User Reviews

Traffik (2.5 out of 5 stars).

Traffik is a dull thriller that sets up the tension but falls flat with its cliché and annoying characters. The film uses a real event story about a gang of bikers involved in sex trafficking and terrorizing a couple. It is terrifying to see these events do happen in the real world. But the execution in film makes it seem like a lifetime channel movie were there is a little annoying drama and conflict with the characters. The characters make stupid decisions. And the direction lacks in trying to build suspense and thrills.

The plot follows Brea (Paula Patton) were her career as a journalist is very shaky when her boss gives up on her story. Her boyfriend John (Omar Epps) decides to take her on a nice getaway to a secluded rental home. While stopping at a gas station, a group of bikers terrorize them. And Brea runs into a shady lady in the gas station that hides her phone in her bag, which includes secret information about the sex trafficking organization. Once Brea and John finally have a romantic evening to each other. And their invasive friends who is a non stop talker and a cocaine addict Darren (Laz Alonso) and his wife Malia (Roselyn Sanchez). That lady and a group of bikers crash their party when they are searching for that phone and eliminating anyone that is aware of their organization.

The film does have a thin forgettable plot. A journalist who is on the brinks of losing her job for not having a story. Well, sure the sex trafficking encounter will change her course of the career. Sure, Brea and John are trying to go on a private getaway. And all that does not last long when they come across a group of racist bikers. Sure, that cannot come up to any good. Even when Deputy Sally (Missi Pyle) knows there is trouble with them but tends to forget about the towns aggressive bikers. The film had a promising start. The couple being chased by a biker. Was probably the only intense part of the film. Then, their friend Darren who we can all assume is up to no good. When he keeps ruining the surprises that John was setting up for Brea.

For a thriller, there was not much suspense or thrills to keep you entertained. When the bikers show up to their secluded home. And chasing down John and Brea in the forest was not exciting at all. The lighting and direction were so boring. Characters do make stupid decisions that would get them captured. The villain Red (Luke Goss) was so flat. Half way through the film it was becoming a yawnfest when these chases were dull.

Omar Epps was flat with his performance. It was difficult to find Brea and John's relationship believable. Paula Patton was semi decent with her character. Laz Alonso playing an annoying drug addict felt like a waste on screen.

During the climax of the film. Nothing suspenseful really happens. Besides Brea is trying to escape and trying to expose this organization.

Overall, Traffik is a bad thriller. Acting was decent. The suspense and thrills were lacking in the film. The direction and story were boring and very forgettable of a film.

I do not recommend seeing this film in theatres. It is better to wait until it is a rental. Since the film has nothing to show for. No thrills. No suspense. And not even an emotional connection with its flat characters.

You ever watch a horror movie and wonder why anyone would make the stupid choices the main characters always seem to make in them? Well, 'Traffik' is over an hour and a half of that. Of course, most movie plots can't really progress unless the heroes are dumb as stumps. To make matters worse though, the characters in Traffik are so unlikeable that it's hard not to hope the bad guys get them, and those bad guys are racist, white trash, sex traffickers. So, that's really saying something.

The film opens establishing Paula Patton's, Brea a reporter who doesn't seem to understand what reporting actually is. Within a few minutes her characters pretentious and condescending attitude, specifically shown when she is upset that an article she had been working on for months is scooped. Why was she working on it for months? Because she wanted to teach readers about the first corrupt politician to ever exist. Sure it sounds like a "fun" thought piece to post on your weekend blog, but that's not exactly what an editor might want in a major news story that should have broken weeks ago. Of course, her unwavering sense of "truth" and "justice" continues to overpower common sense for the rest of the film.

Then there's Darren Cole (Laz Alonso). The necessary asshole that 'Traffik' seems to require in order for the stakes to raise in the second act. A narcissist incapable of considering the feelings of anyone else or considering for a moment the consequences of his actions outside of himself, Darren manages to be the exact opposite of Brea, and yet is her spiritual twin. He's just a lot more aggressive when it comes to his self-centeredness. That's a good thing though, I guess, since if anyone actually took the time to use logic in the movie, then it would be over pretty quickly.

The rest of the cast though is actually pretty tolerable. Well, save for the racist sex traffickers, since they're just as obtuse as the protagonists they're terrorizing. The whole film is based on the fact that one of the girls they're trying to sell slips a satellite phone into Brea's bag at a truck stop (something she somehow has in her possession). Said phone just so happens to be filled with pictures or women being held prisoner and plenty of phone numbers for pretty much everyone in their organization. It's a pretty damning piece of evidence to own, let alone lose. Yet, lose it they do and Brea manages to use her keen skills as a reporter to unlock it, and doom herself and her friends.

