I'll admit, I didn't go into "Contraband" expecting much. The plot – in which a former smuggler (Mark Wahlberg) reluctantly gets back in the game to save his younger brother-in-law from the fallout of a botched job – sounded all too reminiscent of "Gone in 60 Seconds" and similarly predictable action heist flicks.
I was surprised to instead find myself watching a decidedly lower-octane action/thriller hybrid.
"Contraband" has a much more deliberate pace than the average action movie, and almost leans into drama territory with a number of low-key scenes and more character and situational development than is typical of the genre.
Though the pacing is slower, tensions still run high throughout most of the movie. This can be credited to both the complexity of the plot and the number of moving parts making it happen. While this helps create a pretty decent thinking man's heist movie, it also gets cluttered in spots and requires audiences to actively keep up with many of the plot's offhand details.
It's hard to say what "Contraband" could do without cinematically, but I can't imagine they couldn't have found some way to clean up the script a little. Those speed bumps, plus the odd too-close close-ups and occasional "raw footage"-style zooming, are minor faults in the big picture, but they do detract from what could have been a much better film.
The biggest obstacle "Contraband" faces in theaters, unfortunately, is its marketing. Movie-goers anticipating the explosive action film it's made out to be in previews are going to be left disappointed, and that might cause a more negative reception than it deserves. For those who know what to expect, "Contraband" cuts it as a decent, albeit a little drama-heavy, action thriller.
Contrary to her natural state of being, Renee Lorenz is a total optimist when it comes to Milwaukee. Since beginning her career with OnMilwaukee.com, her occasional forays into the awesomeness that is the Brew City have turned into an overwhelming desire to discover anything and everything that's new, fun or just ... "different."
Expect her random musings to cover both the new and "new-to-her" aspects of Miltown goings-on, in addition to periodically straying completely off-topic, which usually manifests itself in the form of an obscure movie reference.
