So, Evan and I got around to watching Contraband. We had tentatively put it on our list, but chickened out last week when it was -35°C and going outside was like trying to hug hypothermia. This week it was warmer, so we buckled down and saw it.
We tied the preview game. Evan got Chronicle (From the Cloverfield School of Shaky-cam Film making, only with telekinesis instead of rampaging New York-slaughtering monsters. If I ever had to have an intervention with my friend, I would not videotape it. I think
Anyway, after three movie studio logos, we get two introduction scenes. In the first, a young guy is on a massive freighter when's it's boarded by customs. The guy freaks out and rummages around various hidey-holes to find a backpack. He grabs it, rushes outside and dumps it overboard. Why he's not arrested, I don't know, but it looks like he gets away with incredibly suspicious behaviour scot-free.
The next intro scene is at a wedding reception for Danny, who is Mark Wahlberg's pal. Also present are Wahlberg's wife Kate, and best friend Sebastian.
Anyway, they get to talking that Wahlberg and Sebastian were two of the best smugglers. What, were they Han Solo and Chewie? Smuggling in most movies is usually treated as part of the heist, not a special event in and of itself. It's just part of the plan, not all of it. We're excited to see how the protagonists get the painting or gold or money or person past customs, but not any more or less than how they stole or kidnapped whatever in the first place. It's usually step 9 in the 10 part plant, so having a whole movie where it's hyped up is strange. It'd be like making a movie about how fantastically a quarterback hands off, or the world's best pianist with his or her right hand (the left hand really sucks). It just seems like half the story, but the movie plays it up like it's this awesome thing that totally deserves its own movie.
Anyway, we go back to the guy on the ship, who is Kate's brother Andy. He's meeting up with the people who were supposed to get the drugs from him, and they are NOT happy. He ends up in the hospital, so Wahlberg tries to make peace with the buyers by taking One Last Job. At this point, the writers are getting plots from Mad-Libs. (Famous Actor) had gone legit for (number) years after being an (illegal activity)-er. He gets pulled back for one last job because of a threat to his (relative or friend).
The movie is billed as an action-thriller, but it's not. It's a caper movie, sort of, with a pretty good action scene in the middle, as well as Wahlberg beating people up at different parts of the movie. The sort-of in the caper is because most capers focus on the planning and set-up, and then the execution of the masterful plan, as well as dealing with a few snags. Contraband has a bit of planning, but most of it is dealing with the increasingly large number and severity of snags that occur over the course of the caper, not beforehand.
I was entertained throughout, because I wanted to see how it went. Also, there were some betrayals, and I wanted to see how those would play out as well. Yes, pulled out of retirement for one last job is incredibly clichéd, but we should remember that there are only about 12 plots for every single movie, and it's how you dress it up that matters. This one dresses up fairly well.
The music (when it's not blues or jazz) reminds me of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, so that was cool. Wahlberg acts well, and he has the death stare down (way more than Ryan Gosling. Gosling tried, but his stare just didn't seem menacing at all. Wahlberg's does). Beckinsale acts well, and Ben Foster is great (as usual).
I think it's a borderline Blu-Ray movie, or a really good DVD movie. There's far less action than implied, but they fill up the space that the action would take up with Wahlberg desperately trying to fix all the problems that come up during illegal operations. So if you're willing to give the action a pass in exchange for smuggling, you could do worse than seeing this movie.
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