An underrated action thriller with an all-star cast is now available to stream for free. Released back in 2021, The Protégé sees Casino Royale and The Mask of Zorro filmmaker Martin Campbell at the helm of this tale of a legendary assassin on a brutal quest for revenge.
Starring Mission: Impossible III, Die Hard 4, and The Family Plan star Maggie Q in the lead as the world’s most highly skilled killer. The rest of the cast includes major A-listers Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, and Robert Patrick, as well as Patrick Malahide, David Rintoul, Ori Pfeffer, Ray Fearon, and Caroline Loncq, and boasts 82% on the Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes. The Protégé can now be streamed for free on Tubi, and you can check out the official synopsis for the action thriller below.
“Rescued as a child by the legendary assassin Moody (Samuel L. Jackson) and trained in the family business, Anna (Maggie Q) is the world’s most skilled contract killer. But 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 (Michael Keaton) 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.”
The Protégé Offers No-Nonsense Action Movie Thrills
While The Protégé is unlikely to offer action fans anything they’ve not seen before, sometimes that doesn’t matter. Some of the most enjoyable examples of the genre simply take the same ingredients and blend them together slightly differently, allowing the fights, shoot-outs, and chases to wash over you in an explosive symphony of thrilling action and loud noises. At the time, Peter Debruge of Variety heaped praise on how The Protégé “recombines” familiar elements of the action movie genre.
“There’s precious little in “The Protégé” that audiences haven’t seen before in some form or another, but that’s hardly a liability, since the script recombines those familiar elements in such entertaining ways…”
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Kaitlyn Booth of Bleeding Cool, meanwhile, applauded the “brutal and realistic” action sequences and the one-two punch of director Martin Campbell and leading star Maggie Q.
“Director Martin Campbell does know how to direct an excellent action scene, and with Maggie Q as your star, they all look brutal and realistic. This is the sort of action movie that makes you wince when you watch it because that looked like it hurt.”
Finally, MovieWeb’s own Julian Roman declared that “Martin Campbell knows how to make a good action flick,” and felt that both the cast and the filmmaker raise what is an unabashed B-movie plot.
“A veteran Hollywood cast and skilled direction take a convoluted B-movie plot to higher ground.”
- Release Date
- August 20, 2021
- Runtime
- Format
- Studio
- Tagline
- Website
- Cinematographer
- David Tattersall
- Producer
- Arthur Sarkissian, Moshe Diamant, Chris Milburn, Yariv Lerner, Rob Van Norden
- Production Company
- Campbell Grobman Films, Millennium Media, I Road Productions, Ingenious Media, Fourteen Films
- Sfx Supervisor
- Daniel Pirvulescu