Contraband (2012)
** (out of 4)
After his brother-in-law messed up a drug deal and has the pusher threaten his life, Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) decides to do one more smuggle job to pay off the debt but soon he begins to realize the his best friend (Ben Foster) might have betrayed him. CONTRABAND is a remake of a film and it's interesting to note that the director of this, Baltasar Kormakur, was actually the star of the original. It's a pretty unique situation to have the star of a film direct its remake but it's clear that he probably should have left that job to someone else. I'm not going to blame 100% of the film's failure on him but there's no question that he adds very little to the material on hand. There are way too many scenes where I'm guessing the director thought he was delivering something stylish but it just comes across rather amateurish. Take a look at the scene where Foster falls off the wagon and you'll get a perfect example. Another problem with the direction is that there's just not enough drama in it for this thriller to work. Part of that problem can go towards the screenplay because it never really gives us a reason to care for any of these characters. There are bad scumbags all over the place but the problem is that we're supposed to be rooting for the Wahlberg character but that's hard to do for a number of reasons. You certainly don't feel sorry for the brother-in-law and by the time the film was over I grew rather frustrated with the actions of Wahlberg's character as well as his wife played by Kate Beckinsale. The cast offers up some nice performances but none of them are really being stretched or challenged by the material. CONTRABAND probably could have been a better movie in someone else's hand but as it is it's just a thriller with no thrills.
** (out of 4)
After his brother-in-law messed up a drug deal and has the pusher threaten his life, Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) decides to do one more smuggle job to pay off the debt but soon he begins to realize the his best friend (Ben Foster) might have betrayed him. CONTRABAND is a remake of a film and it's interesting to note that the director of this, Baltasar Kormakur, was actually the star of the original. It's a pretty unique situation to have the star of a film direct its remake but it's clear that he probably should have left that job to someone else. I'm not going to blame 100% of the film's failure on him but there's no question that he adds very little to the material on hand. There are way too many scenes where I'm guessing the director thought he was delivering something stylish but it just comes across rather amateurish. Take a look at the scene where Foster falls off the wagon and you'll get a perfect example. Another problem with the direction is that there's just not enough drama in it for this thriller to work. Part of that problem can go towards the screenplay because it never really gives us a reason to care for any of these characters. There are bad scumbags all over the place but the problem is that we're supposed to be rooting for the Wahlberg character but that's hard to do for a number of reasons. You certainly don't feel sorry for the brother-in-law and by the time the film was over I grew rather frustrated with the actions of Wahlberg's character as well as his wife played by Kate Beckinsale. The cast offers up some nice performances but none of them are really being stretched or challenged by the material. CONTRABAND probably could have been a better movie in someone else's hand but as it is it's just a thriller with no thrills.