After her mentor is murdered, Anna, an assassin, must return to Vietnam to track down his killer.
As soon as “The Protégé” opens up, the audience is perplexed by the awe of an innocent blood-spattered child named Anna (Maggie Q.), who seems to have been abandoned after hiding in a closet to protect herself from a room full of ruthless killers who have taken out her parents. Shortly thereafter, there is no doubt that the ruthless killer is actually the small Vietnamese girl who has singlehandedly taken on the task of vengeance by totally taking the lives of the entire group of men who obviously underestimated her survival skills.
The man who rescues Anna and takes her under his wing is Moody Dutton (Samuel L. Jackson), a trained assassin, who gets her out of the danger zone, raises her and teaches her everything he knows. Later, they get separated by life and when they end up back together, they fight together to eliminate bad people who are making even worse decisions about the capability of the two when they get together. When Anna gets information that Moody has been killed, she makes it her business to find his killer and make them pay for taking away the man who has been the closest thing to a father she has ever known. After several dead bodies and unexpected turns later, Moody shows up out of nowhere and rescues his Anna who seems to have lost some of the skills that he taught her, and has gotten herself into a predicament. Moody uses his old-school charm to rescue her again as each of them realizes they have to work smarter in order to keep their assassin game strong.
Making things complicated is Rembrandt (Michael Keaton), the guy who is supposed to be the middleman for the hired hands of Billy Boy (Robert Patrick) and Edward Hayes (David Rintoul) who want to put both Moody and Anna out of business so there won’t be any competition. Rembrandt is posing as a liaison who should be of assistance in reeling Anna in when actually his feelings for Anna make things complicated. After many games of cat and mouse, the two end up in bed together and then immediately start playing the killing game again. At the end of the film, both Moody and Anna are back together again but only long enough to realize with limited physical capability, their assassin game is getting weak.
Director Martin Campbell did an excellent job of putting together a talented cast that brought a lot of excitement and diversity to the film. Margaret Quigley, who studied under the great Jackie Chan, has been doing her own stunts for twenty years and is at the top of her game while Samuel L. Jackson seems to conquer every role he attempts with humor, finesse, and plenty of hilarious, old-school enthusiasm. This action-packed thriller moves along at a great pace and does a great job of elevating romance with athleticism along with plenty of matches of sharp-shooting wit and ass-kicking brutality.
In Theaters Friday, August 20th
