The Prince (I) (2014) User Reviews

Unoriginal and unexciting cash grab. Blegh.

[paul-szkibik · 4/10 · 23 August 2014]

"The Prince" is entirely unoriginal as it doesn't show us anything we haven't seen before. It's generic and formulaic. Everything in this movie you've seen in other movies that came before it, only those movies did it better and they did it first. Uninspired would be the word. No creativity to be found anywhere.

Characters: bland. Action: bland. Story: bland. Cinematography: bland.

The setup is (too) similar to "Taken" where an "aged father formerly known as Prince" who happened to be a big deal in the local crime scene in whatever city two decades ago goes looking for his missing daughter killing a bunch of bad guys along the way.

The movie tries and fails to establish the main character as this legendary criminal who kicked butt long ago and who now has come back to his old turf in order to save his daughter. How do we know he is this legendary tough guy? Mostly because people in the movie claim that he is (please: show, don't tell), but Jason Patric just can't pull it off as the lead, even if he might be an otherwise competent actor.

I think this is mostly the result of poorly written dialog & scenes that just fail to sell us on his violent past. He kinda just seems like a nice guy. Maybe if the movie hadn't tried so hard to be "Taken" in the first place and instead made the main character appear more vulnerable & relatable, then discrepancy between what we are promised and what we actually get to see wouldn't be so glaring.

Speaking of promises: Despite what the movie poster might imply, neither Bruce Willis nor John Cusack get much screen time, though it's not like their characters are interesting in any way. More screen time with them wouldn't have saved the movie. Willis doesn't give a damn because "yay money" and Cussack apparently lost a bet or something, because why else would he want to be part of this movie.

I don't mind unoriginal movies, if at least they are well executed in a "guilty pleasure" kind of way. A good example of this would be the semi-recent sci-fi action flick "Lock-Up", a movie which scratches certain itches and succeeds to be entertaining, even if it has no Oscar worthy performances or a mind-blowing story. "The Prince" doesn't provide any guilty pleasure. It provides a reason to call customer service and demand your money back or at least a free rental of "Lock-Up".

Some may say "Well it's a genre movie. It doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. Take it for what it is: An action movie!" I am. The movie doesn't succeed. I have watched my fair share of Jet Li/Jason Statham/Vin Diesel etc. movies and suffered through mediocre acting and story telling and in turn got rewarded with at least a couple of interestingly choreographed fight scenes or otherwise neat visuals or interesting set pieces. Not so here. It's just some guy punching or shooting bad guys at boring locations. No interesting fight choreography, camera work, tension... nothing. Most of the action involves our main guy being shot at by incompetent stormtroopers... I mean bad guys, quickly taking cover, then eventually shooting the bad guys because they suck at taking cover -> Level complete.

It's not that the people involved in this movie were entirely incompetent, the actors are doing an okay job, the lighting is fine, the camera is, well... capturing what needs to be captured, the story is at least not a confusing mess, the character motivations are mostly clear etc., but ultimately nothing in this movie stands out as original or particularly well done. There is not a single "Hey, that was cool/interesting/impressive." moment.

"The Prince" will leave you entirely unsatisfied as you won't care about any of the characters or the twist-free conclusion nor will you get a rush out of any of the action scenes. This movie is not worth your time and especially not worth your money. It's an incredibly lazy straight-to-rental cash-in, using Willis and Cusack to lure people into watching it. Please don't reward such business practices.

No Oscars waiting in the wings, but entertaining anyway

[dongillette1 · 6/10 · 22 August 2014]

I saw John Cusak, so I figured it would be worth a shot since he hits a winner about 75% of the time. Well--this was one of the 25%, but it was still an entertaining shoot-em-up sort of film. Bruce Willis must have needed the dough because his character could have been played by anybody; he didn't bring any "Bruce Willis" to it. 50-Cent was ridiculous as he is in any movie they stick him in. I don't know who told him he could act, but it was probably the same guy who told him he could rap. Jason Patric doesn't really have that leading man thing going on--he never has had it-- but he was pretty good in this film. The guy's a solid actor, just nothing to write home about. Overall, it was a good, mindless 90 minutes of entertainment with a sketchy plot and an unbelievable premise which means it was better than 80% of the crap coming out of Hollywood today.

with this cast what could go wrong (spoiler, a lot)

[hp-anzinger · 4/10 · 22 August 2014]

I was really looking forward to this film. The cast is excellent and the trailer looked promising. But boy was I disappointed. Of course the expectation was high and so the movie experience even worse (I almost gave the film 3 stars).

