#MOVIE CONTRABAND MOVIE#
#MOVIE CONTRABAND PROFESSIONAL#

Stig follows orders to betray Bobby and escape with the money, pulling his gun as Bobby is about to pull his.

Bobby then meets with fellow DEA Agent and ex, Deb Rees, while Stig, an undercover US Navy SEAL and Petty Officer 1st Class with the United States Navy Office of NavaI Intelligence, meets with his commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Harold Quince, and is told to kill Bobby so they can fund covert operations.īobby and Stig are surprised to find $43.125 million and not $3 million. Unknown to Stig, Bobby is an undercover DEA Special Agent who reports to his superior, Special Agent Jessup, that he did not get the cocaine from Papi they need to convict him.Īgainst orders, Bobby remains undercover to assist Stig in robbing $3 million - in a bank vault in Tres Cruces, Texas - to prosecute Papi for money laundering. How disappointingly spineless.Robert 'Bobby' Trench and Michael 'Stig' Stigman are questioned by the US Border Patrol after meeting with drug lord Manny 'Papi' Greco in Mexico.

#MOVIE CONTRABAND MOVIE#

For an R-rated movie with multiple antagonists each so vile they demand embellished demises (think James Bond theatrics), “Contraband” brings nothing but police sirens and handcuffs. The most unforgiveable misstep, however, is the flagrant curtailment of revenge – there’s just no payback. “Contraband” rarely delivers on adventure so much as mild thrills from law-breaking exploits. The introduction, or rather clarification, of villainy aids the increasingly southerly course of blunders, but the action is based more on accidents than heroics. Putting this lack of creative lingo aside, the hierarchy of villains presents at least a marginal element of spontaneity, wasting not a single appearance by passing acquaintances. “It’s not going away, Chris.” “Do what you gotta do.” “Trust me.” “I know what I’m doing.” “Nothing’s gonna happen.” These glaringly nonexclusive lines of dialogue frequent “Contraband” mercilessly, causing this January release (the first sign of its mediocre entertainment value) to be of the most forgettable variety. And all anyone needs to know about Kate Beckinsale is that she’s greatly unconvincing when not surrounded by vampires and werewolves. His gone-straight day job is so seemingly trivial that it’s introduced after Chris already knows he must return to his life of crime to right the wrongs of his inherited family. All anyone needs to know about Farraday is that he has a wife and two kids – he’s a good guy simply for having this arrangement.

The setup is so quick (approximately five minutes) that character development is left to a handful of words and hasty visuals. The premise is deceptively generic, launching at maximum speed into the overly familiar notion of a dark past that won’t let the protagonist go. As time rapidly runs out, Chris must contend with crooked officials, vicious gangsters, and disastrous betrayals all while staying one step ahead of those attempting to thwart his desperate mission. To protect his family he must carry out one last score and heads to Panama to smuggle a fortune in counterfeit bills.

#MOVIE CONTRABAND PROFESSIONAL#

When his brother-in-law gets caught up with a dangerous drug dealer (Giovanni Ribisi), former professional smuggler Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) is left with few options.

The excitement may be there at times, but skimped character development and a camera that just won’t settle down only result in indifference towards those roles that audiences are badgered into rooting for. Yet somehow Plans A, B, C, and D all manage to work out in the end and everything is wrapped up neatly in a nice little anticlimactic bow. An almost impossible Plan D arrives when predictable plot twists occur … and the cycle continues. Plan B gets compromised so they must rely on a quickly improvised and even more risky Plan C. Plan A doesn’t work so the protagonists must move on to a more difficult Plan B. Release Date: January 13th, 2012 MPAA Rating: Rĭirector: Baltasar Kormákur Actors: Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster, Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi, Jaqueline Fleming, Lukas Haas, Amber Gaiennie YĮs, “Contraband” is just another “check-your-brain-at-the-door” action film, but why can’t it still be believable? Much of the suspense and adventure feels created just for the sake of escalation and adds nothing to the plot, the characters, or the intensity.

Movie contraband