The Contract Reviews

Honestly, I had never heard of this movie before but since it was starring the great Morgan Freeman, I thought I should give it a shot. Apparently, since it was a direct-to-DVD release, I shouldn't have expected much from it but it was not that bad at all after all. Indeed, I think Morgan Freeman is just awesome, especially when playing the bad guy and his performance was, as usual, a real treat. On the other hand, you had John Cusack who tried to do something else than his usual comic part and he should be praised for that, even though his character was nothing really interesting. Eventually, I thought the story was not bad, even though it was rather generic and predictable. Of course, since it was an American thriller, you had the usual annoying action scenes and some unbelievable twist(s) but it goes with the territory, I'm afraid. To conclude, it was a rather standard but still well made and rather entertaining thriller and I think it is worth a look, especially if you want to see Morgan Freeman playing the bad guy for a change.

It sounded interesting, I had no doubts that it would be a good movie. I thought Morgan Freeman and John Cusack would make it a good movie, but I guess I was overrating it because they are both one of my favourite actors.

The story is original to me, I hadn't seen a movie like it before. There are probably movies out there with a story like that, I just didn't know it.

Its the story of an assassin [Morgan Freeman] who is planing to take out a target when there is a car crash and he is 'rescued' by Ray Keene [John Cusack] who is supposedly on a camping trip with his on who is still dealing with the fact that Ray's wife has just died. The camping trip is for the two to bond, and the assassin, Frank Cardin, comes into the picture and suddenly everything changes. Instead of a camping trip it turns into the father and son taking Frank into the cops so everyone will be safe. However, Frank's men chase them through the forest and will stop at nothing to get back Frank.

Basically while Ray and his son take the assassin in, they bond more than they could have without him. They discover looking after each other and protecting themselves. It was a little below average, not completely a bad movie, it just could have done with something else to make it better. The acting was also average, a surprise. And the characters weren't showing anything amazing to impress anyone. I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone, but I'm not stopping you to see it, go ahead if it sounds like a good movie to you.

Cordell (Freeman)'s job is to execute contracts. In the middle of an assignment, he has a car accident. His arrest by the FBI follows. His men rescue him, but the car falls in the river and is carried by the drift.
Ex-cop Ray Keene (Cusack) and his son, Chris, are hiking in the woods when they see and rescue Cordell. Ray wants to deliver Cordell to justice and does not listen to Cordell's proposal to leave him alone and travel through the woods. Cordell's men are tracking them down so that Cordell can finish his contract.

An action thriller with a lot of problems in the script and filled with clichés. A little too dramatic at times. A lot of stupid actions were written in the script. The film's music is horrendous. It looks to be a made-for-tv movie, despite the two major actors, Morgan Freeman and John Cusack, who give only decent performances, nothing out of the ordinary.

I had high hopes for this, and was disappointed.

If you're simply looking for action and/or thriller, watch this.
If you're looking for a decent script and a believable plot, don't bother.