Proud Mary (2018)

Proud Mary: Directed by Babak Najafi. With Taraji P. Henson, Billy Brown, Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Neal McDonough. Mary is a hit woman working for an organized crime family in Boston, whose life is completely turned around when she meets a young boy whose path she crosses when a professional hit goes bad.

“u0026quot;Proud Maryu0026quot; (R, 1:29) is an action thriller with a mainly African-American cast. Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson stars in the title role as a hit-woman with a hardened heart of gold.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhen she carries out orders to take out a man who was heavily indebted to her small but powerful Boston crime family, she learns that he had a tween son who is now an orphan. She spends the next year secretly following Danny (Jahi Diu0026#39;Allo Winston) around town as he lives on the streets and works for an abusive local drug dealer (Xander Berkeley). At an especially vulnerable moment for Danny, Mary steps in and struggles to break through his defenses to help him and become his protector. But she also inadvertently drags him into a brewing gang war between her family (headed by Danny Glover and Billy Brown) and a group of eastern European criminals (headed by Rade Serbedzija, perhaps best known as the villain in u0026quot;Taken 2u0026quot;). u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis genre movie is fairly formulaic, with little to distinguish it from similar films, but itu0026#39;s also fairly well-done and fans of the genre (and/or the very accomplished cast) will probably find it entertaining. u0026quot;B-u0026quot;”