While Kormakur brings a sense of offbeat humor to the proceedings, his handling of action sequences is suspect (they lack tension) and the story is frustratingly driven by characters doing moronic and short-sighted things. This movie's director, Baltasar Kormakur, served as both producer and lead actor in the original, so there's a solid connection.

In short, this is pretty much what we have come to expect of movies released in January (at least those that are not Oscar-hopeful holdovers from the previous year).Ĭontraband is remake of the Icelandic film Reykjavik-Rotterdam. The film's structure is haphazard, the energy level is low, the surprises are few, and the ending is far too clean for such a messy motion picture. Either as a result of poor writing or sloppy editing, glaring plot holes are never plugged. Sadly, in the case of Contraband, the seams show. By their very nature, heist-oriented thrillers are intended to be erected upon a bedrock of contrivances, but a skilled director can obfuscate this reality and make the whole thing seem like one long, fun ride. When it comes to a 110-minute feature, however, the sketchiness of the plotting and the director's lack of sure-handedness sink the project. Contraband is the kind of thriller that offers just enough in the way of effective elements to assemble a two-minute trailer.

Contraband mark wahlberg