Contraband

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Mark Wahlberg stars as legendary smuggler Chris Farraday, who has left his criminal past behind to be with his wife (Kate Beckinsale) and sons.  When a ruthless drug kingpin (Giovanni Ribisi) threatens his family, Farraday must summon his old skills and contacts for one last run. Contraband takes you to the cutthroat underground world of international smuggling, and on a thrilling adventure that critics are calling “dynamic, intense and gritty!” – Mark S. Allen, CBS/CW-TV (Sacramento)

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This job should be a piece of cake: former smuggler Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) gets dragged back into the game in order to make things right with a nasty New Orleans gangster (Giovanni Ribisi) over a debt owed by Chris's brother-in-law. So, Chris needs to smuggle in some goods on a cargo ship from Panama, pay the guy off, and return to a suburban life on the straight and narrow. No problem, right? What's fun about Contraband is that despite its hero's meticulous planning, all hell breaks loose in Panama City, where nothing goes as planned and where the cargo ship is, after all, due to disembark at a certain time, with or without him. Based on the Icelandic film Reykjavík-Rotterdam, this movie is full of stock characters and rancid dialogue, but the plot is so kicky and wild, it almost doesn't matter, at least for as long as the movie is on screen. Director Baltasar Kormákur (he produced the original film and directed the entertaining 101 Reykjavík) pumps up the action nicely, although the actors are on their own: Wahlberg contributes his customary solid center, which a movie like this needs, but Kate Beckinsale has nothing to do as his wife, and Ribisi and Ben Foster emote with reckless abandon. No one will mistake it for a classic, but Contraband has enough zip, and a few genuine surprises, to qualify it as a fun diversion. --Robert Horton

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