Movize I was in Belgium this week and get a chance to see this movie (The Prodigy). I was visiting a friends home and watched the movie on DVD.  All I can say is this, Wow!  I was dumb struck from the beginning.  In the first 15 minutes there was more action than most movies have in their entirety.  The gun battles and fist fights were like no other ever filmed before.  The directing and acting was total quality. I never heard of these actors but they all did an amazing job.  I was really taken with the star of the film Holt Boggs and I really liked the female lead Diana Lee Inosanto.  Can't wait to see what they do next, hopefully a prequel or sequel to this movie. Also, your really going to like what the director Will Kaufman and his DP did on this film. They gave this movie both, a beautiful look and it was creepy all in one. Do yourself a favor and check this one out. I can't wait for the US release.

leaningt The 2006 Edinburgh International Film Festival has premiered an array of high quality feature films, imported from around the globe. However, there will always be a few bad eggs that manage to slip through the festival's cinematic net. 'The Prodigy' is not so much a bad egg, as a scavenging rat that has the ability to close down the most reputable of London restaurants. Previously well received in the United States, William Kaufman's gangster flic resembles a B-movie, as it follows tough-guy 'Truman' around the blood-stained streets of Dallas, Texas, attempting to track down a psychopathic assassin who has kidnapped a local mob-boss' nephew. Too often than not, the dialogue is mind-numbingly boring and the pitiful performances are enough to tip a suicidal man over the edge. A truly terrible film.

CineCritic2517 I don't know what the people that rated this film a 5 or more usually watch but I have a fairly good idea. And perhaps if you see little else than MTV all day and catch a Horror flick every once in a while, this movie could indeed be appealing.I can safely say that I have seen my share of stinkers but those movies didn't all fall short due to the lack of almost everything that makes a quality movie. Yet, Prodigy certainly seemed to spare no effort to try to fail on all counts although I admit there were some nice action-scenes and the premise certainly was interesting.But the main question is: why make a movie and blatantly ignore directing it? I mean, the story was all over the place and none of the scenes seemed to blend at all. It was like watching a collection of scenes in a non discernible order. Any first grade film student would have surely done a better job in creating some cohesion.Directing aside, what was up with the grainy footage, the constantly changing camera style (make up your mind guys) and the first-draft dialog? And don't even get me started on the 'acting' by some of the cast. I know this movie was obviously low-budget but for the love of God, you don't have to remind the audience of it in just about every scene.This movie gets a lot of positive reviews and those reviewers give this flick a neat 4/4 stars. 'Bit suspicious considering that the weighted average vote isn't even a six, which is due to the fact that 36%! of the voters gave it a ten obviously without giving it much thought. If you don't mind incoherent film-making, overlong scenes and an in-the-face feel of lowbudgetism, then, by all means, go see this and give it a 10 as well. Otherwise just avoid...

Shawn Watson The Prodigy begins with a drug deal going sour. Only instead of 2 sides facing off against each other in a typical Mafioso fashion, someone dressed like the Scarlet Pimpernel but with the aggression of Jason Voorhees on crack, appears out of nowhere armed with a zillion weapons and cuts them all down before getting into a brutal fistfight with last man standing Truman Fisher. The action is so searingly intense, it makes recent actioners like Running Scared look like a 70s episode of Seasame Street in comparison.The mystery villain is soon revealed to be some sort of mystical mega-psycho who goes by the name of Claude Rains (as he is, in a way, an invisible man) after he kidnaps the nephew of a gang boss. Truman Fisher is sent to find him but discovers that there is some kind of weird connection between him and Rains.That is where my understanding of the film ends as it becomes far too messy and unfocused. At a running time of 2 hours I feel a lot of fat could have been cut to keep a tighter, more nervously wrought pace. Whenever Rains is on screen, doing his shooting, slashing and torturing the film absolutely soars. But in between, when Fisher is going from one place to another, it really lags. And by the end you won't have a clue what's going on or why. Less filler during the second act and more coherence in the third would have made this film so much better. I wasn't the only one who felt this way as there were several people in the audience who left halfway through.Made on an unbelievably small budget of $219,000 the film honestly looks 10 times that amount. The action and fighting is amazing and Rains is a truly terrifying, imposing villain who pushes this film well out of the Crime genre and into Horror.Obviously, since the budget is so small, it won't star anyone you've really ever heard before but they do just fine. A few characters are completely superfluous and could have been cut-out in a more preferable, leaner running time however.The film is surprisingly stylish and action-packed considering it's low-budget nature but that doesn't excuse the increasing lack of sense as it goes on.Still, it's a fine attempt at film-making and adds something new to both Action and Horror.