Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale star in a remarkably average film on smuggling. Wahlberg as Chris Farraday, a legendary smuggler, is retired. Farraday‘s security business seems to be taking off and he is now completely legit. Unfortunately his brother in law Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) is not. Andy is actively, if incompetently, attempting to smuggle cocaine. Predictably, the ship with the cocaine gets boarded and Andy and his buddy must toss the drugs overboard, leaving him in debt to a particularly sleazy drug dealer named Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi).

Of course, Wahlberg must “heroically” rescue Andy from, the verging on insane, Briggs. What complicates matters is that Briggs, while Bryce is actively seeking to find the money to pay him, begins to threaten Kate Farraday (Beckinsale) Chris’s wife. Why Briggs thinks this will help escapes me. Farraday is aboard ship and it can only go so fast. Why would you want to infuriate the man bringing you your money. Frankly, I would have flown home and killed Briggs myself…or hired someone instead and kept the money.

To further complicate matters a third party is waiting for the money from the drugs but Farraday is planning to bring counterfeit 20 dollar bills to sell, not the drugs. What makes this somewhat convoluted plot to a screeching halt is simple: if someone is bringing you over seven hundred thousand dollars to replace the street value of the drugs you lost, what does it matter if it’s in cash or cocaine. The value is the same and you have none of the risk. I find it damn near impossible to believe that the very practical business man waiting for the cash would have minded. There are worse plots but this one certainly was up there. So ludicrous and so contrived that the movie completely lost me.

I cannot fault the performances but I can fault the writing and directing. Wahlberg’s performance is solid, Beckinsale’s certainly fine with what’s she’s given but Ribisi’s is stilted, perhaps because of the one dimensional character with which he’s presented. Very unfortunate because I love his work. There are a few twist and turns that are good and Ben Foster turns in a typically fine performance as Wahlberg’s best friend, Sebastian Abney, but it’s not enough to save Contraband from mediocrity.

There was never much of an attempt to develop any of the characters and the entire film is lacking in chemistry. The sad truth is…this could have been a very good film had they taken more time to develop our relationship with the characters, made the plot more logical and added in some fun. I dislike films that are all disaster. And Contraband certainly is.

My recommendation is: see this film when it comes to Netflix, pick it up on HBO or Showtime or maybe someday, when you least it expect it, it will be a late night feature. If you miss it, don’t worry a similar film will be out soon…

Rating 1.5 out of 5.

Once again Craig took one for the team! Have a listen your wallet may thank you.

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