Movie Review: Contraband

After a few years doing more serious dramatic and comedic fare, Mark Wahlberg goes back to his roots doing a gritty action film. Wahlberg's last action flick, Max Payne, was pretty awful. So in a way Contraband serves as kind of a redemption film for Wahlberg (when it comes to the action movies he's been in, I was a huge fan of The Fighter and The Other Guys). Contraband returns Wahlberg to the early days of his acting career gracefully and gets rid of the bad taste that Max Payne left.

Contraband is a sly little action caper that is a lot stronger than most of the material released in early January. The story is basic, but effective. It moves along briskly and remains compelling throughout with no downtime. You can not wait to see what happens next. There is also quite a bit of suspense in this film. As the story unfolds, There was many times where I was on the edge-of-my seat. It reminded me a lot of a heist film in that regard. You are trying to figure out how the heroes will accomplish this near-impossible feat and when they do at the climax of the film, it's pretty damn satisfying. In addition to the exciting story and abundance of thrills, Contraband benefits from having a very strong cast. Mark Wahlberg delivers a solid performance in the lead. Giovanni Ribsi makes a pretty good bad guy. What he lacks in stature, he makes up for in pure menacing presence. Ben Foster is also great (but underutilized) as always.

Contrband is a very good action thriller. It's an exciting, suspense-filled, pretty well-acted, and entertaining caper flick. The only thing preventing this from an absolutely excellent film is a few plot holes in the middle and a very obvious (and unnecessary) plot twist. Contraband delivers the goods for a January film and provides a nice start for 2012 films.

4/5 Stars