Contraband

Critic Reviews

A winter-season product, but perfectly absorbing once it gets going.

-David DenbyFull Review

It's a good, chugging caper movie for the most part.

-Glenn KennyFull Review

Mark Wahlberg delivers the goods in "Contraband," a B-movie about smuggling in boozy, corrupt New Orleans.

-Roger MooreFull Review

Wahlberg could sleepwalk through this role, and does. See this movie and you'll surely follow his lead.

-Peter TraversFull Review

"Contraband" comes off the factory floor with its engine running and ready to drive. But the ride feels overly familiar.

-Tom LongFull Review

Frankly, Wahlberg has outgrown movies like this. And so have we.

-Stephen WhittyFull Review

Everyone needs a little action now and then, right? Unfortunately, a little action is all you'll get.

-Rafer GuzmanFull Review

Though it never quite has us by the lapels, the film is a solid, workmanlike action flick.

-Stephen ColeFull Review

This very gritty bit of greased action does a decent job of shaking the sluggish out of January.

-Betsy SharkeyFull Review

"Contraband" is like an "Ocean's Eleven" movie, minus the glamour.

-Michael O'SullivanFull Review

"Contraband" aims to be dumb fun but gets only the first half right.

-Kyle SmithFull Review

In order to pay it forward, Wahlberg needs to direct it somewhere else, and on and on, until every country has a version of this thing.

-Mick LaSalleFull Review

Contraband has a few moments of tension, but it adheres to a predictable heist formula hardly worth trafficking in.

-Claudia PuigFull Review

If you enjoy watching Mark Wahlberg do that action-movie thing he does, you could do worse than to spend your next plane ride watching Contraband.

-Dana StevensFull Review

Whether he's slowing down time or ignoring its rules altogether, Mr. Kormakur's eccentric pacing brings its own dividends, as does what really gets him going in the film.

-Manohla DargisFull Review

It's a so-so heist actioner with some serviceable thrills and better-than-average stunt work that hangs on a formula plot punctuated with fits of disturbing violence aimed at women.

-Linda BarnardFull Review

Contraband is a film to be remembered, vaguely.

-Scott TobiasFull Review

This is an uncommonly well-crafted action adventure, or an action misadventure, given how much goes wrong for the resourceful hero.

-Joe MorgensternFull Review

It's like an exciting police procedural turned on its head.

-Colin CovertFull Review

With his Popeye biceps and broody stares, [Wahlberg] can do a character like Chris without even thinking about it - and that's what he does here.

-Steven ReaFull Review

Several graphically violent scenes of women and children in jeopardy make this, ultimately, beneath contempt.

-Ben SachsFull Review

There's a frothy, almost whimsical undercurrent quietly bubbling beneath the dead-serious story.

-Rene RodriguezFull Review

Contraband's sense of humor is charmingly macho, real meat and potatoes stuff. Literally.

-Mary F. PolsFull Review

This is a first-rate action film with a great cast, a talented director and a strong script.

-Richard RoeperFull Review

As mindless action capers go, "Contraband" is a little less mindless than some.

-Bill GoodykoontzFull Review

I don't know that a lot of "Contraband'' makes sense. But I'm not sure that it has to.

-Wesley MorrisFull Review

Contraband is the kind of thriller that offers just enough in the way of effective elements to assemble a two-minute trailer.

-James BerardinelliFull Review

It's exactly the sort of movie that Hollywood specializes in, the kind which seems on paper as if it ought to be entertaining, but winds up a massive and chaotic drag.

-Andrew O'HehirFull Review

Wahlberg has the presence, the glower and the laconic line readings to guide us through a mess of pain, painlessly.

-Michael PhillipsFull Review

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Critics

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Audience

58%

Critic Reviews