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.
