Contraband

Mainstreamin's first film of 2012 is Contraband, starring everyone's favorite under-50 badass, Mark Wahlberg (whose name my fingers unconsciously began spelling as Marky...oops.)  I ended up really enjoying this movie, which probably bodes ill for 2012. 

Fortunately, seeing just how few sequels there are in 2012 when compared to 2011, maybe this year's crop will be better. 

Or maybe I'm finally starting to like more movies.

Naaaah.

On to the review!

            As stated above, Mark Wahlberg is Chris Farraday, our titular 'hero.'  There are no real good guys, but he is the stereotypical thief-gone-legit.  He has two kids and a wonderful wife, Kate, played by Kate Beckinsale.  The other main characters are his best friend, Sebastian Abney (Ben Foster) and his fuck-up brother-in-law, Andy (very aptly played by Banshee...I mean Caleb Landry Jones.)  There's just something about his appearance that makes Mr. Jones so convincing as a fuck-up.  I just cannot explain it.

            The plot kicks off pretty quickly as Andy dumps a package of dope off a cargo ship just as they're being boarded by the Coast Guard (I think.  I really didn't pay attention to uniforms.  Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)  This gets Andy hospitalized when he turns up empty-handed at the delivery site, as the guy who put together the smuggling operation, Tim Briggs (an excellently sleazy Giovanni Ribisi), doesn't appreciate his 10 pounds of cocaine being on the bottom of the ocean.

            That act is what fuels the plot, as Chris 'gets the gang back together' in order to pull off one more smuggling operation and pay off Andy's debts.  Of course, this being an action/thriller, everything that can go wrong does.  There are a few plot twists that are telegraphed incredibly early, but are entertaining enough to just sit back and enjoy.  Plus there's one decent twist halfway through the film that sets the film up for a tense ending.

            What I really appreciated about Contraband was just how little camera time was wasted.  The moment everything was completed in a scene, you were taken to a different one.  This is basically the anti-Drive, which was filled with long, lingering shots of everything.  Someone's done talking?  Move the camera.  Someone's done dying?  Cut away.  Simple.  Easy.  Done.  It never cuts away TOO soon, but it also doesn't suffer from the sin of many movies and  focus on obvious plot points.  The slow pan or a long linger is not inherently bad, it's just so greatly overused that its absence is actually noticed. 

            The acting ranges from great to perfectly reasonable.  Mark Wahlberg really does seem like the youngest Macho Actor right now, although I'd argue that Ryan Gosling could earn that title by doing more films like Drive.  (Yes, I'm well aware that Dwayne Johnson is also a Macho Actor, but until he does a string of films that don't involve Disney, he's just an actor who sometimes does action films.)

            My only complaints with Contraband are the kids and the accents.  The two sons are really and truly only there as plot devices, inserted into the film to add more suspense when the family gets threatened.  It's obvious that the director doesn't really care about them otherwise, as their reactions to certain scenarios are dubious at best. 

            The accents are more of a nit-pick, but they still annoyed me.  The movie is based in New Orleans, and when given the opportunity to really immerse you in a location that would make this already-fun movie really, really good, they waste it.  Everyone in this movie talks like they're from Boston or New York, except for Ribisi, whose accent can be called 'strange.'  I know New Orleans is filled with plenty of people who didn't live there, I've been there often enough.  But the locals have a bit of a drawl, and there are plenty of people who grew up in the surrounding countryside and have a HELL of an accent.  Yet none of them are present in this movie.  It's just a bit of a bummer.

            If you're looking for a movie to deliver some thrills and give you the rare bout of 'acting' in an action flick, you could do much, much worse than Contraband.  It's no Departed, but it's far and away better than many of the action movies I saw last year, like Columbiana or Hannah.