JinRoz
For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
Acensbart
Excellent but underrated film
Abbigail Bush
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Patrick Bateman
It's funny, as a martial arts film enthusiast I was most excited about one of the lesser known names in this film, Gary Daniels. He has the ability to perform superbly in fight sequences whilst carrying the presence and acting ability to pull off the lead. But surprisingly there's some really popular Hollywood names starring alongside him too.You've got Mickey Rourke at the very beginning of the film playing a powerful crime boss, with other stars like Daryl Hannah and Michael Madsen popping up throughout the film in supporting roles.Our main villain though is played by Eric Roberts who does a pretty good job at playing an intelligent bad guy with a fitting charisma to sell the character. Having these strong names around Gary Daniels' lead made for a smooth overall performance by the entire cast.One thing I appreciated too was seeing director and writer Ara Paiaya showing up for a fight sequence toward the end of the film showing off his impressive abilities also, as they guy has some very acrobatic and impressive martial arts to showcase.
lindamit
Skin Traffik is the love letter to the grind house era that Rodriguez and Tarantino's Grindhouse failed to send. Every element is overdone to near perfection: the corny acting, the gratuitous bloody gore, the flamboyant action scenes and choreography. Obviously, the film latches its appeal to a very specific audience and anyone familiar with the action genre will love it, leaving the rest in the dust. But for what the film planned to achieve, you can't leave without thinking that Paiaya succeeded. Skin Traffik is cult action cinema of the highest quality. With an all-star cast to die for this independent film delivers where all others fail. It's inventive and has a lot of heart considering one man 'Ara Paiaya' made it all. Remarkable!
CharlieM888
"Skin Traffik" one of those successful British efforts to do a classic Hollywood-style hunt-'em-down and beat-'em-up, comes from respectable producer and director Ara Paiaya, whose home-grown,low-budget action thriller "The Suppressor" which essentially was a lively little collection of fight scenes and stunts. In trying to broaden the scale to interest a big American / Worldwide audience with an all star cast "Skin Traffik" has been very convincing in doing so. This is a picture that will appeal mainly to people who love movies,and I use the word "love" advisedly. Viewers who love movies for their true soul - for their obviousness, for their manipulations, for their corniness, for their blend of high and low emotion - will take great pleasure in "Skin Traffik." Others, who like movies conditionally, like a wayward lover they hope to reform, may end up hating "Skin Traffik" - or at least thinking of it as something stupid, ridiculous and far-fetched.
The_Phantom_Projectionist
Ara Paiaya is a veteran of low-budget filmmaking who's even achieved some underground acclaim with his DUBBED AND DANGEROUS series. He breaks into the slightly more mainstream arena of action cinema with SKIN TRAFFIK – a vehicle for Gary Daniels that addresses the very real problem of sex trafficking. Bringing a slew of cult costars and his own set of strengths and weaknesses to the production, Paiaya succeeds in making an entertaining but thoroughly flawed adventure that's nevertheless worth the price for most of Daniels' fans.The story: A guilt-ridden hit man (Daniels) seeks to regain his humanity by rescuing a young girl from the clutches of sex slavers.The film's biggest selling point is its cast, which constitutes a fine collection of veterans: Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Alan Ford, and Jeff Fahey comprise a pretty sweet lineup for any film, direct-to-video or not. However, the way these actors are utilized and how well they perform is another matter: few of them appear in more than a few isolated scenes, and even fewer of them get in on any of the action. Roberts and Fahey are the most rounded and integrated characters, while Rourke ad-libs awkwardly and Hannah does her best to speak her lines in an undertone. Luckily, Gary Daniels is growing as an actor, and he carries the picture well enough. Overall, the dramatic content is passable, though it's clear that most of these stars have been cast solely for their names on the poster.Director Paiayah may have overspent on this marketing move, for while the film usually looks professional enough, there are surprising dips in technical quality that briefly make it look like Ara's no-budget outings of yesteryear. However, the movie remembers itself promptly enough, and it certainly sobers up for its fight scenes. These too are imperfect, but do more things right than not. Ara edits the brawls a lot looser than I expected and often does not utilize sound effects to signify strikes, but the fights possess a level of energy that I haven't seen in a Daniels vehicle in well over a decade. While Gary's one-on-one dream matchups (against Ron Smoorenburg and Paiaya himself, respectively) disappoint, the mass brawls are an athletic delight. This marks the first time in Gary's later career that the action of one of his films was designed by a younger stunt team with a more modern take on fight choreography, and I'm happy to say that Gary holds his own throughout.With the movie's human trafficking theme, Gary joins a slew of fellow action heroes starring in pictures of the same topic. While I'm pleased that awareness of this crime is being treated as more than window dressing, I am critical about the proliferation of male heroes in this setting. Sex slavery is something that predominantly affects girls and women, but in this film, their trials exist only to fuel the righteous indignation of Daniels' character. (SPOILER) It doesn't do much for the tone of the picture when the only featured victim (Dominique Swain) is killed off for shock value after being established as a main character. In this regard, consider this review a distress call to Cynthia Rothrock: we need you to put a female face on this particular subgenre.Nevertheless, when viewed as nothing more than a cheap action flick, SKIN TRAFFIK delivers where it counts and most of its faults are overlookable as experimental touches. This one may divide general action fans and devotees of the more famous performers, but if watch this movie primarily for Gary Daniels' sake, you could definitely do worse. I hope that Gary continues to seek out ambitious projects like this, and that Ara Paiaya continues to hone his craft – he might yet become a good guy of the karate scene.
