The Protégé

    The Protégé
    2021

    Synopsis

    Rescued as a child by the legendary assassin Moody and trained in the family business, Anna is the world’s most skilled contract killer. When Moody, the man who was like a father to her and taught her everything she needs to know about trust and survival, is brutally killed, Anna vows revenge. As she becomes entangled with an enigmatic killer whose attraction to her goes way beyond cat and mouse, their confrontation turns deadly and the loose ends of a life spent killing will weave themselves ever tighter.

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    Cast

    • Maggie QAnna
    • Samuel L. JacksonMoody
    • Michael KeatonMichael Rembrandt
    • David RintoulEdward Hayes
    • Patrick MalahideVohl
    • Ray FearonDuquet
    • Ori PfefferJoe Athens
    • Robert PatrickBilly Boy
    • Florin Piersic Jr.Ram
    • Tudor ChirilăPetru

    Recommendations

    • 75

      San Francisco Chronicle

      Maggie Q has been in good movies before, but The Protégé is the first movie that’s good because she’s in it.
    • 67

      The A.V. Club

      Beyond considerable physical presence, Q brings touches of subtlety to a stock character; by the time she makes her eventual, inevitable reference to wanting to get out of the game, there’s a genuine weariness that feels earned enough to bypass the cliché.
    • 50

      Chicago Sun-Times

      The Protégé isn’t trying to be anything more than slick, escapist action fare, but when you have the star power of the lead trio, a terrific supporting cast and what appears to be a sizable enough budget, it’s not too much to ask for a little something in the way of a cohesive script. Instead, we get two variations on the same twist, and an ending that’s both murky and irritating. Maggie Q and company deserve better.
    • 50

      New York Post

      The Protégé should’ve been a home run for director Martin Campbell, who did brilliantly with Casino Royale, Daniel Craig’s first James Bond film. He brought seriousness to the old franchise without sacrificing its charm or decadence. Instead, we get old clichés.
    • 50

      Arizona Republic

      The Protégé has so many cool elements, so many reasons that it should be better than it is. Chief among them are Maggie Q, Keaton and Jackson. But they can only do so much, and ultimately the film feels flat. Like so many of the hapless anonymous bad guys, it just can’t hit the mark.
    • 42

      IndieWire

      The Protégé never even begins to cohere as a story about paying for old sins (the ending is a “huh” of the highest order), and its ostensible villain is almost a complete non-entity, but watching Q repel down the inside of a high-rise or seduce Keaton from behind the barrel of a gun makes it obvious that she knows more about selling action on screen than most Hollywood actors could ever hope to learn.
    • 38

      Movie Nation

      The script is straight-up formula, which suggests few surprises, but also that the component parts should have clicked better than they did.
    • 30

      Slashfilm

      All in all, The Protégé is a dull assassin movie misfire that does no justice by Maggie Q and can’t be saved even by Keaton and Jackson making a meal of their scenes.