The Contractor (DVD)

Things don't seem to be going so well for Mr. Snipes as last year he was indicted on federal criminal charges for his role in a tax avoidance scheme that allegedly included him seeking $12 million in fraudulent refunds and failing to file six years of tax returns, but he is now starring in straight-to-DVD releases.

RopeofSilicon debuted a 5:40 clip for The Contractor earlier this month and at that time I had not yet had a chance to check out the new Wesley Snipes straight-to-video release, but our very own clip had me intrigued. I wasn't interested because I thought this looked like a great action flick, but simply because it looked like it had the possibility of entertaining me for 90 minutes. However, the action scene we debuted is actually the only really interesting thing in this feature.

The film seems to mix elements of the recent Mark Wahlberg starrer Shooter and the Jean Reno and Natalie Portman classic The Professional. Unfortunately, a stale storyline and a poor choice in young actors makes the whole thing fall apart and it happens right from the start when we first meet Wesley as James Dial on his ranch in Montana (Shooter references from the start). James is soon thrown from his horse and lay flat on his back, not exactly the way we portray most of our movie heroes.

Dial is a retired assassin brought back into the life to get the one that got away. However, things are soon flipped and he finds out the guys that put him up to the job are double-crossing him. Yikes! Dial sustains an injury and ultimately gains friendship with 12-year-old Emily (Eliza Bennett) who cares for him and soon becomes part of the plot to clear Dial's name.

It isn't a terrible storyline it just never really takes off as the film becomes marred with too many gun fights and on top of that Eliza Bennett is no Natalie Portman. A sticker on the DVD packaging proclaims that the film stars "300 star Lena Headey," which basically says absolutely nothing unless you are trying to compare her role as Queen Gorgo of Sparta to her second rate performance here as a British police officer.

On a whole, The Contractor isn't terrible. I didn't expect this to be an action extravaganza. I only wish the filmmakers hadn't blown their load on one major action scene and had saved a little money to replace all the gun fights with something less ordinary and cliché.