Nobody’s going to deny that Morgan Freeman and John Cusack are phenomenal actors with the right material, having each delivered a string of well-received and often award-winning performances in a slew of classics dating back decades, but they also have a habit of regularly slumming it in the VOD action genre.
At 84 years old with his legendary status secured, Freeman can do whatever the hell he wants, and the guy clearly loves to work having shown up in four movies already this year. As for Cusack, he decided around a decade ago to reinvent himself as a staple of the B-tier thriller, and the results have been about as derivative and uninspired as you’d expect.
When the two paired up for 2006’s The Contract, the finished product was almost painfully unspectacular. Freeman plays a veteran assassin, chasing a hit on a reclusive billionaire. However, he ends up involved in a car accident that leads to his arrest on admission to the hospital.
Cusack is an ex-cop and family man hiking in the woods with his son who gets caught up in a messy situation when Freeman’s criminal buddies try to break him out of a prison transport, and you can probably guess how things play out from there.
The Contract currently boasts the unwanted distinction of a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score. For reasons unknown, that hasn’t stopped it from experiencing a resurgence on streaming as per FlixPatrol, where it’s become one of HBO Max’s 20 most-watched titles out of nowhere.
