CONTRABAND, R ( 1 hr & 50 min )

where:  CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when:  Saturday, January 14th, 2012
show:  12:35 p.m.
costs:  $7.00 Ticket + $4.50 20 oz. VitaminWater XXX = $11.50
auditorium:  14
seat:  5th row, 6th column


synopsis/overview:  A former master smuggler, Chris Faraday ( Mark Wahlberg ) must get himself back in the game when his brother-in-law, Andy ( Caleb Landry Jones ), is forced to not deliver on a drug run.  And the bad guys are threatening the lives of his wife, Kate ( Kate Beckinsale ),  and their kids, as a result.


noteworthy scenes:  1.) Customs raid on a ship; 2.) Hospital; 3.) "I like your outfit"; 4.) "We're playing"; 5.) "Will you just trust me, please"; 6.) "The proudest day of my life was when you turned legit"; 7.) Funny money; 8.) Interview; 9.) "It takes money to make money"; 10.) "You're still the captain's bitch-boy"; 11.) "That's the point"; 12.) Intruders; 13.) 'Phone call; 14.) Accident; 15.) "You got a lot of pussy in there"; 16.) The iodine test; 17.) "If you'd hired a real smuggler"; 18.) "Human speed bump"; 19.) Gun battle; 20.) Last container; 21.) Inspection; 22.) "I f-cking warned you": 23.) Salt; 24.) Threat; 25.) "Who f-cking told him"; 26.) "I know what you did"; 27.) Double cross; 28.) Intradiction team; 29.) Tarp; 30.) "You won't get your dope if I'm dead"; 31.) Security alarm; 32.) What are you doing in my house"; 33.) "South corner first"; 34.) Ringing cellphone; 35.) "Sea-full of money"; and 36.) "Twenty on the Black Market."

audience reaction:  The audience liked it.


recommendation:  It was just okay to me, being that I don't like the subject matter to begin with.


spoiler alert!  Why does Tim ( Giovanni Ribisi ), the drug dealer, live in a tenement building?  Even with your back turned to it, you can tell simply by the sound that it makes if a vacuum cleaner is being moved back and forth.  Why didn't she report the break-in to the cops?  The cops could have run a ballistic test on the bullet that was lodged in the wall for future reference.  I know that there are many uses for Duct Tape, but as a mask ...?  They should have used Masking Tape, instead!  Ha, ha, ha.  And I don't think that Duct Tape comes-off that easily if you wrap it around your face and head, especially if you have all that hair!  Those Duct-Taped bad guys deserved to get what they got!  That last container hoisted onto the ship should have caught someone else's attention, what with the ship running behind schedule.  Yup, that sure looked like a tarp to me.  Ha, ha, ha.  Why didn't he check for pupil dilation or used a mirror to check for breathing?  Or, better yet, he could just have put his ear to her left breast to check for--Ahem!--heartbeats; and do Mouth-to-Mouth Resuscitation!  LOL.  ( Hey, that was what he wanted in the first place, when you think about it. )  Why would you haul around a Wet/Dry Vac like that without emptying its liquid content first?  Sebastian's ( Ben Foster ) nose bleed coagulated and turned dark too soon--trust me, I know; I get about a dozen nose bleeds each year FROM EACH NOSTRIL!


fyi:  I know of this young woman once who fell down and hit her head on the ground one day while she was out in her own back yard.  She complained of a headache that night, yet never bothered to have herself checked by a doctor. The next day, she was dead.


word of advice:  Don't betray/abuse the trust of those whose lives depend on you.

Crime pays ...?

tidbits:  After the movie, I went to the Dollar Tree Store at the Target Shopping Center to buy two door stops for my condo's hallway doors because the painters messed around with them so that now they don't stay open.  And fresh air needs to circulate down the hallway to air-out any unpleasant and/or stale smell. And I feel more secure with the hallway doors open because it discourages or lessens any criminal activity.

Then I went to Selecta Pilipino Buffet on Springs Road here in Vallejo, CA, for dinner and to catch the football playoff game between San Francisco Forty-Niners and the New Orleans Saints.  That was a close game.  I thought that it was gonna end-up like last week's game in which the Saints won.  But the Forty-Niners won by just a few points.  Whew! that was exciting.