{"id":3914,"date":"2012-05-03T18:35:45","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T23:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=3914"},"modified":"2012-05-08T09:15:34","modified_gmt":"2012-05-08T14:15:34","slug":"contraband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/3914","title":{"rendered":"Contraband"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-3915\" style=\"margin: 6px 8px\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/files\/2012\/05\/images-200x133.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"133\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/files\/2012\/05\/images-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/files\/2012\/05\/images.jpg 275w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><strong>By Shelby Powell ~<\/strong> Recently released on DVD, <em>Contraband<\/em> stars Mark Wahlberg as a hardscrabble, former smuggler who is forced to go on one last run to ensure the safety of his family. <em>Contraband<\/em> also stars Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi, and Ben Foster.<\/p>\n<p>The film is nowhere near as awful as one might expect. Wahlberg doesn\u2019t have a reputation for starring in critically acclaimed films but <em>Contraband<\/em> delivers a classic genre flick. It\u2019s a semi-heist movie, featuring a bad-boy-struggling-to-go-good, with a little bit of a love triangle to go with it. Beckinsale is sincerely believable as the long-suffering wife. Ribisi, as the murderous villain, is predictably delightful. He treats every new role as a chance to top his previous work and this is no different. Ben Foster, playing the stereotypical best friend, can be absolutely chilling.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Wahlberg is the film\u2019s weak link. He isn\u2019t breaking any new ground, seeming to play the same character he played in <em>The Italian Job<\/em>, <em>Four Brothers<\/em>, or <em>Shooter<\/em>. He\u2019s enjoyable but he isn\u2019t doing anything new. Another, almost overwhelming, problem is the language. For reasons outside this reviewer\u2019s comprehension, the profane exclamations came at every other word. It didn\u2019t make sense and only served to jar the audience out of the film.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, <em>Contraband<\/em> is a decent film. Just don\u2019t bring the kids!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Shelby Powell ~ Recently released on DVD, Contraband stars Mark Wahlberg as a hardscrabble, former smuggler who is forced to go on one last run to ensure the safety of his family. Contraband also stars Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi, and Ben Foster. The film is nowhere near as awful as one might expect. Wahlberg&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":3915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[205],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3914"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3948,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3914\/revisions\/3948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}