First Hit: Although a bit unrealistic, this was an entertaining film.
Mark Wahlberg and Giovanni Ribisi carry this film as Chris Farraday and Tim Briggs respectively.
They are on the opposite sides of society; Briggs a proud punkish nowhere drug dealer while Farraday has cleaned up his act and has gone straight installing home security systems. Briggs gets Farraday’s brother in-law to become a mule for a drug shipment which he has to dump off the back of a ship as it is entering port.
Now owing a lot of money for the drugs and payment, Farraday, decides to assist his dimwitted brother-in-law’s loss by running a shipment of counterfeit money from Panama. However this plan goes wrong in multiple ways and it is up to Farraday to fix it. The danger of course is that if Farraday doesn’t fix the problem his best friend and former business partner will kill his wife and family.
What you say? Yes, Farraday doesn’t know that his supposed best friend is really heading up the operation that set up his brother-in-law and now he’s getting setup himself. However Farraday is the smartest guy in the film and he figures out a way to it all right for himself and his family.
What makes this film entertaining is the interaction between Farraday and his real friends and his shipmates. He’s an everyman with just enough more smarts than the people around him. And when he says to his wife Kate (played by Kate Beckinsale) “trust me, I’ll take care of this” you know he’ll make it right and he does.
Wahlberg is perfect as the everyday hero and guy doing the right thing. Ribisi is fantastic as the slightly twisted thug who can be as vile as any thug could hope to be. Beckinsale is good as the trusting wife. Ben Foster as Sebastian was very good as Wahlberg’s betraying best friend. Aaron Guzikowski wrote a reasonable script from the Icelandic film Reyljavik-Rotterdam. Baltasar Kormakur directed this action film in a fully unexplainable and entertaining way.
Overall: Not a great film by any stretch of the imagination but it is fun to watch.