Synopsis
Refuse to Be a Victim
A couple off for a romantic weekend in the mountains are accosted by a biker gang. Alone in the mountains, Brea and John must defend themselves against the gang, who will stop at nothing to protect their secrets.
2018 Directed by Deon Taylor
A couple off for a romantic weekend in the mountains are accosted by a biker gang. Alone in the mountains, Brea and John must defend themselves against the gang, who will stop at nothing to protect their secrets.
Stranded, Traffik - Liberdade Roubada, Red de peligro, Traffik - Red de peligro, Траффик, 트래픽, Без изход, 假期惊魂, 假期驚魂, טראפיק, Forgalom, Traffik - In trappola, Трафік, Cuộc Chiến Sống Còn, إتجار بالبشر, セックス・トラフィック 悪夢の週末, Traffik: Lupta pentru supraviețuire, Pavojingas tinklas
High speed and special ops Intense violence and sexual transgression Thrillers and murder mysteries Crime, drugs and gangsters Graphic violence and brutal revenge Suspenseful crime thrillers Explosive and action-packed heroes vs. villains Adrenaline-fueled action and fast cars Heists and thrilling action Show All…
traffik is kind of interesting to me as a modern horror/exploitation film that capitalizes on the current moral panic surround sex trafficking. like, did deon taylor watch i am jane doe? did he see one of those facebook posts about a shirt on a windshield in a target parking lot? or one about those handwritten roadside signs for day camps for kids or other services where all the facebook moms say well actually thats how my daughter's best friend's cousin's niece got stolen and sold into a life of prostitution? sex trafficking is a real thing that happens to real people, mostly women and girls, but the way we conceptualize it (pretty middle class american white girls being abducted as…
Traffik is very watchable. It definitely has a lot of horror elements in it. The last 2 acts feel more horror than any other genre.
I’ll watch Paula Patton in the life story of paint drying, so I’m pleased with her performance. Omar Epps is cool too. However, being the movie psychic I am, I knew the movie would change at the 1 hour mark. It had to, because you know how the story will play out.
Another Deon Taylor film. Another Deon Taylor film with a sports agent in it. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Oh yeah, Mother’s Milk from The Boys is in this and so is Luke Goss!
Traffik might be as believable as the Easter Bunny showing up on Christmas Day to give you a PS5, but it is still pretty damn watchable.
Did I watch this because it starred Paula Patton, and featured Roselyn Sanchez? Yes, of course.
But I'm glad I did! Other than Laz Alonso's character being written as a video game boss-level asshole (to an unbelievable degree imho) and a few moments of fridge logic, this was an engaging thriller.
It really helps that the moments of peak tension and action were well executed, and kept me riveted to the screen. It's a thriller, so--at times, at least--it should be thrilling. It doesn't waste time, and even hit me with a couple decent twists.
Despite a couple clunky lines of dialogue along the way, I enjoyed this 2018 version of a 90s thriller, even with its darker edge.
THEATER ETIQUETTE RANT:
First, let me go on a little rant about movie theater etiquette. Tonight I purchased a ticket for seat E5 for a screening of Traffik. I was alone on row E and life was great. About 5 minutes into the film, two more people showed up and sat in seats E2 and E3, leaving one seat between them and myself. They walked into the theater having a conversation at full volume and the conversation did not stop. They talked throughout the entire film. Now, this was an older couple in either their 50s or 60s. The gentleman constantly used his cell phone to text or ANSWER PHONE CALLS ON SPEAKERPHONE with his phone’s brightness and ringer volume…
Day 2. Directed by a person of color.
How? How was this so unbelievable?
Good final girl, decent boyfriend, setup secluded. Yet the bad guys were DREADFUL. Those bikers!, damn, my granny could have been a better biker than those guys.
A waste of considerable talent in front of the camera (as well as behind the camera given noted cinematographer Dante Spinotti's jaw-dropping involvement), Traffik is exactly what you'd expect from a serious thriller about human trafficking from the guy who previously made Meet the Blacks: a poorly acted mess with almost zero suspense and a predictable story and boring cast of characters that give you no reason to care.
Well what did you expect? It’s from the same guy who directed Meet The Blacks, the best way to describe this movie is basically think of every single cliche that happens in a lot of thrillers and then combine all of them and you get a disaster of a movie. Nothing about this movie felt new, unique or inspired, the acting felt extremely phoned in, the writing was very uninspired to the point where you know what’s going to be said. The direction is all over the place and not a least bit convincing, this movie feels like this year’s Kidnap. The type of thriller where it insults the viewers intelligence because of how predictable, lazy, uninspired and unintelligent it…
"You release this, they will come after you."
Paula: "Let them come."
Me: Oh, so you Wonder Woman now. You are a news reporter, dumbass. GTFOH!
Movie just continued to fall apart bit by bit, scene after scene, like its taking turns playing a Jenga match. And I almost paid money last year to go see this nonsense.
Whew...
If that happened, I would have banished this shit to the shadow realm.