Contraband (2012)

You won't be disappointed!

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Contraband is an underrated movie. The performances are intense and well-acted, the film has good directing and the movie plot is decent. They went with a visually dark tone from start to finish which supports the story line. If you like crime thrillers, i recommend this. Maybe you have already seen this flick, maybe you haven't, but this is one of those movies that flew under the radar. Contraband is a must-watch. The only problem i have with this film is a very brief scene that features a wolf in a cage. As an animal lover, things like that bother me, but i presume everything is fine and that the animal is from a conservation animal place because they won't be able to use wild animals that literally live in the wild.

This film tells the story of a ex smuggler who turned clean. His brother in law gets into trouble with a drug lord, and he has to go to Panama to do shady businesses to get things right. However, the journey is a bumpy one because there is seemingly no one he can trust.The plot is an exciting one, because there is one situation after another. The constant struggles and fights with both the dark side and the bright side keeps the adrenaline going, especially when you think you can trust someone but you really cannot. It is also refreshing to see that the man hero is not portrayed to be invincible, but a regular guy who people can relate to.

I do hope this is the worst film Wahlberg has been in, coz it would be hard to imagine one worse. It is a tiresome, generic, 'last time heist' protagonist reformed crim who has to take on one last job where every conceivable thing goes wrong. You can almost hear the scriptwriters daring each other to put in yet another ridiculous clichéd line. The only good thing is the laughs at how slapstick scene after slapstick scene is piled on top of the last one. Couldn't even make it to the end. Nothing makes sense, people take pointless risks, the nasty dealer is mental ...and so on....Not even sure why this film was made.Never made the big screen in the UK; but then, only the better Hollywood movies do, which tells you something. Even the rip off scene from The Italian Job(original and best) should be funnier, but by then I was slipping into a coma...

First of all, let me say that I'm not going to say a bad word against this film. However, the problem is that I'm not going to say a good one either.There's very little to say about 'Contraband' because I feel that I've seen it all before. Retired criminal (Mark Wahlberg) gets called out of retirement for 'one last job' to save his loser brother in law from a gang of nasties. There's a doublecross in there somewhere, but you'll probably see it coming a mile off. Despite, the decent enough cast, there's nothing here that a hardened cinema-goer hasn't seen a hundred times before.You can 'watch' this film while you're moving around the house, generally doing other things and you won't miss anything important.If you're a die-hard fan of Mark Wahlberg or his on-screen wife, Kate Beckinsale, then you might see it as more than just average, but I would say rent or watch it on TV before you decide to pay to watch it. Just in case.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/