Mark Wahlberg
Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971), former stage name Marky Mark, is an American actor, businessman, and former rapper. He has received multiple accolades, including a BAFTA Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, thre ...
,
Kate Beckinsale
Kathrin Romany Beckinsale (born 26 July 1973) is an English actress and model. After some minor television roles, her film debut was ''Much Ado About Nothing'' (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She appeared in British costum ...
Lukas Haas
Lukas Daniel Haas (born April 16, 1976) is an American actor and musician. His acting career has spanned four decades, during which he has appeared in more than 50 feature films and a number of television shows and stage productions.
Early life
...
,
Diego Luna
Diego Dionisio Luna Alexander (; born 29 December 1979) is a Mexican actor, director, and producer. He is known for his portrayal of Cassian Andor in '' Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'' and the Disney+ series ''Andor''.
Following an early ca ...
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
ic film '' Reykjavík-Rotterdam'' which Baltasar Kormákur starred in. It was released on January 13, 2012 in the United States by
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
.
Plot
Former smuggler Chris Farraday lives a peaceful life with his wife, Kate, and their two sons in
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...
during a surprise inspection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Andy's boss, Tim Briggs threatens to kill Chris's family if Andy does not reimburse him for the drugs. Chris plans to smuggle $10 million in fake bills from
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
into the U.S. in a van. He asks former partner Sebastian Abney, who owns a construction business, to fund the scheme before joining the crew of a cargo ship with Andy and partners Danny and Davis. After Briggs breaks into Chris's house and intimidates Kate and their children, they move into Sebastian's house for safety.
In Panama, Chris creates a diversion on the ship so he, Andy, and Danny can leave and retrieve the fake bills. Chris and Danny eventually go to meet an unstable crime lord named Gonzalo for the fakes, leaving Andy in the van with their money. Briggs calls Andy, threatening to kill one of Chris's sons if Andy doesn't go to another address to buy cocaine with the money. With Andy and the money gone, Chris agrees to help Gonzalo rob an armored car in exchange for the fake bills. Gonzalo and his men are killed during the heist, but Chris and Danny escape with the van, the fake bills, and the
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a ho ...
painting Gonzalo was trying to steal, loading it all onto the cargo ship.
Meanwhile, it's revealed that Sebastian is in debt to gangster Jim Church and was secretly working with Briggs. Sebastian hears that Chris plans to dump the cocaine and tells Briggs to threaten Kate in order to stop Chris from doing so. Rattled, Kate leaves Sebastian's with the kids but when she goes back to retrieve some personal items, he drunkenly confronts her and accidentally knocks her out against a bathtub.
Sebastian contacts the ship's captain, Camp, and tells him of the cocaine, promising him a share if he secures it. Camp calls Customs to inspect the ship in New Orleans. The Customs agents find the spot where Chris' team hid the bills, but it's empty. They detain Chris and search the van, but thinking the painting is just a tarp, ignore it and let Chris go.
Chris and Andy are captured by Briggs, who demands the cocaine. Chris takes Briggs to Camp's house, having made a duplicate key while on the ship, and activates the security system. After giving Briggs and his gang the cocaine, Chris sneaks out. Camp awakens to the noise and encounters the gang as the police arrive; they're all arrested for cocaine possession.
Having figured out Sebastian was working with Briggs, Chris drives to Sebastian's house, then his job site, looking for Kate. Sebastian, thinking her dead, had dumped Kate's body in a foundation at the site. Chris beats him up for his betrayal before locating and saving Kate. Sebastian is arrested and sent to prison, where he is greeted by a gang.
Danny and Davis retrieve the fake bills which Chris had dumped into the Mississippi River reaching New Orleans. At a U.S. Customs auction, Andy buys the van for $750 and finds the painting still in it while Chris sells the bills to Church for $3 million. Church asks about the missing painting and tells Chris it can be fenced for over $20 million on the black market. With the money, Chris, Kate, and their children begin a new life in a waterfront house.
