GRADE: C+
Well I was about to start writing my review for Win Win, and the opportunity came up for me to go see my first 2012 film, Contraband, and seeing as recent movies must come first I had no choice but to accept!
So, do we have an early Oscar contender already guys?! Yeah… no. Contraband is nowhere near a great movie and not a good one either. But for January (I mean come on critics, IT’S JANUARY!!) it is more than entertaining enough for me, and add in a solid cast to that and you have a decent, yet minor, hit.
Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) was once a smuggler, but after getting married to his wife Kate, (Kate Beckinsale) and having children, he decided to settle down and become a family man, starting his own business in security alarms.
But while they are at their best friends wedding, Kate gets a call that her brother, Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) is in the hospital in bad condition. Chris and Kate soon discover that Andy has been smuggling drugs in a cargo ship and had to throw them into the water in order to keep from going to jail. The drugs were worth 700,000 dollars, and Andy is in trouble.
After trying to reason with the man who Andy owes, Chris ends up making things worse and getting his family involved as well in a very dangerous situation. Chris realizes that the only way for him to fix this is to do one last job (of course, what else would he do?) and to smuggle 700,000 dollars of counterfeit money which will hopefully get the job done.
The plot isn’t original, but if you do find it interesting, I suggest you look elsewhere. There are thousands of one last job movies and many of them are far better than this. “The Town” is a good recent example. However, if you are like me and have seen all of the one last job films, but are just merely looking for an entertaining 2012 film to pass your time, you have come to the right place for sure!
Though I was a little surprised at the lack of intensity in Contraband, for the most part everything was OK all the way across the board. Mark Wahlberg turns in an enjoyable performance that may not be extremely good, but suits the role just fine. Ben Foster was great, every time I see this guy in an action flick I continue to be more impressed with his acting ability, and I hope he continues to work at this pace, the action genre needs people like him.
I am not really a Kate Beckinsale fan, but I wouldn’t say I don’t like her, either. It’s just, why was she even in this movie? I’m sure as big of a name as she is the price wasn’t too cheap, and for so small and easy of a role I think they could have found someone just as good for far less the price. Even so, she did fine when she was in the film.
Final Word – You take a movie that is only OK, subtract points for a really unoriginal plot, add points for it being in January and entertaining, then round up, and there’s Contraband!
