What makes it different from others?

Boring, long, and too preachy.

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

The camera work is a bit annoying. Although the story is interesting, it just does not live up to an action thriller due to do many plot diversions.

Today's film I randomly caught on TV. I was hooked from the start, wasn't even in the mood for a movie, it just caught my eye.It seems like such a generic film, nothing overly interesting or original about the plot, it's carried by great actors. Marky Mark puts in some work, being a large portion of why I even continued to watch this movie. The script seems to be a mash up of clichés, from the one last heist to the we have your family bit. It isn't something you need to see, but it's something worth seeing.62%http://afilmadaykeepsthedocaway.blogspot.co.uk/

"Contraband" stars Mark Wahlberg as a retired master smuggler who has to do one last job to save his dim-witted brother in-law after he messed up a job.This movie isn't great. However, it isn't bad either. It is good enough to pass a couple of hours and keeps your attention. It does have its clichés - one last job, obvious betrayals among a few. It also has some cool action scenes. The ending is also very predictable. Despite these issues, the movie is mostly entertaining. There are also some good performances in this movie (favourites being Mark Wahlberg and J.K. Simmons) which always helps.There are better action/heist movies out there, but this is a decent watch when there is nothing else on.

I disliked Aaron Gozikowiski's screenplay, because of the very poor character development. So no wonder it was so flat. It resulted to me not having an emotion or very deep opinion on the actors' roles. Their backstories could have been richer and mentioned a lot more in their dialogue. The Hollywood stars should have had improvised scenes which would of gave them the opportunity to enrich the psychological dimension of their roles. But it had to be a big and fat no…… no. Chris Ferriday was the reformed narcotic trafficker who had two sons and a wife. The main character had a legal self-employed job, fixing security alarms for customers. What I could not stand was that Chris was not shown bonding with his family or having a deep discussion about his up bringing and his old world of smuggling. The director Baltasar Kormákur could of allowed flash backs on his past. I wish the actors could of improvised scenes so that their roles could stand out in the movie. Kate Ferriday (Chris's wife) was hardly exposed in recording spending time with her children unless something dramatic happened. It did not explore her own opinion about parenting or how she raised her two sons. I did not know what type of relationship she had with her biological brother Andy who messed things up. Kate barely played a part in the film. Talking about Andy what influenced him into the world of smuggling? Was he pressured into that underworld society by criminals like Tim Briggs? Could Andy of been remorseless including not caring about those who would suffer from his trafficked drugs? More of these moral questions were left as question marks. Tim Brigs was just a complete sociopathic maniac who just got out of prison. He re offends and carries on his profitable narcotic dealing. He is a single parent who raises her daughter in a poor conditioned ghetto. What happened to his partner who gave birth to his daughter Zoe? Who looked after Zoe when Tim Briggs was locked upped in prison? What triggered the man to be such a monster? Well there were no answers when I watched the film. The storyline mainly focused on massive shoot outs and the underworld of trafficking. Baltasar Kormákur The director gave me an urban shot of New Orleans. He used camera zooming and a bird's eye view so that the landscape could be admired. Unfortunately, there were so many quick glimpse shots which became erratic after a while. In some scenes I could not clearly understand what was going on because of Baltasar Kormákur directing. But on the other hand, I appreciated the city-related cinematography especially at night time. That was when I could see colours stand out from a shady background. Barry Ackroyd did a fantastic job at that. What would put my frown upside down was the African Jazz and the electronic soundtrack. Clinton Shorter's electronic music made me feel like I was sucked into an urban and gripping atmosphere. To balance my judgement I will give 'Contraband' a 5 ½ /10