Contraband Review

Contraband
Directed by Baltasar Kormakur
Written by Aaron Guzikowski

Starring
Mark Wahlberg... Chris Farraday
Kate Beckinsale... Kate Farraday
Ben Foster... Sebastian Abney
Giovanni Ribisi... Tim Briggs
JK Simmons... Captain Camp

Story
The basic premise of Contraband is pretty similar to another Giovanni Ribisi classic, Gone in Sixty Seconds. Chris Farraday's brother-in-law is forced to dump a shipment of cocaine when his ship is boarded by the Coast Guard, and is in debt to a local drug dealer for $700,000. Here comes Marky Mark to the rescue. He is a former smuggler, but has gone legitimate as a home security installer. Unable to reason with Tim Briggs he is forced to do one last job to come up with the money. Of course, he won't smuggle drugs because he has such high morals, but is willing to smuggle in millions of dollars in counterfeit money.

Acting
No standout performances, and a couple very mediocre ones. Mark Wahlberg is very attractive and can do no wrong. (Guess who produced this movie?) Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, and JK Simmons all do their part, but their characters are pretty two dimensional. And Giovanni Ribisi shouldn't be allowed to do an accent, or play a tough guy. I can't think of a person I would be less afraid of than him.

Review
I had pretty low hopes going in, and those hopes weren't even met. Every character is thin, the action sequences are a mess and impossible to follow, and the story is very predictable.  If it had a little more edge to it, and the risks seemed a bit more real it would have been better.  But if you like a nice simple  heist movie, it has some enjoyable parts to it. You know Farraday will get away with it, so the question is how will he do it? They come up with a couple of low tech ways that seem plausible, but I'd like the Mythbusters guys to take a look at it. The big action sequence with the duct taped face army from the preview is completely pointless and the worst part of the movie. It makes no sense why the characters would be there, or what purpose they serve, and it was poorly shot and edited. The camera is shaking so much, and bad guys and policemen appear out of nowhere with fully automatic weapons that must be misfiring when they aim at Mark Wahlberg. All in all, an average movie that has been made better before this.

** out of five stars

May the Force be with you,
CHUD