THE CONTRACTOR
Starring: Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Kiefer Sutherland, Gillian Jacobs, Eddie Marsan, JD Pardo, Florian Munteanu, Nina Hoss, Amira Casar, Fares Fares, and Sander Thomas
Director: Tarik Saleh
NICK
Chris Pine and Ben Foster were excellent together in Hell or High Water (and, to a lesser extent, The Finest Hours), so I was eagerly anticipating their reunion in The Contractor. What a disappointment. None of the magic these two have shown is present here. Instead, you’ve got a cookie-cutter action film that I began to forget as I was still watching it. It could have been salvaged with some exciting and innovative action sequences, but just like the rest of the film, nothing stands out. I hope Pine and Foster get another crack at working together, but next time with a better script.
QUENTIN
After two successful pairings (Hell or High Water, The Finest Hours), Chris Pine and Ben Foster join forces again for the uninspired and predictable The Contractor. It feels like every Bourne rip-off and forgettable Mark Wahlberg movie from the mid-2000s (remember Broken City? Contraband?). All the tropes are here: escapes through sewers, backpack and baseball hat pulled low, double-crosses and subsequent revenge. Worse though, is that the film never gives a reason to care about Harper (Pine) outside of “he’s the good guy,” while the “why?” of it all is never fleshed out enough to be intriguing. This third time is not a charm.
