The Contractor (2007) (V)

Director:

Josef Rusnak

Writers (WGA):

Robert Foster (screenplay) and
Joshua Michael Stern (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

10 July 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The world's greatest marksman is now a marked man...

Plot:

An ex-CIA agent is asked to take out a terrorist, only to realize he's been set up by his former employer.

Plot Keywords:

Framed | Marksman | London England | Shot In The Head | Airport

Cast

Wesley Snipes	...	James Dial
Eliza Bennett	...	Emily Day
Lena Headey	...	DI Annette Ballard
Ralph Brown	...	Jeremy Collins
Charles Dance	...	DCS Andrew Windsor
Gemma Jones	...	Mrs. Day
Iain Robertson	...	Cramston
Richard Harrington	...	Terry Mitchell
Ryan McCluskey	...	Purcell
John Standing	...	Sir Anthony
Stanimir Stamatov	...	King
Milos Miroslav	...	Harris (as Miroslav Emilov)
Velizar Binev	...	Beloit
Nikolai Sotirov	...	Ali Mahmud Jahar (as Nikolay Sotirov)
Peter Kerry Morgan	...	Newscaster

Also Known As:

The Shooter (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and language.

Runtime:

UK:105 min

Country:

Bulgaria | UK | USA

Language:

English

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Singapore:PG | Australia:MA | UK:15 | Netherlands:12 | Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Bulgaria

Company:

April Productions

Trivia:

Michael Biehn was scheduled to appear in this movie but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with Planet Terror (2007).

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When James is going through security at the airport, the voice of the guard screening him was clearly dubbed by another actor. None of his lip movements match what is heard on the soundtrack.

Movie Connections:

References The Mistress of Spices (2005)

Soundtrack:

Holding Out For More

A surprisingly human movie. Better than most of the genre

Having just seen Hit-man, another film of the type "good hit-man fights bad hit men", but incredibly stupid, The Contractor seemed to me of incredibly unexpected good nature. The main character is human, fallible, vulnerable. He does his job as well as possible given the circumstances, he tries to save his skin as well as possible and when a stern "Moscow rules: if the mission fails you're already dead" assignment comes his way he feels no confusion when deciding he should stay very much alive, no matter the mission.

Of course, in all this gem of a script idea there is also bad screen play, occasional bad acting and things that make no sense. It's like a good machine without oil, everything is well made but not really working. The action scenes are shaky and amateurish for a Snipes movie, but then again, the point was not the action or the technical prowess of the hit men, but the fact that they are human beings.

At first I thought it was going to be another Nikita/Leon ripoff, but the girl story arch was sensible and reasonably original. The ending was a little bit forced, too.

Bottom line: in the abysmal hell of bad written hit-man action movies, this obscure film is a real gem in the mud and a reminder that the budget is not really important, nor the genre of the film, but the very real effort of actually trying to make a movie, not just money.