Contraband

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Contraband

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Contraband

Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, Giovanni Ribisi, Lukas Haas

Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) long ago abandoned his life of crime, but after his brother-in-law, Andy (Caleb Landry Jones), botches a drug deal for his ruthless boss, Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), C... read more read more...hris is forced back into doing what he does best- running contraband-to settle Andy's debt. Chris is a legendary smuggler and quickly assembles a crew with the help of his best friend, Sebastian (Ben Foster), for one final run to Panama and back, hoping to return with millions in counterfeit bills. Things quickly fall apart and with only hours to reach the cash, Chris must use his rusty skills to successfully navigate a treacherous criminal network of brutal drug lords, cops and hit men before his wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale), and sons become their target. -- (C) Official Site

Id: 11155475

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Contraband Recent Reviews
  • helpahorse
    May 13, 2012
    helpahorse
    Adding review later.
  • jlewis07
    May 10, 2012
    jlewis07
    It's works within a well worn genre, but Contraband has enough suspense, action, and twists to keep you entertained. The performances are solid and the story moves at a great pace, so I can forgive a little lack of originality. This is especially good for a January release.
  • TheDudeLebowski65
    May 9, 2012
    TheDudeLebowski65
    Contraband is a thrilling action film that is a pretty decent cinematic experience. The film definitely delivers the action, but there's something missing to really make this one stand out. I thought that Giovanni Ribisi as ruthless gangster Tim Briggs made this film better. His ... read moreperformance saved the film from being a total disappointment. The film was a decent actioner, one that was mindless viewing experience. The problem though was the fact that some of the film was derivative of other films and it felt predictable. As a whole, Contraband could have been a much better film, but it's still a pretty decent film too. Mark Wahlberg was great in the lead and along with Ribisi made the film better. There could have been more improvements on the film of course, and if a rewrite of the script would have been done. Contraband is a decent film, but once the credits roll, it leaves a lot to be desired. You end up feeling that there is something missing to really make Contraband work. Overall this is a mindless action film, and nothing more. The film, like I said is decent, but it doesn't try to do anything new with its formula. For what it is, it's a pleasant time waster, but Mark Wahlberg has made far better films than this. Enjoyable and fun, Contraband isn't anything truly remarkable, but it works to thrill and though flawed, it most certainly does that. Using the same old, clichéd formula, Contraband delivers a decent two hour action flick with a few good performances. The film could have been better, but if you like Mark Wahlberg, you'll probably enjoy this. I liked it, but I think they could have put a bit more effort into the film.
  • phubbs1
    May 1, 2012
    phubbs1
    OK the first thing to hit me with this thriller is the excellent cast and subsequent excellent performances they all give, Wahlberg, Foster and Ribisi really come together and blend well giving really strong tense portrayals of their characters.

    All three of the main cast are a... read moreround the same age (almost) and I think it shows as they seem to effortlessly connect, almost like a small group of your mates working together. I think Wahlberg has nailed the average blue collar working schmo to a tea in recent films but he does tend to be the same character in everything he does, oh well.
    The film isn't exactly super exciting but more of a slowish burner as Wahlberg basically needs to get his hands on a load of dosh to pay of some criminals which threaten his family, yeeeeah not tooooo original is it. His so called best mate played by Foster is of course in cahoots with the bad guys and is playing Wahlberg's character (not really a spoiler don't worry), Foster is so good at being low down scummy guys, makes you wonder huh.

    Its sort of a heist flick but also more of your typical blackmail, smuggling, gang, mobster type thing which is sort of cool but slightly underwhelming also. The whole thing lacks bite, you really wanna see Wahlberg kick some ass and pop some caps in some asses but he never really does that. Ribisi is a really good junkie redneck in this and he needs a major whipping and you just want him to get blow away, you yearn for some gun action but it never materialises and it just feels like a chance missed.

    It does get reasonably tense at times but it just ends all too softly when you really wanna see some quality retribution for the good guys. Solid stern decent performances yes, pumping film...no, could of been so much more exciting, hard to even say it was an 'action' film really, or thriller, kinda somewhere inbetween.
  • allan913
    April 26, 2012
    allan913
    A strong, solid, gritty and adrenaline-pumping crime-thriller. It`s a thrilling, dynamic and intense movie. It has alot of strength and keeps rolling with its story and characters and chooses that over action and effects. It`s smart and entertaining and packs alot of star power. ... read moreMark Wahlberg is excellent, he gives another strong and compelling performance. A great and strong caper filled with suspensful moments, gripping characters and a great action sequence. It`s full-on excitement.
  • fb100000145236770
    April 25, 2012
    fb100000145236770
    Based on the previews I was expecting an action thriller. I thought this would be "Max Payne", instead it's more "Italian Job", which works out great. Mark Wahlberg stars as Chris, who has abandoned a life of crime and started a family. When his brother-in-law gets into troubl... read moree with a mob boss, Chris gets thrust back into the smuggling business. He has to form a team, and make one big score to save his brother-in-law, himself, and his family. Features a great supporting cast with Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, and Giovanni Ribisi. The movie drags a little towards the middle, but picks back up, and keeps you genuinely interested until the end. Would have liked a little bit more action, but the story made up for it. I love heist movies, and this sits pretty nicely with some of the better ones out there. Definitely check it out.
  • xXGiNoBiLiPRXx
    April 8, 2012
    xXGiNoBiLiPRXx
    What would you hide to protect your family?