In short why this film wasn't for me:

I didn't care about the main character / The "Lolita" girl made the film worse (and it shouldn't) / The bad guys are really stupid (like in a B movie) / The "good" guy makes ONLY stupid decisions (why? why didn't he ...)

... you get the point

When 50 Cent is one of the best characters in a movie something is really wrong.

At the time of writing the IMDb cast mentions the main actor really late - you could not guess it (by the way it's not Bruce Willis)

What a waste of time!

[Jeffjeruss · 1/10 · 22 August 2014]

My wife and I are huge John Cusak and Bruce Willis fans. This was such a terrible movie that we just had to keep watching in disbelief! There was NOTHING professional about this movie: the writing was a joke, the directing was so bad that we promised each other to keep our eyes out for this director in the future ( if he EVER directs another movie again), so that we NEVER watch another movie he might direct. The acting was awful, but I cannot blame the actors for this. The directing was actually so horrible that he destroyed the performances of John Cusack and Bruce Willis????? How much of an idiot can someone be to pull THAT off? I've never acted or directed anything but I guarantee I could have done a much better job. This director could have done better if he had just shut up and let everyone else make the movie without his input! I'm seriously flabbergasted at this POS waste of time. I'll be asking Comcast for my money back for this excuse for a movie. John and Bruce, wtf were you thinking? Did you agree to be in this POS as a favor to a friend?

Anemic Action

[3xHCCH · 2/10 · 9 September 2014]

"The Prince" is a deceptive film. It had a well-made poster, with an intriguing title and well-known actors in its cast. It looked like it would be a solid action film. The opening credits looked very good as well and smartly conceptualized. However, they did not deliver on their promise.

Paul (Jason Patric) loses contact with his daughter Beth, who was supposedly in college. It appears she had fallen into bad company and was heavy into the drugs habit. Paul just so happened to be a former topnotch assassin with massive skills to kill. While rescuing his daughter, Paul single-handedly routs the entire drug organization, who turns out to be led by Omar (Bruce Willis), a man with the biggest score to settle with Paul.

The action sequences in this film were so basic, with nary any imagination put into them. They had little to no intensity nor excitement, since the protagonist just was conveniently too perfectly superhuman.

So if the success of this film all depended on the charisma of the protagonist, then Jason Patric simply does not have "IT". In fact, he never had it throughout his career. He was already in lead roles back in the 1990s (albeit in unfortunate films like "Speed 2: Cruise Control) but he never did catch on as a major star. Liam Neeson, Bruce Willis and even Jason Statham have done this very same story before, and all with better results than this.

John Cusack had very little to do as Sam, Paul's friend. 50 Cent was at least more interesting as a cool drug lord named "The Pharmacy." Korean superstar Rain wastes his talents as Omar's right-hand man Mark. Jessica Lowndes was just annoying as Beth's addict friend Angela. Gia Mantegna was one-note throughout her performance as drugged-out Beth.

Overall, this film is just an anemic cousin of films like "Die Hard" or "Taken" but with none of its excitement and entertainment value. Jason Patric fails yet again as the lead actor.

Boring and pointless movie

[lideln · 3/10 · 23 August 2014]

Soooo disappointed after watching this movie!

We thought it was going to be great, because of Bruce Willis.

But not at all... Fight scenes are lame and not slightly realistic, the car pursuit scene is lame as well. We didn't clearly understand the story.

Also, the hero was not charismatic at all, neither was he convincing.

Nothing in this movie was worth our time. We were three people, one of us was toying with his phone, the other one with the dogs, and myself I fell asleep.

Do not watch this movie.

You've been warned.

Got what I expected

[Beauq81 · 7/10 · 23 August 2014]

Read the summary here in IMDb, so I kinda knew what I would get. It is pretty generic, but a nice, simple action movie that doesn't try to be more than it is.

It is strange to see Willis and Cusack in fairly small roles like this. Both their parts could be played by any actor, but they just added to the charm. Jessica Lowndes was a bit annoying, but she did the transition from a bitchy party girl to the faithful sidekick well enough.

