Contraband

When his young brother–in–law gets in trouble for a smuggling deal gone bad, Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) is forced out of smuggling retirement to make one last delivery and save his family. The ensuing caper aboard a cargo ship involves twists, close calls and plenty of nonsensical bad guys … in other words, it’s a lot of fun.

ClearPlay In Action!

That blood coming out of your ears is for pervasive profanity in Contraband, particularly the F–word, which is used more than a hundred times. Thank goodness for the ClearPlayed version (though the audio often gets rather choppy, as you can imagine). Much of the violence is bloodless, but the most dastardly is trimmed. The movie is still pretty rough, and with “bad” good guys (or are they “good” bad guys?) as the heroes, moral ambiguity abounds. Best for mature teens and above.

Rough, sure, but does Contraband deliver the goods?…

I’m under the opinion that just about any movie with Wahlberg is immediately better than without Wahlberg. With some wonderfully ridiculous villains (including Giovanni Ribisi), Contraband establishes a good deal of tension, and despite some far–fetched heroics — or maybe because of them — it’s caper’tastic.

Marty Nabhan—ClearPlay Inside Man

Rated R for violence, pervasive language and brief drug use;109 min; Directed by Baltasar Kormákur