Cast
*
Mark Wahlberg
Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971), former stage name Marky Mark, is an American actor, businessman, and former rapper. He has received multiple accolades, including a BAFTA Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, thre ...
as Chris Farraday
*
Kate Beckinsale
Kathrin Romany Beckinsale (born 26 July 1973) is an English actress and model. After some minor television roles, her film debut was ''Much Ado About Nothing'' (1993) while a student at the University of Oxford. She appeared in British costum ...
Diego Luna
Diego Dionisio Luna Alexander (; born 29 December 1979) is a Mexican actor, director, and producer. He is known for his portrayal of Cassian Andor in '' Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'' and the Disney+ series ''Andor''.
Following an early ca ...
as Gonzalo
* J. K. Simmons as Captain Redmond Camp
*
Lukas Haas
Lukas Daniel Haas (born April 16, 1976) is an American actor and musician. His acting career has spanned four decades, during which he has appeared in more than 50 feature films and a number of television shows and stage productions.
Early life
...
Jason Mitchell
Jason Mitchell (born January 5, 1987) is an American actor. Mitchell started his career acting in minor roles in films such as the action-thriller ''Contraband'' (2012), and the neo-noir '' Broken City'' (2013). He is best known for portraying ...
Panama City
Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...
.
Release
Critical reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
the film holds an approval rating of 51% based on 165 reviews, with an average score of 5.4/10. The site's critics consensus states: "It's more entertaining than your average January action thriller, but that isn't enough to excuse ''Contrabands lack of originality and unnecessarily convoluted plot."
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
assigned the film a weighted average score of 51 out of 100 based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' gave the film 2 out of 4 and felt that "''Contraband'' involves a lot of energy," but he was growing "tired of violent retreads of these heist elements." Tom Long of ''
The Detroit News
''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival '' Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the '' Detroit Tribune'' on Febru ...
'' criticized the film for having "too much plot and too little character" and concluded that it "comes off the factory floor with its engine running and ready to drive. But the ride feels overly familiar." Claudia Puig of ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virg ...
'' called "the 'one last job' trope ... a particularly tired one" and remarked that while it "has a few moments of tension," the film "adheres to a predictable heist formula hardly worth trafficking in." Andrew O'Hehir of ''
Salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon ...
'' characterized the film as "exactly the sort of movie that Hollywood specializes in, the kind which seems on paper as if it ought to be entertaining, but winds up a massive and chaotic drag" and observed that "it's much more like a cynical hash job, whose faux-realistic manner can't hide all the hackneyed crime-movie situations."
Peter Travers
Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...
of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...
'' thought the film "goes down in a sea of Hollywood clichés" and that Mark "Wahlberg could sleepwalk through this role, and does. See this movie and you'll surely follow his lead." Kyle Smith of the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' derided the film, noting that "watching a hero progress due in large part to lucky breaks and idiot moves by others does not make a movie" and that "it's puzzling why anyone considered this script worth shooting." Scott Tobias of '' NPR'' dismissed the film as a "mediocre ..thriller," something "to be remembered, vaguely." Rafer Guzman of ''
Newsday
''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and ...
'' expressed disappointment that "a little action is all you'll get" and opined that the film "fails by overreaching: It aspires to the heightened drama of ''
The Departed
''The Departed'' is a 2006 American epic crime thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is both a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film '' Infernal Affairs'' and also loosely based on the real-life Boston Win ...
'' but lands instead in the bargain bin of forgettable action product."
Justin Chang of '' Variety'' praised the film as "reasonably swift and effective" and for taking "a hard-driving line of action and a commitment to one-damned-thing-after-another storytelling", while suffering from "preposterous detours." Michael O'Sullivan of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'' compared the film to "an '' Ocean's Eleven'' movie, minus the glamour".
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for '' Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014 ...
of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...
''Contraband'' was released to DVD and Blu-ray on April 24, 2012.
The Blu-ray was reissued in twice 2015 and 2019. In 2021, Mill Creek Entertainment released a Blu-ray double feature featuring ''Contraband'' and fellow Universal ''
Fear
Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear ...