Simply Perfect

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Good movie but grossly overrated

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Probably one of the less interesting films of great names like Morgan Freeman or John Cusack. The setting isn't even half-bad but very constructed though. The delivery is mediocre at best. Considering this is a thriller, very few exciting things happen. It all stays very predictable and leaves the audience somewhat indifferent. The solution is somewhat random, too. Not boring but entirely fails to engage the audience. Which is quite a pity considering what the two male leads could be capable of. Overall a very lame and undistinguished thriller. With poor effects and plenty of phony sets and backdrops. The characters are pretty much all stock caricatures and some of the supporting performances are terrible.

By all appearances a quick and cheaply-made thriller made to cash in on a couple of star actors. The Contract is a film about a team of hit-man sent to carry out a double assassination who find themselves in hot water when their boss (Morgan Freeman) is captured by a random passing stranger (John Cusack) who just happens to be hiking out in the wilderness with his son.What follows will surprise nobody, with plenty of the type of low-rent gun-friendly heroics of many a Steven Seagal-starring DTV actioner. The movie has a general rushed feeling to it in terms of the writing, throwing in the same old clichés (the father/son bonding and both missing the deceased mother) yet benefiting from Freeman's star performance. Although he's playing a bad guy this time around, Freeman is impossible to dislike and the film makers realise this, playing on his best qualities throughout.The less said about John Cusack, the better. I've never liked this guy and he sleepwalks through the movie, delivering the kind of performance that could have been bettered by a zombie. The supporting cast are nothing to write home about either, with Alice Krige (STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT) wasted as a government agent and only Corey Johnson registering as one of the assassin team. The action is disappointing, mostly dark and murky (although one bit with a helicopter is rather good) and I was left looking at my watch rather than enjoying the on-screen story.

Hate to say this, but I think, The Contract is one of actor Morgan Freeman's weaker movies, if not weakest, in the last few decades of his career.Of course as always, Freeman is deadly effective in his role(as a hired mercenary) and thanks to him, and mostly only him, this movie is bearable. None of the other actors, including John Cusack, was memorable. The role of a serious ex-cop didn't really gel with Cusack at all.I'm not sure why all the other roles in the movie fell flat. Is that because the script unintentionally circled mostly around Freeman? So looks like the script really is to blame here.The movie's sole plus point(beside Freeman) are the many good suspense moments, and well....that's it! Verdict: Watchable. And we know whom to thank....

Many folks seem to hate this item. I really don't understand why. OK, I agree that there are many clichés in it; for instance John Cusack - as the good American who struggles to save him and his son against the evil ones. Speaking of the evil guys, I find Morgen Freeman exquisite as the villain. This is a very unusual character for him, admit it, for God's sake. He plays here a hired gunman, a professional killer, a "shadow" mercenary working for the Government, erasing people "against progress", as he says in the movie...he leads a bunch of guys like him who have a contract on a scientist who may jeopardize the Government plans. Against progress...I won't tell the whole story, but it is surprising on many points. Believe me. Morgan Freeman is a bad guy, OK; but after the first half film, he becomes not so bad to the audience, especially in his relations with Cusack and his son. A cliché, I agree. But the very surprise, the one for which I am so amazed, is in the last thirty seconds of the film, where you are suddenly awareSPOOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERSthat Freeman will remain a cold, mechanical killing machine, despite all you saw about him and his help and protection for the real hero of the film: John Cusack. When he protected him against his own - Freeman's - fellow deadly companions.