Most people have love for their friends and family. That love and
loyalty towards them can be tested from time to time when some of them
make things difficult by putting themselves in terrible predicaments.
Because of this, you might feel the need to step in when their own
ineptitude causes these problems, even if you know it's not a good idea.
That's basically the situation Mark Wahlberg's character is faced with
in his new film Contraband.
A criminal in his former life, Chris
Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) is living a quiet and normal life with his wife
Kate (Kate Beckinsale) and their two kids. His new life gets thrown
into a tailspin when his brother-in-law Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) has a
drug deal go wrong. Andy owes a no-nonsense drug dealer Tim Briggs
(Giovanni Ribisi) the money and in order to save him, Chris is forced
back into his old way of life one more time. Needing help, Chris
recruits his friend Sabastian (Ben Foster) and they devise a plan that
will get them back into the game as they try to steer Chris and his
family away from danger.
In a way, Contraband wasn't your typical
action movie. Although it had a good amount of action, it didn't have as
much as I thought it would and it came at you in a few ways that I
didn't expect. The action was fast and aggressive when it did hit the
screen, but Contraband relied on more than that. This movie had a lot of
twists and turns in its storyline that held your attention. Almost all
of these twists were significant to the movie, added suspense and
consistently sent the film in different directions.
Besides the
action and the plot twists, the acting was one of the most significant
aspects of Contraband. Pretty much all of the actors were great and they
brought personality and emotion to their roles. I liked the way they
used Mark Wahlberg's character here. He was the dude always caught in
the middle when everything broke loose, even though he was almost never
the initiator in the violence. It put a nice spin on the film, because
he was one of the few guys who wanted to stay clean, but he still
usually found himself in these sticky situations that weren't his fault.
As
much as I liked Wahlberg's character, Giovanni Ribisi and Ben Foster
were the one's who stole the show. Ribisi played one of the coolest
dingy and greasy looking bad guys that I've seen recently. This
performance just reminded me why I've always viewed him as a very
talented and underrated actor. I had no idea that he would be that good
and he'd be that fun to watch in this role. Although he was in the movie
quite a bit, I still wish he was given more to do.
Ben Foster on
the other hand, played a very straight-laced character that really stood
out to me as well. I haven't seen much of his work, but he has put on
good performances when I have and this one was no exception. He was the
second best actor in the film behind Ribisi, but everyone was good.
There
was one part of this movie that I didn't like that concerned one of the
main characters. It was a part of the plot that was simply used to add
more drama and suspense. It was completely unexpected and the outcome
made it worthless, because it didn't serve much of a purpose in the
grand scheme of things. That was the only glaring issue that I had and
they should have went all the way through with it or they should have
just left it out all together. With that being said, it didn't stop the
movie from being enjoyable though.
Contraband is a movie that
wanted to entertain the fans. The writing wasn't great and the film was
nowhere near complicated, but it was just an overall fun movie to watch.
The actors as a whole put on performances of good quality with Ribisi
leading the way and these guys really set the tone for the overall film.
I certainly liked watching it and anyone that is strictly looking for
fun, action and suspense probably won't be disappointed with Contraband.
Score: 3.5/5
Rating: R
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Cast:
Mark Wahlberg
Kate Beckinsale
Ben Foster
Giovanni Ribisi
Lukas Haas
Caleb Landry Jones
J.K. Simmons
Diego Luna
Mark Wahlberg
Kate Beckinsale
Ben Foster
Giovanni Ribisi
Lukas Haas
Caleb Landry Jones
J.K. Simmons
Diego Luna
Film Length: 110 minutes
Release Date: January 13, 2012
Distributor: Universal Pictures
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