The Prodigy (2005)

A Masterpiece!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Hello, my name is Ron Balicki and I was part of the crew on the movie "The Prodigy". I felt compelled to write a comment about this film and some of the people who have written in with really negative feedback about this movie. I know that it is not going to be every ones cup of tea but many of the comments made are utterly ridiculous. This movie has been breaking all kinds of rental record through Netflix.com. We have also received stellar comments back from our distributor about many of the people who have seen the film. This film has won awards in festivals that it has participated in. I have always been told that if you are even invited into a festival it means that your film is a winner. So, to hear some of these people write in with their highly negative feedback makes me wonder why they are saying what they are saying? I sat down last night and looked through all of their feedback on our film. What I discovered is that about 95% of the people who wrote negative comments about "The Prodigy" had never written anything else about any other film on IMDb.com. This made me wonder why "The Prodigy" was so important for them to write in about? I am just confused as to why someone would write this? I receive email every week from people all over the world telling me that our movie is amazing and that they can not believe that we made such a great movie for so little money. I also hear people say that the acting is great. So, my question is this, why are some of the these people so compelled to join IMDb.com and comment on our film when they have never taken any initiative to write in about any other film ever made? Again, I know that it is not going to be every ones favorite type of film. I myself can watch films with topics that I am not wild about but I can still see the quality that has gone into it and appreciate it for that. I am not going to run and slander those films. Am I missing something? Could it be one person is writing in under different pen names to slam our film? Does anybody out there know why someone would want to make comments that are outrageously misleading? If you do know why please let me know. I wonder if this is a normal thing for films to go through? Are people so unhappy with their lives that they have to find joy in tearing up everybody's work out there. Is it a case of misery loves company?Please checkout "The Prodigy" this movie is excellent and I know it will please you if you are an action / thriller fan. You will not be disappointed.

Glen Vorhis is a superb actor who plays a psychotic assassin who calls himself Rains (AKA "The Invisible Man") who has cunningly planned for years to bequeath his inauspicious legacy to an unwitting, abused pre-adolescent who must ultimately be molded into a like-minded psychopathic killer. Glen's subtle skills to portray his character are absolutely riveting in this action thriller… Glen's development of this pernicious character is reminiscent of Anthony Perkins's role as Norman Bates in "Psycho"."The Prodigy" is listed as a 2004 release, but just recently aired at a Texas theater for the first time and the DVD was released June 12, 2007. This is Glen's first public release and he plays quite the villain! "The Prodigy" was made a few years ago in the small Texas town of Denison outside of Dallas/Fort Worth. I absolutely loved this flick !!! It's definitely not for the whole family or the faint-hearted. The action is non-stop mixed with mysterious "dark" drama. The most recent movie I've seen that compares is "Saw", but personally I had a whole lot more fun watching "The Prodigy". It is almost 3 hours, but you won't even realize the time has passed because there are few moments when you will not be on the edge of your seat. Try to imagine watching Jet Li doing stunts for Al Pacino as "Scarface" in the next sequel of the "Texas Chain Saw Massacre". You may find yourself wondering, "Who is Rains & what is his connection with the protagonist, Truman?" Just as in all of the "Kung Fu" and "Kill Bill" flicks, there is an underlying theme that the compulsive need exists for all "masters of genius" (whether they are essentially good or evil) to perpetuate their obsession by developing an apprentice or student of the craft (like Batman's Robin) and to mentor him/her in order to perpetuate their art/skills/craft/knowledge/etc.. The Deleted Scenes and the Director & Editor's Commentary are very helpful in understanding the subtlety of the story progression.Grab the DVD!

After see this movie, go urgently to a rental films store and look for a movie intituled "Caché"! If the intentions of Mr. William Kaufman were innovate the cinematographic language, you must watch that french movie and discover what innovation means. While the opening scenes of "Caché" is something never seen before - at least for me (I've watched almost 10.000 films in my 60 years of live) - "The Prodigy" (in its first 30 minutes) caused me a weird sensation: "Am I watching someone playing a video game or am I watching a film?". What a sequence of gratuitous scenes of violence! But after all, a ridiculous plot leads to ridiculous situations, for instance, that scene in which the "heroe(?)" has the opportunity to kill his "enemy": what a stupid cop would shot anyone in the body, mainly when that person is wearing night vision goggles, indicating surely the use of other safety equipments? By the way, Sam Peckinpak used scenes of extreme violence in his movie "Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia", shocking the majority of the spectators in 1974. But those "takes" were perfectly inserted in the context, what is not the case of "The prodigy"... As I don't want waste too many words to classify something that's better to forget, in a scale of 10, I vote: 1 (awful).

I first saw this film at midnight at the Magnolia theater in Dallas. My girlfriend and I sneaked in after seeing another movie. At first I felt bad and then found it was free, so I really didn't sneak in, I walked in quietly. When they announced that it was a low budget indy film that was produced locally I was quite upset and almost ran for the bar, but when the lights went down and the film started up I was totally impressed. I usually joke that I judge a good romantic film by how sweaty my hand gets from holding hands with my girlfriend and how intense a film is by all the bruises she puts on my arm. From the start of the first gun battle on she had a pit-bull like grip on my arm and never let go. I was all bruises. I tend to hate low budget action/thriller films after the mad rush of low budget crud that you see populating pay cable channels when the sun goes down. I think this Ken Dundon guy put together one heck of a team. (I might be prejudiced by his name) Seeing that he was in a wheelchair and had two hot women with him, I can only imagine that he is either very rich or very charming. Maybe both. He does, however, seem to have struck gold with this film.I really didn't see any fatal flaws in the film except for the fact that when I left the theater it was nearly 3 am which makes The Prodigy a long film. I had planned on spending 90 minutes in the theater and jetting. Is it just me or aren't most of these hyper-intense, hyper-low budget films short by nature? As far as acting goes, I thought that Matt Beckham who played the leads sidekick was totally awesome. When I found out how long ago they shot this thing I was totally floored by the fact that I have never seen him before. He was at the sneak preview and I must admit, it was the first time I ever wanted an autograph. I think the lead took the idea of deep and understated intensity to a whole new low. He seemed to be striving to create a character that had that vapid statuesque nature that Robert Mitchum brought to a role. I always wondered why no one had ever copied Mitchum and now I know why.I was also impressed at the number of women in the film that had full fledged, 3 dimensional speaking parts in the film. You don't often find real parts for women in films that contain so many guns.The bad guy in the film is also one of the best works of menace I think I have seen in a long while. The director, Bill Kaufman, does one heck of a job making him seem omnipotent and ever present. This character stuck with me. My girlfriend and I didn't make it home until 5:30 and a few moments after we crawled into bed, with the room pitch black, my alarm went off. It scared me to no end and my girlfriend put a whole new bruise on my other arm. For the next few days any time someone touched my arms I got a slight tinge of pain and a flashback to what was a great movie going experience. I cannot wait to see what these guys do next and I if there is any justice in the world these guys will be rich and on many magazine covers.