Mark Wahlberg has come a long way in his career, last year he stunned us in The Fighter, and he wowed us with his performance in The Departed, but this year we have Contraband, a flawed and overly familiar piece of work. Contraband tells the story of a man under fire, his family is being threatened by criminals, and its up to him to save his family. The biggest issue with the film is that you saw it before, the matter in which he goes about saving his family has changed, but the plot still remains predictable. The idea of a man saving his family is still a enjoyable one, but it needs something fresh and unique to make it stand out. Merely throwing in central villain and a twist that you can see coming right of the back didnt do Contraband any justice. I sat there in the theater, not engaged in the characters, but rather counting down the moments till the film ended. Mark Wahlbergs performance was subpar; he merely cursed when he was mad, and overacted when a scene needed to be lighthearted. Although him and Kate Beckinsale had to deal with the poor dialogue, they still could have done more with their characters, because in retrospect they just came off as bad parents. With a lot of movies you have to make sure that youre rooting for the right people, in Contraband I wasnt sure who to root for, the main characters were all criminals and the mere idea of them getting away with a major crime almost promotes their actions. The movie just wasnt entertaining, which is something that all films should have, the action wasnt exciting, the performances were bland, and the plot was overly predictable. Im not going to call Contraband a bad movie, but I will say that its a movie that lacked originality and was chore to watch. I wouldnt recommend seeing this movie solely because youve already seen it before, but in all honesty you probably saw a better version.
dailybridgerton
jbbartram-illu
snowghoul
