The Prince (2014 film)

Plot

Paul, a mechanic, speaks to his daughter Beth on video chat. Though she seems stressed and distracted, she says that she is fine. The two make plans for her coming visit back home after finals. Paul later receives a letter from the college which indicates that Beth has stopped attending, and a stranger answers her phone. Paul doesn't contact the police and flies to where his daughter lives to personally investigate his daughter's disappearance. At Beth's apartment, he finds a picture of her and another young woman whom he assumes to be one of her friends. He finds her at a local bar, and she introduces herself as Angela. She reluctantly tells Paul that Beth has dropped out of college and fallen in with local drug dealers. Paul offers to pay Angela $500 to take him to New Orleans, Beth's last known location, and identify her dealer, Eddie.

When Angela points out one of Eddie's friends, Paul demands Eddie's location. The man refuses and attacks Paul, knocking him to the ground. Paul viciously beats the man and his two friends. Although disturbed by the show of violence, Angela helps Paul set up a meeting with Eddie through a cell phone that they take from his friend. At a club, Eddie denies any knowledge of Beth and ignores Paul's threats until his uncle, who witnessed Paul kill seven armed men twenty years ago, convinces Eddie to talk. Eddie says that Beth has moved on to harder drugs than he supplies and lives with a local drug kingpin known as The Pharmacy. Paul pays Angela the $500 he promised her and tells her to return home, but she refuses, as she wants to know what has happened to her friend. Paul reluctantly accepts her continued help.

Two thugs trail Paul and attempt to force his car off the road. Paul instead causes them to crash, and he interrogates the passenger, who reveals that he works for local crime-boss Omar. Paul tells the passenger to warn Omar to stay out of his way and kills the driver as he lies helpless and wounded on the ground. Angela insists that Paul explain himself. Paul tells her that he used to be a mob hit man for Omar, but the escalating violence caused him to question his loyalty. In a botched attempt to kill Omar, he accidentally killed Omar's wife and daughter instead. Now, Omar desires revenge, and Paul knows that Omar will stop at nothing to use his daughter to get to him. Paul makes arrangements with an old friend and former partner, Sam, to keep Angela safe while he recovers weaponry stashed with an old contact and confronts The Pharmacy.

The Pharmacy reveals that Omar has paid him to detain both Paul and Beth. Paul disarms one of the thugs, kills everyone in the room but Beth, and shoots his way to safety. Back at Sam's penthouse suite, the two reminisce about their exploits while waiting for an assault from Omar. Omar's men capture Beth, and Paul leaves to rescue her. At Omar's business, Paul defeats several waves of henchmen before facing Omar himself. Omar demands to know why Paul murdered his family and threatens to kill Beth in retaliation. Paul says that they were simply collateral damage and offers to let Omar live if he gives up Beth. Mark, Omar's bodyguard and adviser, engages Paul in hand-to-hand combat; the two seem evenly matched, but Paul finds a gun and kills Mark. Beth elbows Omar in the ribs and escapes from his grasp, freeing her father to take a shot and kill Omar. Beth and her father are reunited again. Angela embraces them both outside the building, and the three leave together.

Production

Filming took place in Mobile, Alabama, in and around The Battle House Hotel and the adjoining RSA Battle House Tower. Bruce Willis completed his scenes on December 3, 2013, followed by Rain and Jason Patric who completed their initial scenes on December 6.

Release

Lionsgate gave the film a limited release on August 22, 2014, and released it on DVD and Blu-ray October 28, 2014. It grossed $1.7 million in domestic video sales.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 0% based on nine reviews. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 17 out of 100 based on 6 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". Andrew Barker of Variety wrote, "John Cusack and Bruce Willis yawn their way through this basic-cable-quality actioner." Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times called it "a Taken retread with the same old shoot-outs and showdowns". Chuck Wilson of The Village Voice wrote, "The action thriller The Prince is so bad that the most noteworthy thing about it is that the opening credits list 19 executive producers." Scott Tobias of The Dissolve rated it 1.5/5 stars and called it "a by-the-numbers affair" designed to attract undiscriminating views from video-on-demand.