Contraband

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur

R

**

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If you enjoy watching Mark Wahlberg in action-movie mode, you “could do worse” than Contraband, said Dana Stevens in Slate.com. It’s the kind of release that the big studios like to put out on the heels of holiday blockbusters and Oscar hopefuls: “a middling-but-watchable heist thriller that, days after seeing it, already feels like something you caught half of on a plane two years ago.” Wahlberg plays a retired smuggler who must pull off one more job in order to protect his wife and kids after his brother-in-law falls into debt to a dangerous drug dealer. Here and there director Baltasar Kormákur winks at the absurdity of the story he’s telling, said Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. He also has a “fondness for industrial landscapes” and for blue-collar work that makes this “largely thrill-free” thriller watchable. Except, that is, for Giovanni Ribisi’s evil drug kingpin, said Claudia Puig in USA Today. The actor is “meant to come off as unhinged,” but his over-the-top performance “registers mostly as annoying.” If Contraband were more than a “predictable” heist movie, that might matter.