Protector

In cinema history we have seen actors do a lot unexpected changes in their career, for exampl for a very long time legendary comedian Robin Williams released his 2002 psychological thriller One Hour Photo. This is one of my personal favoutrite films of legendary actor Robin Williams, because i really feel he gave an incredible acting performance. He clearly proved that you can make a completely different character than we are used to see, and you simply have to see this film if you have not seen it. Another perfect example of an actor who did a complete different turn than we were used to see, is legendary actor Liam Neeson After doing a lot of different films in the 90´s and early 2000´s, everything from drama films to romantic comedies like Love Actually, he took on a role that would change his career completely in the year of 2008. It was the action thriller known as Taken, directed by Pierre Morel ( who also directed the French action movie District B13 ). Taken itself was a very simple movie, but what made this film so good was seeing Liam Neeson in full action mode as he is beating up criminals in rage mode, trying to save his kidnapped daughter. It will be considered as one of Liam Neeson´s classic films in the future, and i can still enjoy this film today. The sequels ( there are two of them ) are not that good, well if i had to pick i would probably prefer Taken 3 before the second film. There have been quite a lot of similar films made like Taken over the years, some of them have been ok while others have been....forgettable. So here we are with an action film that looks like something similar to Taken, but have a different plot plus a different lead actor. In the action film Protector we find Resident Evil actor Milla Jovovich kicking ass, and i have been a fan of her for movies for many years, ( yes i even liked In The Lost Lands and Monster Hunter ). I heard there is a female version of The Expendables that´s going to be made, i really hope Milla gets a role in that film, fingers crossed. Milla Jovovich fighting against a human traficking cartel, that sounds like fun right? I decided to give her film Protector a chance. Is this a must watch this summer at the barbecue party, or should you just rewatch the 2008 action thriller Taken instead?

Combat soldier Nikki Halstead ( Milla Jovovich ) stayed many years overseas fighting wars while missing out on her daughter Chloe Halsted´s childhood. As her military serive comes to an end, Nikki can finally retire and have a family life where she especially want to focus on having time together with Chloe ( Isabel Myers ). Until one night when she finds out her daughter celebrate her birthday out in a club, where she is kidnapped by a human trafficking cartel. Nikki manage to track down her daughter, by killing several of the cartel members. This makes things even more worse for Nikki, the cartel wants her dead and they want to kidnap her daughter again.

If you are not a fan of familiar films such as Taken, then i can guarantee that Protector may not be what you are looking for. What makes this fim stand out a little bit is especially one twist, and that is the friendship between lead character Nikki ( Milla Jovovich ) and her Colonel Lavelle ( played by 80´s and 90´s iconic actor Matthew Modine, who can forget his powerful performance in Stanley Kubrick´s  Full Metal Jacket? ). The chemistry between these characters felt like a similar chemistry betweem John Rambo ( Sylvester Stallone ) and Colonoel Trautman ( Richard Crenna in the Rambo franchise. Of course it´s not on the same level of chemistry that Sylvester Stallone and Richard Crenna had, nothing can replace that chemistry. But i do feel Milla Jovovich and Matthew Modine deliver some special moments in their dialogue scenes. When it comes to the action scenes we get quite a lot here. Both gun battles, but also fightiung scenes and some stabbings as well. So if you love old school VHS violence you are in for a treat with Protector. I have to say that Milla Jovovich at the age of  50 looks gorgeous. I always felt she is a beautiful woman, but what really stands out about her is she seems to be so nice in ordinary day life. So to see her as a combat soldier ( Monster Hunter influenced perhaps? ) is of course fun, she´s not taking shit from anyone. The actions scenes feel very traditional to VHS video violence i grew up with, and i had a good time in the best scenes. My only real issue with this film is that the bad guys don´t really have any interesting characters, i could barely remember one of them. So that´s something i feel they could have worked on, because evil characters are usually the funniest part of action movies. At the end of the day Protector feels like a light version of Taken, specifically made for fans of the Taken genre. Director Adrien Grunberg ( who directed the 5th Rambo film known as Rambo: Last Blood ) deliver an action film that don´t take any chances, it´s just created to entertain fans of the action genre. I prefer Rambo: Last Blood over this film, but i still had a good time with Protector. Worth a watch on streaming if you don´t know what else to watch.

Rating: DDD