so they just blew up whatever remaining cash they had in an orgy of explosions and gunfire.

At two hours and ten minutes, The Punisher is punishing on the audience. Repetitiously violent in between it's overly imaginative and melodramatic plots, The Punisher would be a candidate for worst of the year if Thomas Jane weren't such a pro at selling this big. dumb, loud plot. It's better than the Dolph Lundgren version of The Punisher, but staring at a blank screen for ninety minutes would be more entertaining than that picture. I would hope that the producers were aiming for more than bettering that film. Sadly that turns out to be the film’s only accomplishment.

Movie Review: The Proposition

The Proposition (2005) 

Directed by John Hilllcoat 

Written by Nick Cave 

Starring Guy Pearce, Richard Wilson, Ray Winstone, and Danny Huston 

Released March 10th, 2006 

Published March 8th 2006

A house is riddled with bullets. Inside, a group of supposed outlaws fights for their lives. Most of the homes inhabitants are killed save for two. These two are members of the famed Burns Gang, middle Burns brother Charlie (Guy Pearce), and youngest brother, Mikey (Richard Wilson). Captured by the Captain (Ray Winstone), the brothers are given death sentences but with a caveat.

Mikey will be taken into custody with a noose waiting for him on Christmas day. Charlie can save Mikey's life if he travels to a remote part of the Australian outback, where even aborigines fear to tread, and track down his older brother Arthur (Danny Huston). Arthur is wanted for the brutal rape and murder of a close friend of the Captain's wife (Emily Watson). The proposition that the Captain offers is a dangerous gamble, a mob waits back in the small Aussie village where the captain presides. If they find out the Captain had captured Charlie and released him, no reason will be a good enough explanation.

That is the plot outline of The Proposition, a brutally violent morality play set in early 20th century Australia; a place with more than a passing resemblance to the old west of American legend. The Proposition shares more than a passing resemblance to the western legends of John Ford and the Italian westerns of Sergio Leone, only darker and more violent. The Proposition is graphically violent with a purpose. 

Directed by Aussie video director John Hillcoat, best known for the early videos of INXS, from a script by rocker Nick Cave, who also composed the films eerie, old west soundtrack, The Proposition is stylish and often breathtakingly so. With the help of cinematographer Benoit Delhomme, director Hillcoat crafts gorgeous images of the outback juxtaposed against ghastly violence and gore.

Danny Huston has never had such a meaty role. Often left with mustache twirling villains or officious corporate worms, Huston defies his type casting with this twisted but oddly soulful killer. At one moment musing poetry and another twisting a knife into a man's chest, it is Huston's wild far away eyes that communicate his malevolent character. Much of the violence that Arthur Burns performs, his most sadistic actions, happen off-screen, out of our view. His true, vile, criminality is left to our imagination which allows it to become as twisted as we make it.

Guy Pearce creates Charlie Burns from his bones. Slimming his already skinny frame down to the pulpy, knotted muscle, Pearce is a feral animal with cold dead eyes who has somehow retained a shred of humanity that his older brother has not. His moral dilemma over the proposition is really a coming to grips with his own crimes. His puzzlement over killing his brother comes from the question of whether the murder will be enough to save his own tortured soul.

Ray Winstone rounds out the three leads with a performance that early on feels very one note. Winstone is introduced as corrupt cop who is torturing Charlie and Mikey into doing his bidding. However, as the story progresses, the Captain becomes the films moral compass and Winstone deepens the role with grace and sadness. 

The Proposition is not for everyone. It is not classically entertaining like the kind of film you catch on late night cable and can watch repeatedly. For true film buffs and fans of hardcore westerns, The Proposition is the kind of movie you go to the movies to see. For the average moviegoer, I would say find something else to rent on Saturday night. For those who appreciate film technique, a director in complete control of tone and pace and violence that has the purpose of leaving a mark in your imagination, The Proposition is the movie for you.