Before the cinematic abortion that was Blade Trinity put a serious smackdown on his career, Wesley Snipes was one of the best action stars working in Hollywood. Sure, not everything he touched turned to gold but he had his fair share of hits and he wasn't a half bad actor either. That's changed in recent years as his personal problems have cast him a negative light in the media (you've gotta pay your taxes, Wes...) but his latest effort, a direct to video action film called The Contractor, proves that he can still carry a picture.

Snipes plays James Dial, a former CIA marksman now retired and living at a ranch in the wilds of Montana. One of his biggest regrets in life was failing at assassinating one of the most notorious terrorists in the world, Jahar, but as luck would have it, it looks like he's going to get a second shot at it. The CIA comes knocking and before you know it, Dial is on the next plane to London where his target is in custody and under heavy guard. Things go wrong, however, as once Dial has taken down his target once and for all he finds himself framed for the murder of a top ranking British agent and the only one who can help him is a twelve year old girl named Emily (Eliza Bennett).

Borrowing a little bit from Luc Besson's Leon: The Professional, German director Josef Rusnak's The Contractor is not the most original action film ever made. That said, it's definitely entertaining and tense and if the story doesn't quite keep you on the edge of your seat it'll at least have you leaning forward a bit - once you get about twenty-minutes into the picture you'll want to know where it's going. Rusnak keeps the action moving at a very strong pace but thankfully he doesn't sacrifice characterization or storytelling in the process. We know enough about Dial to care about him and about his plight and throwing the sympathetic Emily into the mix gives him a bit more likeability as we see him slowly start to develop a relationship with the girl.

As far as the performances go, Snipes is his usual cool self. He's definitely got the tough guy posturing down to an art form and he's certainly believable enough in the role for the picture to work resting primarily on his shoulders. Eliza Bennett as the young Emily is surprisingly good and also quite believable while the rest of the supporting cast are fairly disposable. Primarily, however, fans aren't drawn to this type of film expecting stellar acting or intense performances, instead they want action and on that level The Contractor delivers. There are a few very well shot scenes of gun-play that strive for realism over flashiness in that they're not so over the top that they couldn't play out this way in real life. This ground things fairly effectively and lets us believe the story could happen just a little bit more.

When the dust settles, The Contractor is a bit derivative and as such it isn't the most original picture to come along but if you're the type who enjoys a decent action movie with half a brain and who favors a bit of gritty realism over bullet ballet or slow motion posing, then it's certainly worth a look.

The Contractor looks quite good on this 1.85.1 anamoprhic widescreen transfer. A bit of shimmering is noticeable in a few scenes but there are no problems with mpeg compression artifacts to report and edge enhancement, while present, isn't overly problematic. Color reproduction is lifelike and accurate while the black levels stay strong and stable throughout the film. As far as detail goes, the foreground of the image is nice and sharp without looking too filtered while the background does seem to lose just a bit of fine detail in a few of the darker scenes or when there are a lot of shadows in the picture. Overall, however, the film looks very good on this DVD.