![]() ![]() Spoilers from here on in. Let’s give “Traffik” the benefit of the doubt for a moment. Then just before the end credits, “Traffik” tries to gaslight us into thinking we’ve seen a journalistic exposé. He also tosses forced drug injections and attempted rape into the mix, shooting these elements as if he were making the bottom half of a grindhouse double feature. There isn’t an honest moment in all 96 minutes of “Traffik.” Writer/director Deon Taylor’s camera leers at Paula Patton’s body, lingers on the tattered Daisy Duke shorts of a battered woman in distress and has one character call his girlfriend a whore for sleeping with another character. I once asked Roger what the deciding factor was in giving a film no stars, and he told me these were films he found “morally reprehensible.” That I didn’t find “Traffik” morally reprehensible probably says more about me than it does the movie, but at least I’m willing to be honest about enjoying a few moments of the film’s home invasion section. The game and energetic Patton makes it for the most part watchable, but she can’t make you take any of it seriously.Watching this film, I was reminded of Roger’s reviews for “ Wolf Creek” and “ Chaos,” two films he gave no stars because he found them completely devoid of value. The canned-sounding electronic score doesn’t help much either.įundamentally, this is both a female empowerment yarn and a victimization tale wrapped up in one less than convincing package. But while Patton almost single-handedly makes you want to take the film a little more seriously than is in any way warranted, it’s impossible to do so on any level, so fundamentally based is it in stock characters, hackneyed suspense cliches and predictable notes reliably struck. But then things get worse thanks to a hard-ass chief of local police ( Missi Pyle in a delectably malevolent turn) who’s got a lot more going on in her life and career than her official uniform suggests.Įven when presenting a veritable hell on Earth, where Brea eventually does arrive, Taylor and Spinotti make it look snazzy. It’s cat-and-mouse through the woods at night for a while, as a panicked Brea scurries through the underbrush to get to safety. And not far behind are the bad boys, whose leader (Luke Goss) predictably initiates a slaughter that eventually takes down a fair percentage of the cast. First comes a sketchy gal (Dawn Olivieri) with whom Brea had a weird encounter at the gas stop and whose phone full of photos of abused and unhappy-looking women Brea unaccountably finds in her possession. But while we’re waiting, writer-director Deon Taylor ( Supremacy, Meet the Blacks ) indulges in some scenic swimming pool hanky-panky that serves to put Brea in just the right mood, which is broken when the impulsive Darren annoys John to no end by showing up unannounced with his lady friend Malia (Roselyn Sanchez) just as John prepares to pop the question.īut Darren is more than welcome compared to the visitors who turn up next. After John and Brea, who are black, have an altercation with some scuzzy white bikers at a gas station, you know it’s only a matter of time until the bad ol‘ boys turn up to give the city folk a very bad time, indeed. ![]()
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