The Contractor (2013) Reviews

• A straight to the point thriller...

  paul_haakonsen2013-09-15

  There was just something fundamentally 90's about this thriller. And I mean that in the best possible way actually. It was like watching the thrillers that I remember watching during the 90's. That being said, then "The Contractor" was actually entertaining and did have an interesting story. The story, though, wasn't particularly thrilling or disturbing, but it was told in a nice way and the plot was great. And this made for a rather enjoyable movie. It should be said that "The Contractor" is the type of movie you watch once and never again, because the storyline and plot doesn't have enough contents or leverage to support more than a single watching. The story is about the Chase family who have moved into a new home - a home that needs some renovating. Paul Chase (played by Brad Rowe) gets a tip from a friend about a cheap contractor, and after having discussed this with his wife Elizabeth (played by Christina Cox), they hire Javier Reyes (played by Danny Trejo) to do the work around their new home. However, this contractor has an ulterior motive. The acting in the movie was quite good, and the three leads did carry the movie quite nicely. The fighting scenes in the movie were quite wooden and badly choreographed, coming off a rather amateurish and forced. But, given the storyline and plot, then this is a small matter that hardly impacts the movie. And luckily there aren't a lot of fighting in the movie. "The Contractor" is a straight forward thriller that follows a rather simple blueprint, but it works out nicely and gets the work done.

• A very soft-boiled Cape Fear with shades of Peter Weir's "The Plumber"

  bob_meg2013-09-15

  Nearly all movies are derivative in some fashion, and that's not always a bad thing. Some concepts are so good, they beg for updating. Take Peter Weir's made-for-Aussie TV classic, "The Plumber," about a psychotic maintenance worker with a huge classist chip on his shoulder who makes the lives of two government-funded eggheads a living hell. And then there's the classic "Cape Fear," about an ex-con out for revenge against the posh-living lawyer who wronged him. Both good ideas. Unfortunately, "The Contractor," seasoned editor Sean Wilson's first foray into features, has a script which continually sets-up potentially suspenseful scenarios and then just doesn't deliver anything worth biting your nails over (when it delivers at all). It's a solid premise, given that even mentioning the word "contractor" is enough to set most people's teeth on edge. Liz and Paul Chase are the golden couple living in an almost ridiculously plush Malibu mountain home. Liz needs a contractor to finish a few relatively small projects and a link to Javier's (Danny Trejo) Web site winds up forwarded to Paul at just the right moment. Shortly after hiring him, Liz begins to suspect something's up: Javier is not the most subtle sociopath and she quickly busts him for a few suspicious antics. Paul fires him, but (of course) not before he subtly vows revenge. Actually, this last scene is really the only time Trejo appears remotely menacing --- he's not a bad actor but he always seems to do more with less, at least when not backed up by a "Machete" sized budget. Many scripts have problems but this one has a multitude of them: the action is very slow to start. When the threats against the Chases do start, they're almost laughably benign. Several acts of vandalism against their home occurs that are almost immediately shrugged off...another script problem. The actors never seem to get beyond being "annoyed" --- perhaps because they're so stinking rich that nothing seems to really shake them up. Well, fine....but it doesn't make for a good suspense film. Contrast that with "The Plumber," where the psycho and the heroine are jammed together in a flat the size of the Chases' master bathroom with pipes exploding all around them...well, that's a bit more jarring. The weakest part of the film is the last third, which falls back on a hackneyed abduction plot, a misplaced asthma inhaler, and a wheezing Trejo trying to voice ominous threats ("McKenzie...I got another Spanish lesson for you!") and you get the general idea. The Contractor becomes about as terrifying as a visit from the roto-rooter man. It's a shame, because Wilson is not a bad director. His set-ups are good, his framing unobtrusive, and (of course) his editing is sharp. And damn it, the shots of Malibu are appropriately drool-inducing. The acting is "OK" with Christina Cox performing gamely and Brad Rowe giving his best Greg Kinnear impersonation. LA fave Ari Zucker provides a few non-vanilla bright spots as Cox's best friend. But the script is just nothing special. It should have been torn down and renovated before all the producer's (and our) money was wasted. It's typical direct to VOD, in far, far too many ways.

• Danny Trejo needs justice

  mothra-62015-05-08

  I try to lower my expectations for most films on Lifetime, because you have to suspend some disbelief for anything low budget. This is not a rip on quality, however, because you can find some gems as long as the story lines are strong. It was hard to overlook many things about "The Contractor", a revenge suspense film that takes place in Los Angeles. Starring Danny Trejo as an angry contractor, he seeks some sort of retribution for the prison death of his wrongfully incarcerated son. There should be a lesson here about wrongful incarceration, especially in today's climate, but "The Contractor" carelessly hides any opportunity to make a statement by using it as a springboard for a weak story about revenge and a wealthy couple with stables and an overflowing toilets. Trejo's talents are wasted, if only because of the careless scripting. To gain access to the prosecutor's house, he uses a false name. In trying to find his true identity, the prosecutor's wife and a friend use the internet to zero in on his true identity - - a task that takes less than :10 seconds -- from the over millions of Hispanics in Southern California. If you lived in LA, you'd understand the impossibility of such a web search. In describing Trejo's son to the prosecutor's anguished wife, she uses the term "Latin princes" instead of "Latino" -- another blatant error. In fact, the whole concept of justice and vengeance makes no sense. Prosecutor unjustly gains a conviction for an innocent young man who dies in a prison fight. Father is angry and wants a little revenge. Instead, he gets fired. Prosecutor's wife discovers that her husband might not care that there was some sort of unjust conviction. Prosecutor hires some thugs to try to beat up Danny Trejo's character. In turn, a botched abduction takes place. No matter how the film turns out, the prosecutor never understands that he is wrong. What a waste.

• HIS FACE LOOKS FAMILIAR

  nogodnomasters2018-05-11

  We have good news and bad news. The good news is that Danny Trejo is in a film longer than 5 minutes. The bad news is that the film could be a Lifetime production. The film opens with a young male being pursued, beaten and Mirandized by the police. We then jump to 3 years later with Javier (Danny Trejo) spying on the Chase family by taking photos. At this point everyone but Shaggy has got the plot figured out. Paul Chase, an attorney ... get it Chase an attorney, Oh how clever. Anyway, he was a former DA and now wants to remodel his kitchen in time for his wife's charity event. Unable to secure a contractor for twice the price of my doublewide, he turns to Trejo who sends him an e-mail from a friend. Apparently not everyone's idea of re-doing the kitchen is buying new contact paper to put over the old faded stuff. The funny clue is that Paul(Brad Rowe) remarks that Trejo has a "familiar face." Seriously? Like someone could forget that mug. If you haven't figured out the whole plot by 53 minutes into the film, Elizabeth Chase (Christina Cox) explains it to us, almost like an aside as she talks to Kate (Arianne Zucker). Taylor Spreitler plays the daughter. Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity. Not even a teaser shower. Some minor violence. PG-13 rating must be for the DVD cover