I liked seeing Jason Patrick. There isn't much of him as the leading man lately.

Anyway, the cast shouldn't get your hopes up, but it is a fun little movie nevertheless.

50 cent is too much for this movie

[killerbee696 · 2/10 · 22 August 2014]

Not Bruce Willis, nor John Cusack or Tara Holt or Jessica Lowndes or 50 Cent is the main star of this movie but the person billed 6th on IMDb Jason Patric has the lead role in this movie. A tat misleading.

Second the synopsis of this flick reads:A retired assassin is drawn back into the life he gave up when his daughter is kidnapped. To rescue her, he must confront his former rival. Also a tat misleading since the daughter lives in a drug house hooked on heroine.

The synopsis should read: Psycho dad jumps into overdrive after a weird guy picks up his daughters phone to whom he just spoke on Skype. Together with his daughters former roommate who he just can't seem to shake throughout the movie, they are going to find her, shooting everybody who stands in their way.

Sounds cliché? Yes it is. And guess what: My synopsis is about 3 stars better than the movie.

Let's review the 'big names' in this movie: Bruce Willis is the 'bad guy' Omar. Mr. Willis isn't known for his roles as bad guy and this movie shows why. The 5 scenes where he shows up he looks like he is bored out of his skull.

John Cusack is Sam, the inevitable helper (2 scenes), who wants everything neat and clean and the paycheck for this garbage so he can buy his mom a poodle.

The only one who shines here is 50 Cent as the heroine dealer The Pharmacy.

The rest of this movie is either bad or cliché or both.

Bruce need Money

[quasides · 24 August 2014]

and hes doing anything to get it.

I have to 100% with hp-anzingers review but want to add a few critics poinits.

It started promising but it turned badly pretty quickly just to go down more and more.

Really this Movie actually gets constantly worse with every Minute as it didn't make less sense every Minute.

The Final Showdown is also the worst Moment.

Beside no Key Element of that Story did make any Sense or the stupidity around everything - Why, in Gods name cant they even get the Technical Aspects right.

Any 12 Year old watching Youtube for 2 Weeks can do better Gunfihgtscenes and i really thought basic gun safety is a standard in Movies. But how are we supposed to believe a role which is supposed to be ex military later prof. killer if he cant even keep his finger of the trigger. - This just as an example of countless Eyehurting things during those scenes.

The Hole Movie is like B Movie Acting, c Movie Story, b Movie Gunsfights and Schoolyard Fistfights.

But maybe i just got it wrong, this is a Zombie Movie where everyone already got their Brains eaten up :))

Fun Movie

[chrismackey1972 · 6/10 · 22 August 2014]

I just saw this, but the only reason I decided to was because Bruce Willis was in it. Just so you all know, Willis is barely in it, so don't expect a movie saturated with his presence. I have to say that I'm glad I watched it. It wasn't a great movie, but it was fun. It clocks in at right about 90 mins, so it's not one of those movies that drags out every scene trying to get to epic length of 2.5 hours, though it probably could have had about 10 minutes cut. Jessica Lowndes is beautiful, as is Gia Montegna, so the eye candy was good. Plus, they were pretty good actresses, so I hope to see a lot of them in the future. Jason Patric was good in the lead. If you're looking for a fun, suspenseful movie, you should give this a viewing.

I do have to say Willis' right-hand man, played by Rain (AKA: Jung Ji-Hoon), was miscast. He was not imposing at all. He looked like a 19-yr old college student, and the fight between him and Jason Patric was more like something Patric had with the several cronies he fought throughout the movie. Jet Li would have been better in that role, but more expensive, too. The final scene between Patric and Willis was even less inspiring. Overall though, I found it fun to watch. As I said, it wasn't great, but it was entertaining.

And no, this is not a review written by a member of the film making team or of the studio. I design websites, lol. Hey, it pays the bills. But yeah, I hate when film makers get on here and give high rated reviews, which tend to be worthless. I gave this a 6 out of 10 stars, but I think it deserved more like 6.5. Anyway, watch and judge it for yourself.

John Cusack - why, oh why....

