Contraband

Wahlberg is always better as a character actor than an action star, but Contraband plays to his strengths by casting him as a fundamentally decent working-class man forced by circumstances into a desperate situation.

The central family dynamic (Kate Beckinsale is terrific as Wahlberg’s wife) recalls Ben Affleck’s The Town, but with bonus machinery fetishism...

The best thing about the film, directed by Baltasar Kormákur, is its atmospheric locations —New Orleans and Panama — which help ground the story.

...involves a lot of energy...