    Good movie! I enjoyed it quite much but I wanted more from it, this film had so much hype to it and even though was good enough I wanted more. Mark Wahlberg did great as the main character and Ben Foster and Giovanni Ribisi with his c... read morerazy accent were very good also. I think it's not worth seeing more than once but it's quite good for a movie night with some popcorn in your home.

    Chris Faraday once smuggled illegal items or contraband into the country on freighters. He left that life behind, got married has a family and went legit. But when his brother-in-law got involved with Briggs, a drug dealer and when he blew a deal, Briggs demands restitution which he can't deliver. So Chris offers to find a way to pay him but the he threatens Chris' family if he doesn't deliver. So he gets on a freighter destined for Panama and he sets out to bring back some counterfeit currency. Briggs "goes to see" Chris' family. When Chris learns of this he asks his friend Sebastian to take care of them which he does. He tells Chris that it would be better to bring drugs instead of the cash.
  • LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    February 4, 2012
    LorenzoVonMatterhorn
    "What would you hide to protect your family?"

    To protect his brother-in-law from a drug lord, a former smuggler heads to Panama to score millions of dollars in counterfeit bills.

    REVIEW

    Mark W... read moreahlberg toplines as the sympathetic, blue-collar protagonist, with a wife and two little boys. He is reluctant to pull off one last job to thwart a gang of murderous, low-life thugs from icing his wife's cretinous younger brother. In the Icelandic original "Reykjavik-Rotterdam", the hero was a smuggler, too. He got busted trying to smuggle liquor, got fired, and wound up working as a poorly paid security guard. Financial troubles drove him back into the smuggling racket, and he had to pull off one last job. Of course, a first-class story can always weather the rigors of a remake, and director Baltasar Kormákur has crafted a memorable heist thriller which doesn't rely entirely on macho acrobatics and staccato bursts of gunfire for more than ten minutes out of its 110 minute running time. In fact, Kormákur doesn't linger on any scene any longer than necessary to make his points in this nervy spine-tingler.

    You won't find a more treacherous horde of villains anywhere than those that Ben Foster, Giovanni Ribisi, and J.K. Simmons portray. Ribisi takes top honors as a particularly repulsive specimen of sub-humanity. The mark of a top-notch thriller is when the hero winds up stuck in one more jam than he had prepared for. "Contraband" keeps Chris leaping through one flaming hoop after another. Director Baltasar Kormákur and scenarist Arnaldur Indriđason paint our hero into one corner after another so that he must use his wits rather than his fists or firearms to extricate himself "Contraband" will keep you poised on the edge of your seat right up to fade-out.
  • DouglasWCollins
    January 26, 2012
    DouglasWCollins
    Okay movie but it did really intense from the middle to the end. Too much use of the F word, I guess that is poor writing on the part of the writers.
  • mrbungle7821
    January 15, 2012
    mrbungle7821
    January at the movies has long been a time for two kinds of releases: 1) award-worthy films expanding into wider release, and, 2) crap. That's about it. I'll let you figure out which category the action thriller Contraband belongs in.

    Paul (Mark Wahlberg) was once the best sm... read moreuggler in the business. He's since gone legit, starting a family and his own private security business. His brother-in-law (Caleb Landry Jones) gets into trouble with some bad men. He tosses a load of smuggled drugs to elude Customs ships, but now Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi) wants the value of the drugs or else. Paul knows he has no choice but to put together one last job to save Kate's (Kate Beckinsale) brother. Paul leaves his family in the hands of Sebastian (Ben Foster), a trusted accomplish on many missions. John puts together a team and plans to board a ship headed for Panama City. While there, the team will load large sums of confederate money. The sale of the fake currency should square things between John and Briggs. However, little goes according to plan.

