Prince, The

Released by: Lionsgate
Released on: October 28, 2014
Director: Brian A. Miller
Cast: Jason Patric, Bruce Willis, John Cusasck, Jessica Lowndes, Jonathan Schaech, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Jung Ji-Hoon aka Rain
Year: 2014
Purchase From Amazon

The Movie:

Shortly after having a conversation with his daughter Beth, mechanic Paul learns that she has disappeared. Scouring local bars for her, he meets her best friend Angela, who tells him that Beth has fallen for a drug dealer from New Orleans and has become an addict. She refuses to help Paul any further, until he offers her five hundred smackaroos. She then leads Paul to the shadier parts of New Orleans, where she quickly learns that he is already familiar with the place and has a tendency toward violence. It turns out that Paul was once a crime lord and assassin, but after killing drug lord Omar's wife and child, he got out of the business, moved to Mississippi, got married, and had a family. Now Omar wants vengeance, and he's found a way to get it through Beth.

The Prince is routine action/adventure fluff, albeit with a nasty edge. Clearly knocking off Taken (2008), Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore's script is riddled with plot holes and silly dialogue (some of which was improvised by the actors, according to the audio commentary), but director Brian A. Miller keeps the whole affair moving at such a fast pace and with such sincerity that it's difficult not to like the film. It doesn't hurt that the actors, from the most important to the least important roles, give it everything they've got. On that front, Jason Patric (looking remarkably like Ryan Reynolds on the BD's cover) gives the movie's best performance as a soulful killer who has forsaken his old ways, only to be drawn back into them by circumstances beyond his control. It's certainly a clichéd plot device, but Patric brings a level of quiet sophistication where others would have played it woodenly. Former CW star Jessica Lowndes is likewise terrific, despite her character being both inconsistently written and given some of the dumbest dialogue this side of a Teletubbies episode. Bruce Willis and Jung Ji-Hoon (who is billed as Rain in the film's credits) conjure just the right level of sympathetic villainy as Omar and his evil homosexual sidekick, while Jonathan Schaech and Curtis Jackson (better known as rapper 50 Cent) hand in no less effective performances in smaller roles.

The film's biggest problem, apart from the script, is that the editing and cinematography sometimes makes the effort feel as if it were made for television. Hokey flashbacks, overuse of slow motion, and low-rent pyrotechnics don't help. Ultimately, it doesn't matter, thanks to the film's steady pace. And at a little over 90 minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome as so many similar movies these days do.

All in all, The Prince is an easy way to kill an afternoon or evening without feeling too guilty.

Video/Audio/Extras:

The Prince has been released by Lionsgate with an MPEG-4 AVC encode in 2.39:1 widescreen. The 1080p transfer is super sharp. Black levels are strong while details are resplendent. The only problem is that skin tones appear too yellow in some shots (thanks to color enhancements), making a shirtless Patric too often appear to be jaundiced. Worse, it results in Asian actor Jung Ji-Hoon looking like a 1920s stereotype of Oriental villainy (something the script plays up). Regardless, there is never a loss of texture or depth due to the color tweaks.

Audio is presented in a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, which retains high fidelity throughout. Dialogue is always clear and easy to understand, and never does the track jump between such extremes that the audio remote has to be left in hand. The score is fairly redundant and indicative of this kind of film, but it does a serviceable job of accentuating the action. And there are ample car chases, shootings, and explosions to show off the directional sound. Subtitles are presented in both standard English and English for the deaf and hearing impaired, as well as in Spanish. There is also a commentary track featuring director Miller and actor Patric. The men discuss the film as they watch it, and it's clear that the director came with prepared remarks, which are intermixed with on-the-spot reactions to the film as it unfolds. When the two men aren't discussing the film or cracking jokes, the film's sound is raised to fill their absence. (It should be noted that there are a few too many of these instances.)

For anyone interested in learning more about the film, there are several extras, all of them in high definition. First up is the featurette “Capturing The Prince: Behind the Scenes,” which runs slightly less than ten minutes in length and features interviews with the director (who calls the film “a modern-day western”), the writers (who specifically call it a modern-day Unforgiven), Patric, Cusack, Lowndes, Schaech, Jackson, and Gia Mantegna (who plays Beth). Willis is noticeably absent, though he remains a big part of the discussion. The sound mix is uneven, with snippets from the film being much louder than the interview segments.

Next up is a collection of six extended scenes, most of which were better left on the cutting room floor, as they would have otherwise bogged down the film's pacing. (One humorous scene between Patric and Lowndes should have been left intact.) The sound mix is also too low, making it difficult to hear the dialogue without turning the volume up full blast. These scenes were obviously cut before the film was completed, as they lack scoring and sound effects. The combined running time tops out at a little over ten minutes.

There are interviews with the principal leads, including Miller, Patric, Cusack, Lowndes, Jackson, and Mantegna. It is clearly from said interviews that the clips used in the featurette were taken. Most of them focus on character interpretations and motivations, except for when they discuss the casting itself. The total running time is just shy of 15 minutes. Note the background action during Lowndes's segment; Schaech can be seen preparing for his next scene.

The film's trailer is included and runs approximately two and a half minutes in length. It gives away a little too much away, counteracting the movie's effective, ambiguous opening scene. The trailers for other Lionsgate releases are also included: The Expendables III, Reclaim, The Frozen Ground, and Fire With Fire, in addition to a promo for the Blu-ray format.

Rounding out the extras is the ability to bookmark favorite scenes.

Because of the relatively short running time of the film as well as of the extras, the film fits nicely onto a single 25GB Blu-ray disc without any compression artifacts or noise.

The Final Word:

The Prince is far from great. But if you set aside high expectations (or any expectations at all) and approach the film solely as forgettable entertainment, you shouldn't be disappointed. It moves quickly and hasn't a dull moment. The video and audio quality is superb, other than the occasional yellow tinting that affects skin tones. And for actual fans of the film, the BD comes loaded with extras.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!