Contraband - 3 stars out of 10

Contraband - 3 stars out of 10

I love Mark Wahlberg.  I love action movies.  So why did I dislike "Contraband" so much?  In the end, it is such a stereotype of the genre that it completely lacks creativity and originality.  There are several unnecessary plot twists and it is nearly impossible to like any of these characters.  It is literally as if someone said: "We need to make some money."  "How should we do it?"  "Well, everybody loves to watch Mark Wahlberg run around and say cool things."  "Oh, I agree!  Have him smuggle in some money?"  "No, money isn't enough.  How about we throw in a poorly designed plot twist and have him smuggle in some drugs, too?"  "That's GOLD!  These suckers will eat it up.  Oh yeah, let's imply a backstory that he's done this before so that he knows how to handle a weapon and fight"  "I sure love Hollywood.  Let's go make millions of dollars."  The cast alone gave this film awesome potential - Kate Beckinsale is a great actress but has less than 20 lines in the film, Giovanni Ribisi is a good villain but just came off as awkward white trash, and J.K. Simmons provides so much potential for comic relief but isn't very likeable.  The big plot twist of "Oh my gosh, everybody's in on it!" only works if set up correctly, and in this instance just seemed like a last ditch effort to validate this movie.  Give me "The Italian Job" or "The Departed" any day of the week, but all existing copies of "Contraband" should be deported and never smuggled back in.