Mark Wahlberg (Chris) and Ben Forster (Sebastian) mull over their options in 'Contraband'

MANILA, Philippines — Perhaps as audiences, we’ve all become so used to the “wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am” approach of blockbuster action thrillers (thanks, Tom Cruise, Michael Bay, et. al.) that sitting through an interesting enough movie still falls a little flat. Criticisms of “unnecessarily convoluted plot” aside, it’s not too far-out to actually enjoy a movie like “Contraband.”

Sure, its MacGuffin (your Wikipedia is working now kids, look it up!) isn’t terribly original, if there’s ever a truly original one this day and age, but the thing that actually keeps the viewers sticking with movies like this is the thought of “how the hell are they going to do THAT?!” It’s the same thing that kept me sitting through “The Italian Job”—which incidentally also stars Mark Wahlberg.

While I do have a bone to pick with both “Contraband” and “The Italian Job” (2003) in that in both movies, the main characters actually get away with their illegal escapades seemingly without consequence (and, hopefully, without a sequel) and, in some respects, trivializes the matter, there is still enough in “Contraband” to hold the viewers’ attention, including a surprising laugh near the end.

“Contraband” is a retool of the 2008 big-budget Icelandic film “Reyjavíc-Rotterfam” starring Baltasar Kormákur, himself an actor-director who now directs this new version. Here, producer and lead actor Wahlberg plays Chris Farraday, a securities ‘consultant’ who actually has a shady smuggling-addled past. Once it catches up with him, thanks to his wife Kate’s (Kate Beckinsale) rather stupid brother Andy (Caleb Landry Jones), he puts his and his family’s life on the line to “set it right.”

Andy is involved in illegal trade of the snorting kind across ocean borders and, in one particular failure of a ‘run,’ he tosses the, er, contraband overboard and earns the ire of his boss, Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi). Chris steps up to be a hero for the family, and relies on old friend Sebastian (Ben Foster) to take care of his wife and kids while he goes off gallivanting in Panama with his dangerous purpose, the true danger for his family unbeknownst to him.

So, with a corset fashioned from wads of dollar bills, Chris gets himself and his posse jobs aboard a freighter and they plow on with his plan. Perhaps even while reading this one could already serve to predict what happens, and you may actually be right (which doesn’t really bode well for the plot), but it’s enjoyable to just scratch one’s head and laugh as thing after thing goes wrong for Chris and his merry band of lawbreakers. Amazingly, despite crappy luck and unstable cohorts, not to mention his giant haul, Chris still prevails.

Apparently, out at sea (or, specifically, in Central America), slipping things around doesn’t take a lot of brains as luck and great timing—and superhuman driving skills! Why, if ship captains and border patrol agents already know how wily the crooks can get, they still haven’t devised a smarter way to bust them is beyond me. Install surveillance cameras perhaps (a boatload of them, if possible)? Or use an army of civilian security agents?

In the end, though, the minor details help keep the movie from totally sinking. The anticipation of “what else can go wrong now?” counteracts sitting through Wahlberg’s rather one-note performance. Ribisi, meanwhile, gets to have much more fun with his character, especially when tormenting Kate; and his reproachful Briggs actually has an underlying humanity—he does have a daughter whom he seems to care about—even if it’s sadly not explored in the film.

As Sebastian, the underutilized Foster delivers the most emotional performance in the movie. When everything starts unraveling, Sebastian’s torment between greed, self-preservation and guilt is just palpable. This movie could have used more of Foster’s performance, as well as more of the dynamics between the characters of Chris and Sebastian.

On the downside, however, for a movie about taking so many risks, “Contraband” didn’t risk enough, and the “happily ever after” ending just reduces this whole effort into a $25 million (the movie’s reported budget) “disposable” action thriller.

"Contraband" opens in local theaters on Jan. 25.