The Contract

2006 "Every killer meets his equal."
5.6| 1h36m| R| en
Details

Attempting to recover from a recent family trauma by escaping into the woods for a peaceful hiking trip, an ex-lawman and his young son stumble across a dangerous contract killer.

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Reviews

Diagonaldi Very well executed
TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film
Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.
Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
2karl- The Contract came out in 2006 1hr36mins its not a bad film the acting is good by Morgan and john we have a father going to the mountains with the kids camping he lost his wife to cancer 2 yrs ago and his son is in trouble at school so with a hike and camping in the woods on offer ray decide to have some male bonding time to help his kids this group want to bring down the economies so they try to eliminate obstacles to progress Ray Keene (John Cusack), a father who wants to redeem himself in the eyes of his son (Jamie Anderson), is trying to bring Carden (Morgan Freeman), a world-class assassin to justice. All the while, he must protect his son and evade the assassin's team who are methodically hunting them down in the wilderness. so have three stories in this film with frank carden played by Morgan freeman expertly he is a former sniper in the army and is a hired mercenary assassin and has been in trouble with the FBI after one of his jobs are interrupted due to a accident franks men find out this and try and rescue him but the FBI car gets run off the road into the river for some reason frank helps the agent in trouble in the water . Ray helps the wounded agent and the cuffed Frank to leave the river, and feels responsible to deliver Frank to justice. The former policeman and stubborn Ray does not listen to Frank's proposal to leave him alone and travel through the woods with Chris, trying to find a safe place. But Frank's men and an undercover agent in the team are chasing the group with different lethal intentions i so with ray finding out who frank is after finding him in the water and with his gang after him there is police search on so this is a cat and mouse am a huge fan of John Cusak and Morgan Freeman. I have loved their work's apart and My first chance to see them working together. John's wit and Morgan's presence...I popped it right into the DVD and i loved it
zardoz-13 "Double Jeopardy" director Bruce Beresford's wilderness action thriller "The Contract" qualifies as a suspenseful but even outing with Morgan Freeman cast as an invincible assassin and John Cusack as an ordinary, everyday high school gym coach. The Stephen Katz & John Darrouzet screenplay lurches off to a promising start setting up a rather complicated plot about a group of contract killers hired to ice a wealthy opponent to stem cell research. Clearly, this Millennium Films release was more than a run-of-the-mill actioneer because it aligns itself with a cause. Anyway, everything goes awry for Major Frank Carden (Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman) and his off-the-grid gang of mercenaries. If you've ever seen the Nick Nolte shoot'em up "Extreme Prejudice," he fought a group of Vietnam veterans who were listed as killed-in-action but who comprised a black opps team. Carden is officially dead and using an alias when his men and he kill the son of billionaire Lydell Hammond, Sr., (Mark Johnson) so they can lure his father out for the funeral and rub him out. After they manage to kill Hammond, Jr., Frank is driving away when he survives a freak accident, but winds up handcuffed to his bed in a hospital. The U.S. Marshals take custody of Carden and set out to take him to Washington. Carden's team kills the lawmen, but during the shooting, the car carrying Carden plunges off the side of a mountain. While the car careens into a remote, fast-moving stream, Carden struggles with the remaining marshal for possession of a firearm. The gun goes off and wounds the lawman.Meantime, a father and son are having a rough time of it after the death of their wife/mother. Former policeman Ray Keene (John Cusack of "The Frozen Ground") and his son Chris (Jamie Anderson of "Indigenous") are trying to bond after Chris is caught smoking marijuana. Ray decides to take Chris camping. They aren't far from the rapidly flowing stream deep in the woods when a handcuffed Carden and the fatally wounded Marshal float into view. Before the U.S. Marshal dies, he tells Ray to call 911, and Carden finds himself at the mercy of Ray and Chris. The fall-out from the botched kill prompts Agent Gwen Miles (Alice Krige of "Silent Hill") to offer one of Carden's hired guns, Davis (Corey Johnson of "Captain Phillips"), a cool half million if he can terminate Carden. The other members of Carden's team set out to rescue him because he knows how to collect the money owed them for the job. Chris leads Carden and father through the wilderness and down a steep mountain drop as they elude Carden's men. The climb down a virtually vertical stone drop in the rain stretches credibility beyond the breaking point. "The Contract" turns into a quasi-"Rambo" with everybody in the woods searching for Carden, Ray, and his son. Out of the blue Ray and company run into a yuppie stock broker Lochlan (Ryan McCluskey) and his girlfriend Sandra (Megan Dodds) in the woods struggling to mend their broken relationship. The cast is good. Morgan Freeman makes a believable assassin, though John Cusack embraces all the clichés as the worried papa. After the first half-hour, "The Contract" looses its grip and meanders through the woods with Carden's team behaving like half-wits. Cusack's gym teacher catches too many lucky breaks, and the stock broker and his girlfriend just muddle things up. Beresford generates considerable suspense despite the bumps in the narrative. If you are a Morgan Freeman fan, you'll enjoy the resolution, and if you think stem cells are important, then "The Contract" takes on more depth than you might expect. This above-average opus features some top-notch automobile crashes and the Sofia, Bulgaria, locations substitute splendidly for Washington state. "The Contract" is worth watching.
jakkfrost In my opinion, this pretty much sums this movie up. The plot had promise, but the script and direction were so unbelievably weak, and even the locations were unmemorable.I was so excited to see this movie, starring (again, in my opinion) two of the finest actors in the business. John Cusack and Morgan Freeman are actors that can truly carry a movie on their own. Having them together in one movie would normally be a film studio bean-counters dream come true.But then to get them together and completely waste their talent like this is totally unforgivable.
jan willem van de gronden I really don't understand the negativity of the reviewers here. Maybe it is the way the movie was sold to the audience? I don't know. I was looking for a pleasant evening of watching quality movie with solid acting, so a save bet would be the two gentlemen pulling this one off.Both gentlemen have hardly any flaws in their movie lineup, so when I checked out this movie I looked forward to a great two hours of escapism. And they didn't prove me wrong.Not one moment it crossed my mind the movie felt stale, or actors were on automatic pilot, none of that. I always enjoyed Morgan Freeman, John Cusack of course is the guy from High Fidelity and they both delivered. The movie is well balanced, well paced (maybe a bit too slow for the MTV+ ADD generation, who need tranquilizers to get through a normal day) but all in all a movie I felt compelled to buy for my collection.The story line is something that might have been done a few times before. But the context of a dad who wants to get a grip on his son and re-bond with him by going camping, that way trying to keep him on the right track and out of the hands of bad friends, a son who just lost his mother, and is in danger of derailing, is a great motive for any movie. Both John Cusack and Jamie Anderson portray believable characters with depth and emotion, which easily surpasses any comments you might have on the originality of the script. And Morgan Freeman, well... He is Morgan Freeman. The only actor who can tell an entire story by just tilting his head, or by changing the way he looks at you. An amazing actor who, on his worst day, couldn't act so badly that it would earn less than 7 stars here at IMDb! Are we so spoiled by his presence that we truly think that what he did in this movie is actually an insult to us? What a load of crap!Anyway, reader, forget the negative comments here, rent this movie and enjoy the acting, the story is a vessel to get you on two hours of the best actors giving you a great performance and a nice story to boot. Because that is what it is. A nice story, good action (not over the top, maybe even a bit understated, which suits me fine). The action has a function in the story telling, is not an aim in itself in this flick, which is admirable.Again, rent it, enjoy it, forget about the spoiled brats who tell you otherwise.I loved it, enjoyed it, and gave it a solid 8.