The camera work is a bit annoying. Although the story is interesting, it just does not live up to an action thriller due to do many plot diversions.

From start till the end, Mark's character, our protagonist, is shown as the golden boy who is not only awesome at doing what he does, but just cannot take a misstep that will result in total failure even if he's forced to do something.He breezes through all challenges in his path while the "big bad" guys spend time trying to act scary or plotting something, while being one of THE lamest bad guys I've ever seen. They not only DON'T look threatening, but they act that way as well.There comes only ONE moment where I felt "Hmm, wow, they actually did that?" concerning the death of a main character, but they even chicken out of that in a few minutes.Seriously, what exactly IS the point of this movie? Is it to show how awesome Mark's character is? Cause the ending not only shows that but proves it. It's ridiculous.This movie is a really dumb "action" (if you call people walking around fast "action", then I guess..) movie that fails to be a "entertaining" dumb action movie. Meh!

I do hope this is the worst film Wahlberg has been in, coz it would be hard to imagine one worse. It is a tiresome, generic, 'last time heist' protagonist reformed crim who has to take on one last job where every conceivable thing goes wrong. You can almost hear the scriptwriters daring each other to put in yet another ridiculous clichéd line. The only good thing is the laughs at how slapstick scene after slapstick scene is piled on top of the last one. Couldn't even make it to the end. Nothing makes sense, people take pointless risks, the nasty dealer is mental ...and so on....Not even sure why this film was made.Never made the big screen in the UK; but then, only the better Hollywood movies do, which tells you something. Even the rip off scene from The Italian Job(original and best) should be funnier, but by then I was slipping into a coma...

CONTRABAND is a tale of cross-border drug-smuggling, centred around a tough, everyman character played by the underrated Mark Wahlberg. The film for the most part sidesteps modern-day Hollywood clichés, like shoehorned-in action scenes that add nothing to the storyline and are merely there to give choreographers and special effects guys a chance to earn their keep. For the record, there's only one (relevant) car chase.Instead this is a taut, suspenseful story that plays realistic for the most part, and all the better for it. The truth is that it doesn't bring anything new to the table and the thrills it chronicles are very familiar, but its depiction of the minutiae of the scenario keep it moving merrily along. It also has some suitably unpleasant bad guys to boo at.CONTRABAND also features a cast of former youthful stars who are nowadays moving into more mature roles. Ben Foster and Giovanni Ribisi play to type, but it's good to see Lukas Haas given some proper material and even Kate Beckinsale isn't too shabby. J. K. Simmons stands out in a supporting role as the ship's captain and Diego Luna once again delivers an edgy turn. The film might be no classic but for solid thrills and suspense you could do a lot worse.