Chicago Reader January 12, 2012 Several graphically violent scenes of women and children in jeopardy make this, ultimately, beneath contempt.
It’s a thriller in which the twists become so absurd that it becomes a kind of caper, but without the humour.
Reasonably swift and effective.
Slant Magazine January 11, 2012 If ingeniousness is a foreign concept to Contraband, so too are time and space.
Needlessly convoluted subplots and crummy supporting characters suffocate the Farraday dynamic.
Arizona Republic January 12, 2012 As mindless action capers go, "Contraband" is a little less mindless than some.
The gritty style only accentuates the increasingly far-fetched dramatics in Contraband, an involving, atmospherically grungy mid-register thriller.
Rolling Stone January 13, 2012 Wahlberg could sleepwalk through this role, and does. See this movie and you’ll surely follow his lead.
MSN Movies January 13, 2012 It’s a good, chugging caper movie for the most part.
ReelViews January 12, 2012 Contraband is the kind of thriller that offers just enough in the way of effective elements to assemble a two-minute trailer.
Contraband, while often grungy and far-fetched, does keep you watching. And in January, that’s recommendation enough.
Detroit News January 13, 2012 "Contraband" comes off the factory floor with its engine running and ready to drive. But the ride feels overly familiar.
Los Angeles Times January 13, 2012 This very gritty bit of greased action does a decent job of shaking the sluggish out of January.
Contraband’s sense of humor is charmingly macho, real meat and potatoes stuff. Literally.
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.
New York Post January 13, 2012 "Contraband" aims to be dumb fun but gets only the first half right.
And then there’s the predictability of the "surprise" villain; I won’t spoil it here, but if you don’t guess who it is well...
Movieline January 12, 2012 An obligingly tense, scruffy addition to the one-last-crime genre.
Kormkur and his collaborators want to tell a simple story cleanly, efficiently, and with a refreshing dearth of frills. They more or less...
Austin Chronicle January 12, 2012 Contraband is a tidy little thriller that makes up in execution what it lacks in originality.
online.wsj.com January 12, 2012 This is an uncommonly well-crafted action adventure, or an action misadventure, given how much goes wrong for the resourceful hero.
Daily Telegraph March 15, 2012 [A] thick-cut, crusts-left-on smuggling thriller directed by the Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormkur.
Shockya.com January 11, 2012 Falls into quite a few ludicrous plot holes, but thanks to strong filmmaking all around, they’re generally accepted for the sake of enjo...
Contraband is a film to be remembered, vaguely.
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.
CinemaBlend January 13, 2012 Contraband squanders its tiny bit of goodwill with a hotdogging, "gritty" attitude that’s never reflected in the actual story.
Irish Times March 19, 2012 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.
With his Popeye biceps and broody stares, [Wahlberg] can do a character like Chris without even thinking about it – and that’s what...