Set in the dangerous world of international smuggling, Contraband tells the familiar story of a retired criminal forced to do "one last job". Mark Wahlberg plays Chris Farraday, a legend in the smuggling game who has quit that life to start a family with his wife Kate (Kate Beckinsale). When Kate's brother Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) botches a job for crime boss Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), Chris finds his family threatened and is forced to go back to his old life to clear the debt.
This is a very generic take on the heist movie formula. Director Baltasar Kormakur (lead actor in Reykjavik-Rotterdam, the movie on which Contraband is based) does a competent job, but there is far too much story going on. The plot advances too quickly in it's opening scenes, 20 minutes in and Chris is on a ship to Panama to do the job, then screeches to a halt. Save for a intriguing second act twist, the plot jumps from one set up to another with the only reasoning for them being to get the story told. An armored car hold up, which should be the movie's action set piece, feels tacked on and is over far too quickly. Things get interesting in the third act when the focus is taken from the job to Chris's family, but then the closing scenes feature a drastic change in tone that clashes with what came before.
We have seen far better from the actors than what is on display here. It feels that Wahlberg is just being Wahlberg, and Beckinslae, Jones, and Ribisi aren't given much to do. Even the usually reliable Ben Foster, as Chris's best friend Sebastian, feels wasted.
While not an absolute mess, there is a lot wrong with Contraband. It's good to waste two hours with, but if you want something substantial from a movie, look elsewhere.
This is a very generic take on the heist movie formula. Director Baltasar Kormakur (lead actor in Reykjavik-Rotterdam, the movie on which Contraband is based) does a competent job, but there is far too much story going on. The plot advances too quickly in it's opening scenes, 20 minutes in and Chris is on a ship to Panama to do the job, then screeches to a halt. Save for a intriguing second act twist, the plot jumps from one set up to another with the only reasoning for them being to get the story told. An armored car hold up, which should be the movie's action set piece, feels tacked on and is over far too quickly. Things get interesting in the third act when the focus is taken from the job to Chris's family, but then the closing scenes feature a drastic change in tone that clashes with what came before.
We have seen far better from the actors than what is on display here. It feels that Wahlberg is just being Wahlberg, and Beckinslae, Jones, and Ribisi aren't given much to do. Even the usually reliable Ben Foster, as Chris's best friend Sebastian, feels wasted.
While not an absolute mess, there is a lot wrong with Contraband. It's good to waste two hours with, but if you want something substantial from a movie, look elsewhere.
