Reviews

It's alright.

That's a perfect description. Should you watch it? Yes. But I'd feel better about myself if I waited for this one and watched it at home.

This is a basic heist movie, but the details of the heist are not very clearly defined and presented to the audience. Oceans 11, Italian Job and the like really spell it out for you - in Contraband we just get a loose overview. The suspension of belief required in some areas of the movie just kind of deflates the entire film a bit. Not too much, just a bit. Maybe my expectations were too high?

Marky Mark does a fine job and the movie is fine. It's enjoyable. But, it's not great. And I want great from Wahlberg because I've gotten it before and I know he can do it. The other members of the cast range from passable to good, not great, except for Ribisi who really gets under your skin and delivers a menacing and chilling performance. No sex, but there are some beat 'em up scenes and graphic gun fights. The language is pretty clean overall - not unnecessarily vulgar at least.

In my opinion, Mark Wahlberg has been an inconsistent actor. He's had some high levels of success and other times it just seems like his movies are just OK. I wonder if he has internalized this and just works to collect a check... I don't know. I hope he frequently makes movies, but I also hope he makes a few more great ones, instead of just "alright."

With all that being said, I was entertained. It's a fine movie and good enough for the movie theater. But again, if you're trying to maximize your $10.00, take a look at some of the other offerings this week.

It's just a poor effort and a bad movie.

The star of this film was not ready to carry a movie in the lead role. I would have preferred to see her as a menacing martial arts figure, aka Jet Li or Zhang Zhiyi in the Lethal Weapon / Rush Hour movies, or a "boss type" bad guy with a significant role as in Kill Bill's women. First efforts by the Rock, Justin Timberlake, Eminem and others that were simply portraying themselves, were actually better. The addition of all the big name Hollywood stars as supporting cast is not nearly enough to boost this movie into something worthy of commendation.

The entire production has the feel of a very amateur film student working with his buddy on the karate team to make a movie. The obligatory scenes were included - car chase, foot chase, etc... but they were checks in the box rather than necessary or compelling. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion, including Gina's speed of speech and thought. That's when she was talking - lot's of the film included boring music playing in the background while she scaled a wall, jumped over something, ran, etc... The fight scenes demonstrated the legitimate power from her well muscled legs at times, but otherwise seemed lackluster, weak and poorly choreographed. In one shootout scene, the choice weapons were submachine guns with red tabs on them, giving the weapons a very non-threatening, "training only" type of look.

The film was decidedly focused on showcasing Gina Carano in a variety of environments, but the result to the viewer looks more like a first rehearsal of a 9th grade movie project and not a Hollywood movie.

Yes, it's doubtful a 9th grader could make this movie, but you get the point... How a top tier Director put out this movie is beyond me. How did this make it past the studio executives?

Compared to action flicks starring women (Salt, Hannah, Colombiana, etc...) I think Haywire is one of the worse.

But since I love fighting movies, MMA in all forms, boxing, Bourne type movies and all that - I couldn't wait to watch it and found enough pleasure in some of the fight scenes to finish the movie (which wasn't the case for 9 people of out my 1/5 packed movie theater on Day 2 of release). I like watching Gina Carano fight in competition and she looks fit and sexy throughout the feature. I think she was done a disservice by being thrown into a low budget, poorly written and poorly directed movie.

Gina do another movie, but be more careful with your career. Be a bruiser for a little while, that's your way in, but try to learn the craft a little better.