The Prince

By the title you might think this is another Disney movie, because as we all know many teenagers love cheesy romance comedies. Luckily this is not in that genre, instead The Prince is actually an action thriller from director Brian A Miller. Never heard of this guy ? Well, maybe there is a reason. Most of his films are direct to dvd releases in the action genre, and i can´t say i have seen many of his releases, except for Officer Down with Stephen Dorff and James Woods. It was ok, but not a great action film because of way too simple plot. I still wonder what James Woods did in this film, an actor who can be really good, choosed a film like this one that no one will remember. Either way, Brian A Miller continue directing action films, he seems to love the genre that were popular in the 80´s, revenge action motion pictures. If you look at most releases today, there are just a handful of films that follow this pattern, especially straight to dvd releases. The Prince on the other hand, did have a theatre run, although a very limited one. And you can tell that Brian A Miller have moved on to a bigger budget, with stars like Bruce Willis, John Cusack and Jason Patric on board. Always nice to see Bruce Willis still keeping it up in the action genre, even if he is getting older. With a director who loves the action genre, and with a great cast, is The Prince an action thriller that will guaranteed please the audience, or is this a desperate try to make some money on legendary actors ?

Paul ( Jason Patric ) is a retired assassin, who settled down and works as a car mechanic. He is very proud of his daughter Beth ( Gia Mantegna ), since she is studying at a University. One day as he tries to contact her online, a man shows up. Paul have no idea who this man is, and the man does not answer his questions. Paul continue to try and reach his daughter, with no luck. After hours with no phone calls coming back, Paul have a feeling something have happened. Especially when he recive a letter saying that Beth is no longer in University. He decide to travel down to see her, but find her missing in her student home. Paul manage to meet Beth´s friend Angela (  Jessica Lowndes ) at a bar, and she might know where she is. Paul offer to pay Angela 500 dollars if she helps him locate his daughter. She agree to go along with him. Paul finds out his old rival Omar ( Bruce Willis ) might be the one who kidnapped his daughter. For security reasons, Paul contact his old friend Sam ( John Cusack ) to help him finish this mission. Paul knows Omar is doing this for revenge of an old mission where Paul killed Omar´s wife, and he won´t stop until Paul is dead.

From an action perspective, The Prince is nothing fresh, or original. We have seen motion pictures in many similar forms as this one. If you are expecting some surprise on the plot, then you might as well drop that hope. The Prince is as predictable as a Stiftelsen album, the same pattern keeps coming back on every album release. One difference is that The Prince is at least not boring, while Stiftelsen makes you fall asleep after 5 minutes. Lets take a look at the positive side. Jason Patric in the lead role is not all awful, remember his performance in Speed 2 ? As he goes across the country to find his daughter, you do get a few good scenes where he kicks ass. In some ways, it is fun to see both Bruce Willis and John Cusack show up, it gives this story some more entertainment value. Now to the bad side. The story does not feel very interesting. Even if you are supposed to feel bad for the father, it´s hard to feel sympathy when there is not much emotions going on. Even if this might be the best film i have seen by director Brian A Miller so far, there are still many problems he need to fix. An action film has to feel effective and intensive, The Prince only touch on the surface of those details. Even if i enjoy seeing Bruce Willis as a bad guy, he does not give his character any strong personality. A strong evil character can make a movie better, if he delivers a powerful performance. Here we see a tired Bruce Willis, who does not seem interested in doing much at all. A car chase scene is pretty silly for a moment, when the bad guys shoot at Paul driving, and all they hit is a window, even how many bullets should have hit more parts of the car. Someday maybe director Brian A Miller will surprise us, and make a motion picture that actually is well made, and have great acting. The Prince is not an awful action film, but this is not good either. Jason Patric saves this action film from falling apart.

Rating: DD