[dinatekno · 3/10 · 29 May 2015]

Kind of sad to see the talented John Cusack & Jason Patric in sub standard fare such as this. It's like a Lifetime movie for macho guys. The only good acting comes from them, then the cast tries to match their intensity - with spotty results. Overall, a decent time waster, for those John Cusack fans, like me. Still, with better writing & artistic direction, it might have looked like something more than a bad late 80's TV pilot. BTW, 50 Cent is really good for the short time he is on screen. Jonathan Scheoch, is hardly recognizable. And Bruce Willis, is Bruce Willis. The young girls were just not up to the caliber of the lead cast. It was close, but still had the overall feel of a low budget TV movie. Such a wast of Cusack's talent.

Wow some serious unhappy folks

[herbntimes · 8/10 · 28 February 2015]

Stumbled on this one evening. Don't get all the dissatisfied people. I enjoyed the movie and have put my favorite scenes on again to kill some time. Is it a masterpiece NO - but I've seen much worse. I thought it was an OK movie to toss on after work and was satisfied. Again not stellar but a 5 or 6 outta 10. I prefer sci-fy, fantasy, and action/adventure and it passed the time well. I work off shifts and have seen way to many movies - this isn't near as bad as some of the comments my suggest - IMO. OK -guess I need more lines to post - Starts never seen the lead before that I remember and he did very well for the character he portrayed. Loved Cusak - Willis's indifference kinda added to his character - the girls were cut. I primarily liked the concept. Like I've mentioned it isn't a visual fest or deep tale. Just a story about a dad wanting his girl back and his background.

Well worth watching - a Great Flick, just pay attention to storyline !!!

[Colonial-Oak · 7/10 · 30 October 2014]

I don't submit very many of these reviews, but after seeing a few negative reviews, I had to set the record straight . . .

Jason Patric plays a dad who learns his daughter is not at the college in which she was enrolled - he finds out she dropped out a week or so ago - and she hasn't returned any phone calls in over a week.

Obviously frustrated, he starts a quest to find his daughter.

If movie viewers would lay off the alcohol and drugs and actually "pay attention " to the movie and dialog, they'd appreciate the movie, a version of TAKEN, only with home-grown, rougher American edges.

Plus, B Willis plays the BAD GUY, not the good guy, for a change.

Bottom line -- This is a great action flick -- worth a lot more than the buck 30 at the RedBox. But do your part - don't watch it all drunk or fk'd up.

Ignore the negative reviews here -- it is A LOT better than the reviews state. If you like Willis, Patric, Cusack - and action flicks in general - catch this movie. It is not a waste of time, its a sleeper.

I am not sure how this took 90 minutes of my time.

[fastpuppy · 3/10 · 31 August 2014]

To say there isn't much to this movie is an understatement. Paper thin plot with no real surprises or even any sense. Willis, Cusak and even Patrick have certainly done better.

Patrick's character is a mere shadow of similar characters as is Willis's vengeful kingpin. Cusak's character seemed like that friend who you barely know who helps you move... he was there for a bit out of some past debt who's only function seemed to be to explain a minor plot point that even the thickest person watching would have picked up on by that point.

All in all a waste of time even on a rainy (no pun intended) afternoon.

Yawn... go watch DIe Hard again

[rob-167-199765 · 3/10 · 22 August 2014]

The only reason I gave this a 3 out of 10 was the Bruce was in it, and so was Rain. Every time I saw a Jason Patrick I was reminded of Speed 2. Overall, not a horrible movie, but this falls under the premise of "Hey Bruce agreed to do the film, and we got that rapper dude, what's his name... 50 Cent. This should be a hit!"

Cliché' after cliché' tended to ruin the flow of the story as well. Daughter in college, goes missing, dad used to be a bad-ass hit-man back in the day. Oh and he killed the bad guys wife and daughter. I think the movie would have been much better if it had been about Bruce trying to avenge his wife and daughters killer. Now that would have made for a much better movie.

Poor story lines, bad script, just overall bad. I love Bruce and John Cusack but even they weren't enough to save this film.

Ummm..... As I am writing this as I am watching the film......

[kerry-shacklock · 4/10 · 24 October 2014]

... Means I have lost the will to live. Formulaic, boring, and nothing going for it - even Bruce and John. Sad that they have added their names to this. Misleading and just pretty damn awful - although I am sure that the B actors are all performing their socks off.....l Watch if you have nothing better to do. Other than that - avoid. I am sure I could have done something better with the last 90 minutes of my life.

