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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	2012
Country of origin:	USA / UK / France
Director:	Baltasar Kormákur
Genre:	Smuggling thrills
Starring:	Mark Wahlberg, Caleb Landry Jones, Ben FosterLukas Haas, Giovanni Ribisi
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1524137/
Tagline:	What would you hide to protect your family?
Favourite line:	"The proudest day of my life was when you turned legit.'

Marky Mark Wahlberg – he’ll never quite shake that tag, will he? – in a nuts and bolts crime thriller, that relentlessly engages.

The plot:
Wahlberg plays Chris, one time smuggler, now he’s cleaned up his act and works as a security system engineer. His wife’s brother, Andy, is a bit of a young scallywag and, when customs begin to board the ship he is on, he is forced to ditch his ‘cargo’ into the drink to save spending time in Chokey.
Big mistake.
The score was worth a whopping $700,000, and the hoodlum who paid for it is none too impressed.
Well, with a big old stir of the ‘plot contrivance’ cauldron, Chris is back in the smuggling game, drawn in for, yep, ‘one last job’ down in Panama; a shipment of ‘funny money’ he can sell on to pay for his step-brothers foolishness.

Yeah, it’s by the numbers stuff, where Tab A inserts most pointedly into Slot B, but it is done with real conviction and, most crucially, energy.
Wahlberg is in fine form, cutting every bit the ‘hard bastard turned family man,’ an individual you desperately would not want to trifle with, no matter the boyish good looks. Indeed, so impressive is he at times in these kind of roles – think The Departed or The Fighter - it’s little wonder he got all confused about fantasy and reality a few months back when he claimed that, had he been on one of the 911 planes, things would have turned out ‘very differently.’
And, remember folks, this is a guy who was cast by both Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson, no mugs themselves when it comes to spotting raw talent.
With a decent, if generic, premise, plenty of momentum, and just about enough muscle and clout to carry through to the end, this could very well be the best movie going experience of the month.
A proper film with proper actors and a proper script.
Good.