LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - While examination "
Contraband
," we was reminded of a new flitting ofLeonard Stern
, contriver of aMad Libs
celebration game. Mad Libs have entertained people for decades, and no doubt taughtcountless children
a tools of speech, though they clearly also desirous a screenplay for this dreary, general movie.
Mark Wahlberg
stars as a shining who is forced to dedicate to save a life of his usually to learn that he's being tricked by.Directed by
Baltasar Kormakur
(who played a lead purpose in "Reykjavik-Rotterdam," of that this film is a remake), "Contraband" follows a gone-legitChris Farraday
(Wahlberg), who's forced behind in a bootlegging diversion after a weaselly hermit of his mother Kate (Kate Beckinsale
) gets into difficulty with creepy rapist Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi
, rocking a risible Cajun accent).The hop itself is usually about dual notches some-more crafty than a one in "Tower Heist" (that suggested crime felt like it was pieced together on a fly), a movement scenes aren't quite interesting, and a characters are all prosaic and uninteresting. And afterwards there's a predictability of a "surprise" villain; we won't spoil it here, though if we don't theory who it is good before a reveal, afterwards we unequivocally wish we enjoyed saying your really initial movie.
Wahlberg is clearly unqualified of giving a common opening -- they're possibly great, in cinema like "I Heart Huckabee's" or "The Departed" or "The Other Guys," or they're officious wretched, as in "Max Payne" and "The Happening" and "Four Brothers." Add "Contraband" to a latter list.
Diego Luna (as a twitchy Panamanian crime lord) and J.K. Simmons (as a humorless load boat captain) try valiantly to inject some hint of oddity into their cookie-cutter characters, that is some-more than can be pronounced for Beckinsale. Granted, she's saddled with a thanklessly tasteless "wife in peril" role, though if we suspicion she was phoning in her "Underworld" performances, afterwards we have not nonetheless begun to be wearied by her.
The film seems installed with missed opportunities: Wahlberg and his organisation are in a precipitate to get a tawdry income onto a boat in Panama before it takes off, though Kormakur (who also destined a indie "101 Reykjavik") doesn't supply a minute bit of ticking-clock suspense. Nor does he find anything fun or novel about his New Orleans setting, detached from a common zydeco-wedding and seedy-bar cliches.
First-time screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski throws in a crafty using wisecrack about Jackson Pollack, and takes us from a overpass down to a industrial inlet of a load ship, though those are a usually engaging tidbits "Contraband" has to offer. For a many part, this is a straight-to-DVD film that warranted a melodramatic recover usually by trait of the A-list cast.
(news.yahoo.com)