Oh I have to add more lines..... OK.... Ummm.... Guns, druggies, bad acting, underwhelming locations, more bad acting, odd cars, bad filming, awful director, terrible lighting, strange Japanese man, ... Just odd. Could have been great and I am so disappointed. No spoilers - because you can predict the film start to finish.

Alright action, alright acting, nothing special.

[Finfrosk86 · 5/10 · 16 September 2015]

This movie is not horrible, but certainly not cinematic gold either. I'm going short for this review, because there ain't much to say.

The story is, uhm, very straight forward. But we don't really need the story to be all that, in this kind of movie.

The action is actually not bad. The shootouts are pretty good. There's real blank-firing guns, good sound design, blood-packets, the works. The action choreography is not exceptional, but alright.

Bruce Willis, who's in the front on the cover, is not in it very much. John Cusack is on the cover, but also barely in it. Pretty obvious that these actors are mostly bait, to get people to see it. If Bruce Willis is in it, can't be all bad, right!? Well, yes it can, but this is OK.

Jason Patric does a pretty good job as a bad ass, I think. Seems like he got some weapons training, he is believable or the most part.

Movie is kind of reminiscent of Taken, although a lot weaker. We don't really care much about the characters.

Take it for what it is, an action thriller with a couple of decent shoot outs, and you won't be too disappointed.

Excellent Unstoppable-Man Genre Movie

[mrohlee · 7/10 · 30 May 2015]

If you like the genre you should enjoy this movie. The story movies right along and Jason Patric is solid as the man going after his daughter. When I saw the description 'retired hit man has to return to his old life to save his daughter' and saw Bruce Willis as in it I thought oh Jez how many times will he play that same character. I was pleasantly surprised that Willis is playing the "bad" man here. I say "bad" like the good-the-bad-and-the-ugly where the "good" man isn't really good. In this case his motivation is good but back in his day he was "the" bad guy.

John Cusack has a small part as the "the ugly" I guess you would say. Another bad guy but decides to give Patric some help. I think he took the part to deliver a pretty good little speech talking about Hadrians Wall in a very effective scene to give part of Patric's back story.

Jung Ji-Hoon/Rain (who is a big star in Korea) has a nice part as Willis's sensible, loyal, and deadly right hand man.

If you like this type of movie don't be bothered by the negative reviews. If you don't like this type of movie don't watch it, if you do, then just sit back, relax, and enjoy!

When a movie with a good cast goes straight to DVD.......

[bobrec · 1/10 · 22 August 2014]

....its because it SUCKSSSSSSSSSSSS ....pls pls don't waste your time.

This is what happens with a silver spoon USC film grad son of some big producer needs a favor to be called in......no holds bar.

Would you really watch a movie where Patrick whoever was the lead, John Cosack makes a 5 min cameo, 50 cent even shorter? Can you believe a bunch of exes sitting around a table and greenlighting a movie today where a noname want to be father bad ass kills 200 people with automatics and only with his small gun. This isn't dumb.....its just an exercise in making a movie to lose money and write it off.

GARBAGE

Really not as bad as you all make it out to be

[caty_che · 7/10 · 12 July 2019]

Captured a part from this movie and liked the atmosphere so decided to watch it from the beginning. Turned this is actually a decent action flick. Not your average smack everyone and shoot it all up type. Give it a try...

Bogus Reviews

[fluffybunny0408 · 1/10 · 15 January 2015]

Maybe I have too much time on my hands. So what? After having recently watched the director, Brian A. Miller's "The Outsider," checking IMDb to see what the reviews were because it sucked, and the first review I read being a 10 which related only to some lawsuit rather than about the movie itself, I became curious, did some research, and discovered that the review was written by the director's girlfriend (cuttlemonkey).

Long story short, read cuttlemonkey's review for this movie and tell me it doesn't sound like the director, himself, looking for an ego boost. So I thought, "who actually likes this movie?" As it turns out, no one who isn't related to the movie in some way, shape, or form.

The looper 14: friends on the most famous social network (whose name for some reason is forbidden on this site)with cuttlemonkey Jameson Hesse: friends on you guessed it with Brian A. Miller Tonie Farace: Actually worked on the film. Look at the credits on this site. There she is.

