Butler's Cinema Scene

“CONTRABAND” My rating: C-  (Opening January 13)

110 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Absolutely nothing.

Those were the two words that came immediately to mind after viewing “Cotnraband,” the latest from the hugely productive actor/producer Mark Wahlberg.

This crime drama generates a couple of generic thrills, but that’s about it.

Well, one supposes that not everything Wahlberg touches can be gold.  Every movie can’t be “The Fighter.” But, sheesh, he’s not even trying here.

The premise finds former international smuggler Chris Farraday (Wahlberg) living the straight life in New Orleans with his wife (Kate Beckinsale) and their kids. He long ago quit the criminal trade and now installs homes security systems.

But when his not-so-bright brother-in-law (Caleb Landry Jones) dumps a load of drugs into the sea to avoid customs agents, the entire family finds themselves threatened by sleazy local drug dealer (Giovanni Ribisi playing a tattooed Cajun in his typical overwrought fashion) who wants to be paid for the lost merchandise.

Chris has no option but to go back into the smuggling biz. He signs on as a crewman on a freighter making a round trip to Panama. There he turns in American cash for a fortune in counterfeit bills, which he will smuggle back to the US and sell at a profit. (Chris won’t handle drugs. He’s a principled crook.)

About the only nice thing I can say about “Contraband” is that Wahlberg’s characteris opposed to killing. He doesn’t kill anyone, even the bad guy. Of course, he sees other people doing a lot of killing, especially when he gets mixed up in an armored car heist in Panama City.

“Contraband” finds Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur doing an English remake of his thriller “Reykjavik-Rotterdam.” Presumably there was something in the foreign version that appealed to Wahlberg, but what ever it is has been lost in translation.

| Robert W. Butler