This movie revolves around the central character Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg)  (I’m saying nothing about his alarm business and the electrical connections to a name like Farraday) who, having grown up following in his father’s (William Lucking, Sons of Anarchy 2008+) footsteps as a crook and smuggler in New Orleans, is now married, with two sons and his own business.

This ideal world is thrown upside-down when his young brother-in-law is forced to dump overboard the drugs he was smuggling in to New Orleans port when the the ship he was working on was raided by customs.  Having gone to the drug dealer he was working for thinking the issue could be sorted things went from bad to worse. Beaten and in hospital, Chris Farraday and his wife are brought into the affair. After trying to sort out the issue, the dealer simply replied with the threat that if the money was not repaid all the family would be killed.  With  no other option Chris goes back into the smuggling business.

After arranging to bring in forged notes from Panama to the US he signs-on his old ship.  The problem is the Captain hates both him and his father and upon seeing him sets about making his life a misery, this turns out to be the least of his worries.  While on the way to Panama he pulls his team together.  Many of those on the ship have worked with him in the past and help with the mission.  Despite this things go from bad to worse  once they enter Panama.

Over  the course of events he learns just who he can depend on as he is forced to improvise after multiple challenges rise to make life difficult for him.  There are a number of minor, but sign-posted twists in this movie so I’m trying hard not to need a spoiler alert.

Enough about the plot, what about the movie itself? Well, it is based on the Icelandic movie Reykjavik Rotterdam (Óskar Jónasson, 2009) and is obviously different given the options available to Baltasar Kormákur. It should be pointed out that Kormákur co-produced the original movie, he also has 101 Reykjavik (2000) and Jar City (2005) under his belt. This is not one of his best films, but that said, it is not a bad movie.

It is a solid thriller which does what it sets out to do; entertain.  The supporting cast; Kate Bekinsale (Underworld 2003+), Lukas Haas (Brick 2005) et al all do their jobs well and add to the overall movie.

Rating 6/10, it does what it says on the box.