Contraband: Critic Reviews

89%

MovieWeb: 5 reviews

51%

RottenTomatoes: 154 reviews

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Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly (Top Critic)

67

Contraband, while often grungy and far-fetched, does keep you watching. And in January, that's recommendation enough.
Full Review » 5 months ago
Manohla Dargis New York Times (Top Critic)

60

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.
Full Review » 5 months ago
Peter Bradshaw Guardian [UK] (Top Critic)

40

It's a thriller in which the twists become so absurd that it becomes a kind of caper, but without the humour.
Full Review » 2 months ago
Claudia Puig USA Today (Top Critic)

50

Contraband has a few moments of tension, but it adheres to a predictable heist formula hardly worth trafficking in.
Full Review » 5 months ago
Michael O'Sullivan Washington Post (Top Critic)

63

"Contraband" is like an "Ocean's Eleven" movie, minus the glamour.
Full Review » 4 months ago
Wesley Morris Boston Globe (Top Critic)

63

I don't know that a lot of "Contraband'' makes sense. But I'm not sure that it has to.
Full Review » 5 months ago
Nick Pinkerton Village Voice (Top Critic)

Will there someday be a movie where the "one last job" goes off without a hitch?
Full Review » 5 months ago
Joe Morgenstern Wall Street Journal (Top Critic)

This is an uncommonly well-crafted action adventure, or an action misadventure, given how much goes wrong for the resourceful hero.
Full Review » 5 months ago
Roger Moore Dallas Morning News (Top Critic)

75

Mark Wahlberg delivers the goods in "Contraband," a B-movie about smuggling in boozy, corrupt New Orleans.
Full Review » 4 months ago
Glenn Kenny MSN Movies (Top Critic)

60

It's a good, chugging caper movie for the most part.
Full Review » 4 months ago
David Denby New Yorker (Top Critic)

A winter-season product, but perfectly absorbing once it gets going.
Full Review » 4 months ago
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times (Top Critic)

50

"Contraband" involves a lot of energy, but I'm getting tired of violent retreads of these heist elements.
Full Review » 5 months ago
Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune (Top Critic)

63

Wahlberg has the presence, the glower and the laconic line readings to guide us through a mess of pain, painlessly.
Full Review » 5 months ago
Ben Sachs Chicago Reader (Top Critic)

Several graphically violent scenes of women and children in jeopardy make this, ultimately, beneath contempt.
Full Review » 5 months ago
Steven Rea Philadelphia Inquirer (Top Critic)

50

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.
Full Review » 5 months ago
Colin Covert Minneapolis Star Tribune (Top Critic)

75

It's like an exciting police procedural turned on its head.
Full Review » 5 months ago
Tom Long Detroit News (Top Critic)

50

"Contraband" comes off the factory floor with its engine running and ready to drive. But the ride feels overly familiar.
Full Review » 4 months ago
Bill Goodykoontz Arizona Republic (Top Critic)

60

As mindless action capers go, "Contraband" is a little less mindless than some.
Full Review » 5 months ago
Justin Chang Variety (Top Critic)

Reasonably swift and effective.
Full Review » 5 months ago
Kyle Smith New York Post (Top Critic)

13

"Contraband" aims to be dumb fun but gets only the first half right.
Full Review » 4 months ago
Linda Barnard Toronto Star (Top Critic)

50

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.
Full Review » 5 months ago
Stephen Cole Globe and Mail (Top Critic)

63

Though it never quite has us by the lapels, the film is a solid, workmanlike action flick.
Full Review » 4 months ago
Andrew O'Hehir Salon.com (Top Critic)

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.
Full Review » 5 months ago
Dana Stevens Slate (Top Critic)

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.
Full Review » 5 months ago
James Berardinelli ReelViews (Top Critic)

50

Contraband is the kind of thriller that offers just enough in the way of effective elements to assemble a two-minute trailer.
Full Review » 5 months ago