The Contract

John Cusack must deal with hired killer Morgan Freeman in order to keep his son safe.

Take a great cast that clearly took the roles since they are atypical then undercut them with an unremarkable script and unimaginative direction and you have this forgettable snoozer. Bruce Beresford directed this? Did he show up? Outside of the cast there is no reason to see this film. If you must see this wait for cable, its not even worth a rental.

Not horrible, but you'll forget you saw it-I saw it early today and completely forgot I had watched it until I stumbled on a note to myself about it.

You won't see anything new in this movie. If you've seen some thrillers, than you will foresee a few things. Surprisingly enough that doesn't hurt the movie as much as I thought it would. That might be the case, because you've got Morgan Freeman and John Cusack in the movie. They play very good at/off each other. And although, there are a few bumps in the thrill ride, they obtain the high adrenaline level almost every single time.

I had mixed feelings about the ending, but then again some might think it's perfect. Others might not like it at all and it might spoil all the fun they might have had up until that point ...

Anyway, it's a nice little thriller with good acting in it! :o)

This is proof that an otherwise good movie can be hampered by not enough script re-writes (or maybe too many?). The dialogue is laughable and laudable.

The writer's style is such that the lines are delivered in a very staccato style: A quips to B, B responds with quip to A. There are no real "conversations" in the movie, and it makes it had to develop any of the back-story of the characters. "Quips" about someone's past are usually quickly dismissed into the script, never to be seen again.

Some of the movie made me laugh, it was so poorly written. In a scene where a death occurs, there was no emotional outburst from their family member. It was crazy, and felt very rushed, like the director or writer was trying to push us forward quickly to the next scene, without slowing the camera down and exploring the actor's emotions.

Badly written. C-

The widower teacher and baseball and basketball coach Ray Keene (John Cusack) lost his wife that died of cancer two years ago. When his teenage son Chris Keene (Jamie Anderson) is caught by the police smoking pot, Ray invites him to hike and camp in the woods to increase their bonds. Meanwhile, the mercenary assassin Frank Cordell (Morgan Freeman) is arrested by FBI after a car accident in the middle of a contract to kill an important target. While Frank is traveling on the road escorted by three FBI agents, his men try to rescue him, but his car falls into a river and is carried by the drift. Ray helps the wounded agent and the cuffed Frank to leave the river, and feels responsible to deliver Frank to justice. The former policeman and stubborn Ray does not listen to Frank's proposal to leave him alone and travel through the woods with Chris, trying to find a safe place. But the men of the Frank and an undercover agent in the team are chasing the group with different lethal intentions.

"The Contract" is a shallow and flawed thriller that has the intention of being dramatic and serious, but actually is laughable. The silly plot is full of coincidences and stupid actions taken by most of the characters. For example, in the beginning, the FBI agent leaves the car to help the truck driver on the road; the attitude of the crew of the helicopter is simply ridiculous when they land, specially the pilot; the way a suburban coach defeats trained mercenaries is shameful; and the coincidences when the bad guys shoot and miss the target are awful; the hiker Sandra loses her boyfriend and never grieves; and the corny romance of Sandra and Ray, and the incredible sentimental attitude of Frank Cordell in the end make this film a great deception. The motives why the reclusive billionaire apparently could not criticize the stem cell research program in a democratic and free country are never clarified, only tagged as "an obstacle to the progress". Is this a reason to kill and important man? My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Contrato" ("The Contract")

I am a huge fan of both Morgan Freeman and John Cussack, so when I saw this rental at Hollywood Video, I didn't hesitate, it seemed like a very good idea of the two of them being together in the film. However, I was disappointed when I brought it home and looked up the rating on IMDb to see an average rating. But knowing I had to get my money's worth, I watched it this evening, now I didn't think it was a bad movie, but it was pretty average for what I was expecting from these extremely talented actors. The plot had extreme potential, but some things were not explained well enough, like the characters just had no depth. The script just needed some more work.

After Ray's son gets into trouble, he wants to do a little bonding with him, so he takes him camping. But things get a little interesting when he and his son try to save two people from the river who have washed ashore, one of them is a police officer who is fatally wounded and the other man, Cander, is a hit man who is wanted by the F.B.I. and is also being followed by his fellow assassins. Ray and his son take Cander and try to take him to the police, but it's hard when the assassins are after all of them and won't stop until they get what they want.

A hit-man with a heart of gold, not that original, not that believable, not to mention how some of the plot seemed a bit mediocre and confusing at times. Now, Morgan and John did a good job with what they had, they made the film watchable. They really did have good chemistry so I do hope they do a film together soon, just before they do that, they read the script first. So The Contract is a film I would say is watchable, just like I said, it's a bit average for what you would expect, but just judge for yourself.

6/10