    Contraband is a lousy heist picture that feels like it's making it up as it goes. First off, the premise of John having to go back into his art of smuggling to settle a debt has been overdone, and the fact that John's idiotic brother-in-law is as fault makes it hard to care that something might happen to the idiot. But why God do they bring this screw-up, the brother-in-law, along with them? He's already proven to be a poor decision maker and a moron, and, surprise surprise, when in Panama the guy gets them into more danger. So irritating is this character, always foolishly making things worse for John, that you wish they had thrown this dolt overboard. This is a movie structured with a small beginning, a small end, and a great big fat middle, and it's that middle that involves our destination to Panama. With heist movies, as well as most thrillers, we don't want things to go according to plan. We want to see organic complications and watch our team of characters adjust. With Contraband, the complications don't feel natural so much as like careening plot elements from other movies. John's quick visit goes out of control, with the team losing their payment money for the confederate loot (guess who's responsible for that? Guess?), and they have to go find a budding crime lord, Gonzalo (Milk's Diego Luna), and then this crime lord just happens to be plotting a heist at THAT EXACT MOMENT and John and his team should come along and then the heist goes bad, as always, and the team ahs to get away, but Gonzalo demands to be taken to a hospital by gunpoint, and then the cargo ship is going to leave port, and, and, and, and, etc. There are so many breakneck plot turns thrown in that it feels like a broken blender spewing half-formed plot residue everywhere. It's the film equivalent of the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie story ("If you give a smuggler a deadline, he'll need a contact. If you give him a contact, he'll need to do the contact a favor. If he does the contact a favor, he'll have to do this one job for him. If he does this one job for him, he'll need a crew. If he needs a crew, he'll need... etc.).

    Let's take a moment to analyze the peculiar masks Gonzalo and his team choose to utilize. They literally wrap duct tape around their faces. That's got to be the dumbest mask in the history of cinema, and there have been some stinkers. They couldn't afford pantyhose? Anything? They had to use tape? First off, you can't conceal key features, like your eyes and mouth, and lastly, isn't it going to be something of a bitch to rip those things off? The only person who could properly wear a duct tape mask would be someone suffering from alopecia (condition that leaves a person hairless). Otherwise you're sacrificing your eyebrows. Maybe this is just how things are done in Panama.

    So much of this movie feels like it's on autopilot, just drifting like that cargo ship. At this point, I don't even think Wahlberg is trying to hide his indifference to the material. He's a man with a shady past who went legit and has a family now, but in order to protect that family he is drawn back to his shady past. How many times has this plot device just been used in the last few years? The rest of the characters fill out the crime thriller cheat sheet: young screw-up who serves as plot catalyst, parent in prison to provide cautionary tale, best trusted pal that ultimately proves to be untrustworthy, and the harried, often victimized wife. Poor Beckinsale (Underworld) who gets beaten, threatened with a gun in her face, and victimized to a degree that it feels like exploitation. This woman can never catch a break. She gets few moments in the film where she is free from being terrorized with violence. I have no idea what would attract an actress like Beckinsale to this part other than the allure of a paycheck. Contraband stalls when it comes to thrills, and part of this is because the villains seem so lame. Briggs just comes across as an inept criminal, like somebody's own screw-up brother-in-law that tagged along to play with the big boys. He's routinely beaten and bossed around. It's hard to take his threats seriously, so the movie cuts its losses and just has him threaten Kate some more. It becomes old quick. The only thing that keeps Contraband going is the great distance between Paula and his family, a divide that keeps Paul vulnerable. Too bad that the movie can't think of anything thrilling to do with this scenario and settles, all too frequently, on scaring the wife. Wouldn't the film have been more engrossing if Paul's wife had been kidnapped this whole time? Would that not cause a better sense of urgency than the vague threat that a character we don't care about might get offed for being stupid?

    From an action standpoint, the thrills rarely materialize, relying on a contingent of blunders and coincidences to provide the thrills. There wasn't a moment where I worried for a character on screen. This may be because I didn't care for a person on screen, thanks to workmanlike characterization, but it's also got to fall on the feet of Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur (who starred in Wahlberg's role in the original Icleandic version of this flick) and his nascent camerawork. There will be moments where his camera does stutter-step zooms, mimicking the docu-drama camerawork that's been en vogue with action cinema. And then he'll never repeat it. There's a shot of Gonzalo blowing the armored car up and it's filmed in a high-speed, stylized shot to distill the strange beauty of the force, and then this never happens again. It's like Kormakur is sampling all 31 flavors of action movie styles and can't decide on a visual tone. The action is too dependent on arbitrary coincidences for it to be satisfying of thrilling; we're just waiting for the next out-of-nowhere plot turn to move things along. The ending attempts to tie up things nicely but feels asinine and laughable in how John can take out three villains in one well-orchestrated, tidy swoop. Don't even get me started on the impracticalities of John hearing a lone cell phone ringing to be able to trace his wife in an entire construction site. The resolution feels ludicrous and a stroke of dumb luck.

    Contraband is a convoluted, knuckleheaded thriller that drags because of arbitrary maneuverings, poor characterization, a fat middle section plot-wise, and pedestrian action. The movie feels like it's being made up on the spot. As a result of all this tiresome lateral plotting, Contraband feels like it's going nowhere and spinning into oblivion. I found myself nodding off at various points, my brain bored by all the generic goings-on. The constant victimization of Paul's wife is a rather ugly development for a movie that confuses salty language and furrowed brows for toughness. The movie is devoid of any sense of fun. It just becomes an empty enterprise of actors going through the motions to work of genre pap. Even by the dirt-low standards of January cinematic offerings, Contraband isn't worth a cent of your hard-earned money.

    Nate's Grade: C-
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