Here comes Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) with an attempt to unseat Han Solo as my favorite smuggler of all time. Did he do it? Hmm...I love Mark Wahlberg, but come on, man--we're talking about Han Solo, here! With that said, Chris might sneak in at number two on that list, nudging ahead of Lando. Of course, that's probably only because Lando went straight, but so did Chris...only to go crooked again, for a reasonable cause, mind you.
Meet Chris. He was a famed smuggler in his day, but gave it all up once he said, "I do" and his wife punched out a couple of kiddos. Yeah, he gave it all up, but he's been horse-collared right back into the game because of his dumb bochagaloop brother-in-law, Andy (Caleb Landry Jones). Andy decides to run some drugs for a local drug lord, Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi). Andy dumps the shipment when their barge is boarded, leaving him as Target #1 for ole Tim. Chris steps in to help out--even in-law blood is blood, right? So, off he goes to Panama for a little sun, a few margarita's and, oh yeah...a few million in counterfeit bucks. In the meantime, Tim is getting anxious about his dough and starts to lean on Chris' fam. Not so fast, says Sebastian (Ben Foster), who plays the role of Chewbacca to Chris' Han Solo--or is it Boba Fett? At any rate, yadayadayada...we experience the race to make all things right in hopes of seeing the bad guys get their's and the good bad guys get a little extra.
It's okay...I'll go with 3.0 Stars, which is actually on the sunny side of okay. It's a well put-together story. Sure, it includes a few typically implausible moments that help cure the impossible escape syndrome that is the norm for this genre. It is fun, however, and contains enough intensity to live up nicely to the expectations.
As you know, when it comes to movies with me, it's all about concept and cast. I liked the concept here and had no doubt in the cast, with one possible exception. That exception was not Wahlberg. He does tough just fine. From The Fighter to The Departed on the serious side, to Date Night and The Other Guys on the comedic side, Wahlberg owns tough--even if it's funny. Ben Foster is also a pretty proven commodity in the bad boy role. No, I'm not referring to his Fast Forward Disney days, but rather Alpha Dog--where he was a pretty convincing psycho. My real concern was Giovanni as a crime lord. He actually pulled it off nicely--although crime lord is not the best descriptive for how his character develops. However, he nails the psycho, playground bully very well.
My only real complaint is the lack of character development at the film's beginning. The movie begins smack-dab in the plot. It would have been good to get to know the characters a little bit better, making the overall effect of the plot better as it played out. Yeah...yeah...I know, I can already here you saying, "Then you'd be complaining about time, True!" But hey, this was a 110 minute flick so they had ten minutes to include a couple of scenes of good ole CD without going over the expected two-hour time limit of the action genre.
All in all, it's a pretty good movie to go BIG on if you like action and intensity. I do--so I did; but you're you, baby! Enjoy your weekend!
True...OUT!
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