[xrr rating=4/5]
Good script + good actors = good movie… It’s an equation that seems to work.
Its 4:44 in the morning, (make a wish!) and I can’t sleep, because I saw a movie last night that I cannot stop thinking about. This happens to me quite often where I’ll lie in bed thinking about the flick and try to figure out what I’ll write about it. I usually have millions of fantastic ideas and funny little stories that would go along with the article quite well. Then I get lazy and don’t get out of bed to type it up. Usually, my mind will drift off to somewhere else and eventually, I’ll just stare at the ceiling until I dust off into never-never-land.
But not this morning! This morning I’m getting after it! Today is the day I write a review and then take a nap! Today is the day when the Fruity Pebbles will have to wait for me and NOT vice versa! Today is the day we read my review and find out how wacked out I am at five in the morning!
Come with me on an early bird movie review… but keep up, I move rather quickly.
Last night I saw the movie “Contraband.” I only saw this movie because “Joyful Noise” was sold out. I totally wanted to see “Joyful Noise” (insert sarcasm here).
Mark Wahlberg plays Chris Farraday in this film. Farraday is an ex-professional contraband smuggler, who has put that life behind him because he now has a wife named Kate (Kate Beckinsale) and two young boys. Basically, he wants to be legit (“Too legit to quit!” Sorry about that, I got M.C. Hammer on the brain).
Well, Kate has a brother who’s an idiot and is in the drug smuggling business. His name is Andy (Caleb Landry Jones). Andy’s boat gets boarded and he has to drop the drugs in the ocean. Now we all know what happens when you drop your shipment of drugs in the ocean, right? Exactly! Now the drug lords are after him! Let this be a lesson to all of you out there, NEVER DROP YOUR SHIPMENT OF DRUGS INTO THE OCEAN OR THE DRUG LORDS WILL GET YOU!!!
Enter Wahlberg to save the day! Farraday (Wahlberg) has to save his brother-in-law’s butt, so now he has to get back in the business and do one more smuggling job. Personally, I probably would’ve just said, “Hey bro-in-law, you’re on your own.” But that’s just me.
There’s your plot. I think I told you the plot well, and I didn’t give anything away! Yay Matty!
Now let’s get to the producer. The producer, you ask? Yes, the producer. I want to talk about the producer because, if I understand movies correctly, then it’s the producer who puts the cast together. I could be wrong about this, but I don’t think I am. Hey, they’ve got to do something, right?
For this film there were eight producers. Three executive producers and five regular producers, including Tim Bevin (who I don’t know), Baltazar Kormakur, (who also directed), and Mark Wahlberg.
The reason I’m focusing on the producers is, to make a movie work, you need to have the right actors for the right characters. The producers of this film absolutely nailed it.
They needed a hero. Enter Wahlberg. This guy has “hero” written all over his perfectly chiseled pecs.
They needed a beautiful and strong female lead who could carry her weight next to Wahlberg. Enter my favorite actress in Hollywood, Kate Beckinsale. God did not cut corners on this girl. Physically, she may be the most attractive woman in Hollywood, if not the world… and I’ll bet you she’s beautiful on the inside too. She’s on my bucket list.
Now they also needed to find a lunatic. They did good with that casting call. They got Giovanni Ribisi. This kid can act! He plays a crazy man better than anyone I can think of… except maybe Ben Foster.
And they needed one more character: a back-stabbing, drug-riddled, even crazier lunatic. They got… BEN FOSTER! I love Foster as a crazy man. If you want to see him excel as a complete maniac, then rent “Alpha Dog” (my #11 movie of 2007) or “3:10 to Yuma” (my #4 movie of 2007). Wow, looks like 2007 was a good year for Foster.
There was one more actor in this movie I like a lot. I don’t have too much to say about him except that he’s a good actor and he was in “The Departed” and I like him. His name is David O’Hare. I just want to give him props. That is all.
There was only one teeny-tiny problem with this film. And it’s not really even a problem. I just found it a little bit similar to “The Italian Job,” except everything goes right with the robberies in that movie, and everything goes wrong in this one. Don’t get me wrong, I loved this movie. I even clapped at the end. Unfortunately I was the only one, so I looked like a nerd. I guess people don’t clap at movies anymore. I remember the good old days when the audience gave a standing ovation at the end of “Rocky IV.” Times, they are a-changing.
Sometimes Hollywood needs to put out a good, solid movie that people will like. Not one that needs acclaim. Just a movie that guys and girls will like and won’t mind dropping a few sheckles to be entertained for a few hours. I think this is one of those movies. I think it has legs. At the end of the year you’ll look back at the films you saw and say, “You know what, that Wahlberg pumped out another good flick.”
Way to go Mark and Kate and Giovanni, and Ben, and David… and everybody involved in the film! Thank you, you made me enjoy two hours at the theatre, again.
I love you guys!
Fun Fact: Mark Wahlberg was once an underwear model for Calvin Klein before becoming a gigantic movie star.