6.5/10
Mark Wahlberg plays Chris Farraday, an ex-smuggler of contraband goods via the shipping lanes of New Orleans. He's left the life of crime behind him and settled down with his wife Kate (played by Kate Beckinsale) and their 2 sons. When Kate's younger brother get's in trouble during a failed smuggling attempt, he attracts the wrath of the local crime boss, Tim Briggs (played by Giovanni Ribisi). Chris is forced back into the smuggling game to attempt to cover the losses and call Tim off.
It's a solid affair - Mark Wahlberg plays the blue-collar 'everyman' very well, and he's a very likeable on-screen actor. Kate Beckinsale plays the pretty, caring wife well enough and you do care for the wellbeing of the couple. This is fairly essential to the telling of the story, because Giovanni Ribisi commits to his villain character 100%; he's a nasty piece of work - the antithesis of Kate's sweet, family-loving charater. He's really fun to watch and is probably the best thing about the film.
Apart from Ribisi, there's nothing really exceptionally good or new about Contraband, but the characters are solid, the set-up is just believeable enough to care, and there's a good degree of tension.
There's a dissapointing lack of 'denoument' but, overall, I thought is was pretty good.
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