Contraband Reviews
Christianity Today
We are left to ponder why Andy is any less culpable or any more worth saving than anyone else.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
Examiner.com
It may not exactly be an original story, but when a little effort is put into a film like this, it can be done pretty well.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
We Got This Covered
Contraband is a decent action film but none of the cast can do anything to elevate the material beyond what it is: a January movie from top to bottom.
Full Review
| Original Score: 6.5/10
CraveOnline
Plays like conventional Hollywood genre entertainment even though all the actual events in movie feel like they belong in a Michael Mann joint.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/10
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
With its dim lighting and handheld camerawork, the director's 'realistic' visual approach is arguably bogus, but it pays dividends as the narrative becomes increasingly grim.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
IGN DVD
Wahlberg delivers in this sometimes tense, enjoyable, but morally muddy heist thriller.
Full Review
| Original Score: 6/10
Screenwize
Mark Wahlberg plays another working class action hero in this gritty but convoluted story about double-dealing smugglers, wharfside corruption and family revenge.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Mark Wahlberg delivers the goods in Contraband, a B-movie about smuggling in boozy, corrupt New Orleans.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Irish Times
A-Team rules apply: this is a gore-free zone that, in common with ye Lethal Weapon movies of yore, yokes family values to gunplay.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Scotsman
Ends up just another dumber than average caper.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Scotsman
Sound familiar? Of course it does, and not just because it's a remake of the 2008 film Reykjavik-Rotterdam.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Observer [UK]
Conventional, fairly exciting stuff, its most distinctive feature perhaps is the realistic, atmospheric photography by Ken Loach's regular collaborator, Barry Ackroyd.
Birmingham Mail
A typical Hollywood excuse for stringing together violent action sequences which are individually exciting enough but collectively unable to sustain any palpable tension.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
This is London
How this confused and mediocre heist-cum-action movie reached - albeit briefly - the top spot in the US box-office ratings passes all understanding.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Sun Online
Ultimately, it's not going to win any awards for originality but this is an entertaining crime thriller nonetheless.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Daily Mirror [UK]
Gritty, slick and maybe a bit too serious, Contraband may be predictable, but it is solid action entertainment.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Guardian [UK]
It's a thriller in which the twists become so absurd that it becomes a kind of caper, but without the humour.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Film4
It is criminal that a director of Kormakur's talent should make the run from the gloomy authenticity of Jar City to this bland Hollywood fare.
Radio Times
Mark Wahlberg is back in action-man mode in this skilfully shot if slightly uneven thriller.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Daily Telegraph
[A] thick-cut, crusts-left-on smuggling thriller directed by the Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
