The Contract
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Movie Reviews of The Contract
Movie Review: Good action movie!
Summary: 4 Stars
John Cusack and Morgan Freeman gives great entertainment in this drama/thriller. I like the twist this movie takes when a rude killer (Freeman) shows sympathy and create a bond with a father (Cusack) and his son (new actor Jamie Anderson). Unrealistic maybe, but somewhat believable after everything they go through all through the movie.
I enjoyed this movie, it has great special effects and the scenery is outstanding!
Movie Review: (Caution:spoiler)This movie is more deserving than alot of the reviews.
Summary: 4 Stars
I felt the plot was incredible. Come on people..an inside hitman kills the kid of the original hit just to draw him out. Then the hitman crashes his car and finds himself under arrest but now because he is an "inside man", a hit is put out on him! This movie had so many twists going on that I found myself on the edge of my seat. I loved it and I am going to recommend it to my friends.Movie Review: Bruce Beresford directs Morgan Freeman and John Cusak in an uninspiring thriller
Summary: 3 Stars
I could not find any box office information for "The Contract," which is interesting because you would not think of either Morgan Freeman or John Cusak as doing direct to video movies. The same would be said for director Bruce Beresford, whose "Breaker Morant" has always been a personal favorite and who was not nominated for an Oscar for directing "Driving Miss Daisy." But the explanation for this anomaly is that this 2007 film comes from Millennium Films, which is the theatrical wing of Nu Image and the fact of the matter is that I only checked out "The Contract" because it had both Freeman and Cusak (although I will admit that having either one of them would normally be a good enough reason to check out a film). But despite their presence and something of little twist regarding the plot in the end game, this movie never really commands our attention as it keeps itself to doing things by the numbers and never offering the sort of memorable moment or thrilling sequence you would like to see in such a movie. At least Freeman and Cusak got to spend several weeks in Bulgaria making this film.
Freeman is Frank Cordell, who is not merely a professional assassin: he and his team kill their targets by making them look like accidents. This could be pretty cool, but the script by Stephen Katz and John Darrouzet keeps things fairly simple for the two examples we get to see of Cordell and his team doing their jobs. However, keeping things simple does not pay off this time as Cordell is captured and his team comes up with a plan to get him back. Meanwhile, out in the forest is Ray Keene, played by Kusak, a man who has lost his wife to cancer and has taken his son, Chris (Jamie Anderson), camping. They are not getting along and Ray is hoping some time together will help them bound, but apparently he has no other ideas on how to reconnect with the boy. The next thing Ray knows he and Chris meet up with not only Cordell, but also a dying FBI agent who gives Ray his gun and tells him to get his prisoner to the authorities. Obviously, this is going to be a most unusual camping trip.
Fortunately, Ray used to be a cop, although when he announces the fact it is news to us. Cordell tries to reason with Ray, explaining that his guys are coming and Ray does not stand a chance. Of course the good guys are coming too, but there are more plot complications to come because Cordell has another job to do and being captured greatly impairs his ability to do his job. The supporting cast is pretty good, but except for Freeman, none of them are given anything interesting to say, let alone do. Alice Krige plays one of the suits in Washington, D.C., with a vested interst in what is going on, and Megan Dodds, looking considerably more like a human being than she did as the wicked step sister in "Ever After," plays Sandra, a woman they meet in the woods who gets caught up in the misadventure. Bill Smitrovich plays the local cop, who alternates between being a shade too smart or a step too slow in dealing with the developing situation.
Yet despite the cast, "The Contract" is a wash as a film. If Freeman was not in it, I might have fallen asleep while watching it, because even if he was not being given anything really interesting to say he is of the class of actors that make the recitation of the phone book compelling. I can even make the argument that the title gives away what should have been the twists and turns in the final act that changed everything and made this film more interesting. Maybe having a first class musical score would have punched up things some more, but "The Contact" does not have that either. Ultimately, a film begins with the words on the script, and beyond the basic plot that somehow got this cast to sign up, there is simply nothing there to help the director and cast get this thriller to a level where it would be worth watching twice, let alone once.
Movie Review: Entertaining, if Shallow Suspense Thiller...
Summary: 3 Stars
Bruce Beresford is a remarkable Australian director, skilled at nearly every genre (from Driving Miss Daisy to Tender Mercies, from Black Robe to Double Jeopardy), but sometimes a project just doesn't quite gel. 2006's "The Contract" is a case in point.
