Review of Contraband (2012) by Ethan A — 24 Jun 2012

A B-movie caper film released in January is not the first thing I would think would be a good movie, and I'm both right and wrong. Although certainly not the most thrilling believable flick ever, this is actually an okay movie.

Mark Wahlberg is a criminal-turned-family man who is forced to travel to Panema in order to get counterfeit bills to give to a druglord after his brother-in-law messes up when he stealing it, all before the bad guy harms his wife and kids. Yep, you've basically seen it all before.

My biggest problem with this movie is nothing that happens is really unexpected, none of the action is tense or explosive enough, and none of the real caper moments really wowed me. I think the main problem is that Mark Wahlberg came off almost invincible in this movie. His plans never really fail (and if they do he manages to fix them relatively easily) and nothing really gets too tense or exciting. Everything was just obvious and mediocre.

But sometimes obviousness and mediocrity aren't the worst things in the world. Contraband hits all of the right beats and never bores you too much. It reaches all of the necessary steps that a watchable action movie must have, but it doesn't really exceed them at all. You might have a fun time with this one, but once it's over you'll go back to your life without much thought (or care) of what you just watched. It's not the worst January choice, but it can't quite escape the feeling that this movie came out of some action-movie blender. All of the right ingredients were added, they just didn't come out in a smooth and delicious taste that you'll remember.