Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi, Ben Foster
Running time: 109 minutes
Certificate: 15
Extras: Deleted scenes, stunt and action feature, and commentary.
The US film industry continues in its plundering of foreign titles, repacking them for the English-speaking world, and pocketing a nice wedge of cash in the process. For CONTRABAND, there appears to be at least some reverence for the Icelandic REYKJAVIK-ROTTERDAM, as original leading man Baltasar Kormákur has been brought on board as director. One might hope this would ensure CONTRABAND retains some of the original’s spirit, and therefore escape the usual cookie-cutter treatment US remakes often get. However, the movie is decidedly generic by Hollywood standards, and whilst it proves a solid enough action-thriller, there’s little to distinguish it from any other that rolls off the production line this year.
Mark Wahlberg (who as producer was a major factor in this remake getting off the ground) plays Chris, a retired hotshot smuggler and family man. When his wife’s brother finds himself in debt with local hoods to the tune of $700,000, Chris travels to Panama for one last job – after all, if his brother-in-law doesn’t pay up, the lives of the whole family are at stake. As is often the case, Chris’ fool-proof smuggling ploy becomes overly – ridiculously even – complicated and perilous.
Whilst CONTRABAND begins well and for the first hour remains interesting enough, by the time the real action gets underway, everything becomes relatively dull. Like a great deal of similar Hollywood output, the need to raise tension creates convoluted plotting that ultimately reduces any sense of engagement with the story. With the outcome of the film never in doubt, the increasingly daft scenarios become little more than window dressing. Not only that, but the numerous twists are easily predicted by anyone with a passing knowledge of genre convention. That’s not to say CONTRABAND is a particularly bad movie; on the contrary, it’s solid entertainment. But for something distinctive and different, it may be worth tracking down the original.
Extras: Not a bad little package with a sizable chunk of features. But they may be of little interest to anyone except serious fans of the movie.
CONTRABAND is available of Blu-ray and DVD now.