The story of a ex-military-trained paid assassin (Morgan Freeman), leading a team on a high-level 'hit' under orders from 'the Executive Branch' (represented by senior agent Alice Krige), winding up in the middle of the wilderness as the accidental prisoner of an ex-cop/gym teacher (John Cusack) and his son (Jamie Anderson), with good AND bad guys after them, is enjoyable, but simply doesn't hold up to close scrutiny.
With the star power involved, a gifted young performer (Anderson), making his acting debut, a crew of brilliant award-winning technicians, and fabulous locations (primarily in Bulgaria's lush wilderness), you would expect something really special. But the script, originally written by the late Stephen Katz, then updated and polished by first-time scribe, John Darrouzet, borrows heavily from many sources (including The River Wild, Shoot to Kill, BOTH versions of 3:10 to Yuma, and more), and simply never creates any real tension. The film seems more a series of strung-together moments, than a decisive 'whole'. Many are entertaining (Cusack's lack of enthusiasm about camping, Freeman's remark about the kind of school Cusack would teach at), some are moving (Anderson attempting to explain the rift with his father), some ridiculous (Why would you climb down a mountain in a rainstorm? And how do two killers and Cusack ALL arrive at the exact same location, at the same instance?), some gratuitous (poor Megan Dodd, the closest thing to a 'romantic interest' in the film, does a totally unnecessary nude scene when she first appears).
Apparently, financing was a major problem during production (the list of producers in the opening credits is huge), and Beresford invested his own money to finish the film; it then went directly to DVD (I found no box office totals listed for the film). All of which explains why this 2006 release received so little fanfare.
If you are a fan of Beresford, Freeman and/or Cusack, I think you'll still enjoy this film (there is a very entertaining 'Making Of' documentary in the Special Features, with their observations), and I admit, I've seen MUCH worse than "The Contract". Sadly, I've seen much better, as well...
Movie Review: The Contract... Says you just have to show up... acting optional.
Summary: 3 Stars
The Contract: 5 out of 10: Let me start by quoting Variety's review which easy sums up my feelings about this film better than I ever could. 'Scripters Stephen Katz and John Darrouzet don't inspire great expectations with their contrived setup, so it can't be said that what follows -- pretty much your standard-issue, pursuit-through-the-wilderness melodrama -- is, in the strictest sense of the term, disappointing. But it's more than fair to complain about the plodding predictability of a by-the-numbers scenario that, 30 years ago, might have served as the blueprint for a routine TV movie. (Think Darren McGavin in Freeman's role, then sub in Doug McClure for Cusack.)'
There it is concisely; a predictable by the numbers thriller that went straight to DVD despite starring Morgan Freeman and John Cusack.
This is a remarkably average film. Morgan Freeman plays an old sardonic assassin. A bad guy with depth, education and possibly (could it be) a heart. In other words the usual Morgan Freeman role. Like Alan Arkin, Freeman has comfortable found a persona that gathers a steady paycheck. To Freeman's credit, at least he is fun to watch and has fun with the role.
That certainly cannot be said of John Cusack's overly serious, charisma free turn as the recently widowed, and ex-cop single father. Cusack acts as if he is spending the entire movie working on a particularly troublesome bowl movement. Considering the lightweight proceedings around him, and co-star Freeman's paycheck turn; this method acting madness seems out of place.
The plot summarized is Freeman get captured, escapes while in handcuffs, gets recaptured by Cusack on a father son bonding hike, then they all find themselves on the run with Freeman's fellow assassins and the FBI in pursuit.
One strange development is the attempt to give widowed Cusack a love interest in the middle of the forest. Cusack and son run into a hot blonde, Calista Flockheart lookalike skinny dipping (attractive Megan Dodds) and her fiancé. Cusack somehow convinces them that he is an okay guy; even though he is in the woods with a gun pointed at a handcuffed, elderly black man.
The fiancé is a funny character. A San Francisco lawyer, who hate the wilderness, has an effeminate manner and wears (you cannot make this up) an ascot. What? Is the Mystery Machine parked nearby? Needless to say, he gets killed by a sniper to make room for Cusack. His fiancées reaction to his bloody death? 'meh'.
Which nicely sums up my reaction to this movie.