Iain McLean: Friends of the director Athena Simpson: Friends of director's girlfriend I'm a consumer who only wants to spend his money on quality products. I rely on sites like this to help me make informed decisions about where I spend my money. It offends to no end that people make crappy products then glorify them (or entice others to do so on their behalf, knowing their product blows) to satisfy their own narcissism. If you make a crappy movie, own it and stop making crappy movies. Then, maybe you can get some legitimate decent reviews.

For the record, I had to watch the movie before my conscience would let me post this. Not quite as bad as The Outsider, but it was still one of those movies you have to force yourself to watch. Couldn't do it in one shot as the clichés got to me after awhile. Brian A. Miller clearly has a thing for "tough guy's daughter goes missing and now he's out for revenge" flicks. It's called Taken. You can't do it. You're just embarrassing yourself.

Casting

[iain-88-125225 · 8/10 · 23 August 2014]

I saw this film on the big screen last night and enjoyed the ride, good action scenes, clever twists, and believable characters. Jason Patrick as the lead was the perfect choice...

Willis and Cusack as co-stars made the platform for Jason's character arc deep real and scary.

50 cent came as a surprise, as I agree most Rapper's acting "Sucks" but it seems the director got a good believable performance out of him.( not easy)

Another great performance I thought was Willis side kick Mark, played by Korean actor Rain. this guy knows how to fight and is going to be a solid action star.

He has those boyish good looks but could kill you with a tooth pick...

All in all I enjoyed this film.

Actually entertaining and enjoyable...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 23 January 2022]

I stumbled upon the 2014 action thriller "The Prince" from writers Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore here in 2022 by sheer, random chance. And with it being a Bruce Willis movie, then of course I wanted to watch it. But truth be told, I wasn't harboring much of any expectations to the movie, as Bruce Willis haven't really been churning out top notch movies for a long, long time.

Yet, I opted to watch director Brian A. Miller's movie on the account that this was a movie that I hadn't already seen, and also because it had both Bruce Willis and John Cusack on the cast list. I wasn't familiar with lead actor Jason Patric, however.

I will say that "The Prince" was actually a watchable and enjoyable enough action thriller for what it was. It wasn't a groundbreaking action thriller, nor did writers Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore really bring anything new to the genre. But the movie was actually still enjoyable enough.

There was a good amount of action in the movie, and that definitely helped to keep "The Prince" afloat and keep it watchable and enjoyable. I liked the action, and found it to be nicely choreographed.

Aside from Jason Patric, Bruce Willis and John Cusack, then "The Prince" also had the likes of Johnathon Schaech, Jessica Lowndes and Don Harvey on the cast list. Personally I can't claim to have found any particular thrill or excitement in the fact that Rain and 50 Cent were in the movie.

If you enjoy action thrillers of the good old kind, then give "The Prince" a chance, should you have the opportunity. I definitely thoroughly enjoyed it. However, "The Prince" is a type of movie that you watch once and never pick it up again, as there just isn't sufficient contents to the storyline and script to support more than a single viewing.

My rating of "The Prince" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Total waste of time and money

[kumru-can · 1/10 · 8 October 2014]

From the very beginning I was ready for an action packed movie. What I actually got was a slow paced, C movie with a complete lack of interesting plot, acting or anything else which makes a movie worthwhile. Did the entire cast and director aimed to be nominated for rotten tomatoes nominations? They fully deserve them. They will definitely get my vote. PLEASE don't go to this particular movie. It hurts your eyes and will damage your ears. Don't say I didn't warn you. There are plenty of other films more interesting, such as.... a still from an aquarium with some boring gold fishes in it. Complete and utter waste of your time and mine.

A very disappointing movie

[agentorangeod · 3/10 · 11 September 2014]

It's very strange how on the movie poster Bruce Willis is put front and centre, yet only makes a few appearances in this movie. John Cusack looks awkward and Jason Patric is just not convincing as the hard man he is supposed to be, he's also incredibly emotionless. The story line is also very weak and the gun fight at the end is fairly bad. There's a part where the lead actors are walking (slowly) across a lobby and somehow dodge every bullet from an automatic weapon firing at them in clear sight from above.

I also love the bad guys in generic sunglasses while indoors.

All in all, this is quite disappointing.