CONTRABAND (USA/UK/France 2011) ***
Directed by Baltasar Kormakur

(The review contains one spoiler.  Spoiler will be in italics.)

A remake of the big budgeted Icelandic success REYKJAVIK-ROTTERDAM which starred and was produced by Kormakur, CONTRABAND is the type of action thriller that Hollywood loves to spin out – the actioner that audiences can just sit back and enjoy with hardly any need of thinking.

The plot is standard action fare, hero in trouble trying to save himself (redemption) and his loved ones while fighting really bad and nasty guys.  A nice twist in the plot is usually included near the film’s end and if the script and director provides some edginess, all the better.  CONTRABAND meets the requirements.  Undemanding audiences should not complain.

The protagonist of the story is Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg), very successful at CONTRABAND.  But he has abandoned his life of crime long ago to raise a family with his wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale).  But after his brother-in-law, Andy (Caleb Landry Jones), botches a drug deal for his ruthless boss, Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), Chris is forced back into doing what he does best; running contraband.  Chris must settle Andy’s debt and things get heated up when Chris has only hours to reach the cash.  Into the picture comes his best buddy, Sebastian (Ben Foster) who is the double-crosser (this is made known at the start) in the game.

The action sequences are impressively executed with enough chases and explosions to satisfy action fans.  The plot is predictable and the film falls again into clichéd territory (wife threatened, wife giving husband hard time doing contraband), but director Kormakur treats all this as new resulting in still in exciting film.

I have not seen the original Icelandic film which was never released in North America so it is hard to guess how this one fares with that.  But Kormakur’s other Icelandic thriller JAR CITY which I have seen twice fares better.  That film had more sprite, edginess, nastiness and unpredictability.  The segment of a sheep’s head from that film cannot be forgotten.  No such luck in CONTRABAND.  (Spoiler alert One unexpected twist has Kate bash her head as Sebastian struggles with her.  He thinks her dead and bundles her up.  A camera shot reveals her still alive and after that, one knows for certain that husband Chris will find, rescue her and beat up his brother Sebastian to the audience’s content.

Kormakur moves his film fast so that one can hardly detect flaws or little oversights.  At the film’s end, the audience would be thrilled and entertained but under more careful examination of the film, one realizes that Kormakur has taken the audience on another standard Hollywood ride.