The rest of the movie is pretty much a low key siege on the multi-million dollar cabin that the four friends are staying at. Since racist bikers don't really have the charm to capture the audience's attention for long periods of time, 'Traffik' rolls out a British villain for some reason in the form of Luke Goss. Apparently, biker gangs in northern California involved in sex trafficking need a British leader to oversee day to day operations. Honestly, this sort of stupid is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this film though.

At its heart, 'Traffik' is a movie that is trying to shine a light on the horrors of the sex trade and how it is happening all across the globe, even in our own backyard. Unfortunately, its intentions are meaningless in the face of stupid characters and writer/director Deon Taylor who enables them constantly throughout the movie. To make matters worse, he treats the sex trafficking ring in the film as if it were some sort of evil organization that seems more worthy of James Bond than Brea coming after them. Spanning the globe and reaching the highest powers. It tries so hard to make this group seem like such a big deal that it ruins the illusion. If it was just a brutal gang of bikers then that would have been fine and dandy. Its reach exceeds its grasp though and is absurd in the worst possible way.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what audience 'Traffik' had its heart set on wooing, because it's a completely miserable piece of filmmaking. The more I think about it the worst I feel about wasting my time sitting through it. Which 2018 having some many movies with such powerful contemporary commentary on social issues, 'Traffik' does it's cause a disservice. It claws frantically trying to pull itself out of the deep dark hole and ends up managing to climb out of it. Definitely one of the more disappointing movies of the year.

Brea (Paula Bratton) just never handed over the phone because she wanted a story and because of her selfish ways she got everyone killed. She is very sexy but she just frustrated me all the way through the film

Another garbage production made with an agenda in mind. Skipping over the racial elements, in this movie the agenda was this magical idea of human trafficking that is done with trucks by evil bikers.

In the end they try to sell you the idea that 1.9 million "women are being trafficked" in the US alone. Only thing is, the law has a much broader definition of trafficking, and any such number would involve teenage runaways/lovebirds, among others. This film should be classed as fiktion.

+1: Anyone who had seen a few Hollywood films would not have been surprised by the "plot twist" either. I knew it the moment I saw her.

On the technical side of things, there were a few good elements: some random traffic (no pun intended) on the road, and better than average lighting.

Laudable though their intentions, "Supremacy" writer-director Deon Taylor and star-producer Paula Patton have forged a half-baked abduction opus "Traffik" about domestic and international sex slavery rings out of a second-rate romantic thriller. Just because a movie tackles a prominent issue of social relevance, such as human trafficking, doesn't make it appropriate as a cheap thrills melodrama for an evening's entertainment. Despite some familiar actors and actresses, this 96-minute, R-rated, Lionsgate/Summit Entertainment release is something you can wait for until it shows up on a streaming service for a quarter of the cost of tickets and concession at a theater. The problem with Taylor's amateurish screenplay is it meanders without purpose when he should have narrowed its focus on the theme and abandoned all other the contrivances that slow everything down. Some characters could have been eliminated from the start as well as many of the complications that together generate one convolution after another. Moreover, Taylor introduces things that raise expectations, and then he dispenses with them as if they lacked significance. If you've seen better movies or television shows about human trafficking, such as Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic" (2000) or the Liam Neeson "Taken" trilogy, you'll know what to expect long before this earnest, but inept thriller unfolds. One of the biggest "Traffik" flaws is its incoherence. The villains are presented casually without any level of ranking or classification. Never do we learn who is in-charge beyond the foot soldiers who do the abducting. Furthermore, the protagonist is a naïve journalist with little sense of urgency or spontaneity about what constitutes professional journalism. "Traffik" starts out as a romantic thriller and then abruptly shifts gears and turns into a human trafficking expose. The villains seem hopelessly shortsighted and easily conquered, while the heroine reaps the benefits of too many lucky breaks. Sometimes, in a film about an incandescent topic like trafficking, the filmmakers can enhance the impact of the subject matter if they ordain the deaths of the heroes and/or heroines. Consequently, audiences struggle with the bitter taste of defeat that accentuates the magnitude of abolishing this vile business.

Brea (Paula Patton of "Baggage Claim") is a budding journalist for The Sacramento Post newspaper. Unfortunately, she finds herself in trouble with her editor, Mr. Waynewright (William Fichtner of "Heat") when she spends too much time on an assignment. Waynewright reassigns the story to one of her colleagues, and Brea is appropriately incensed by this breach of faith in her. Waynewright delivers a lecture that makes our heroine worry about her future at the paper. Meantime, Brea and her boyfriend, a mechanic named John (Omar Epps of "Dracula 2000"), are about to embark on a quiet weekend alone at a mansion hidden in the Sierra Nevada mountains. What neither of them suspect is that John's obnoxious, sports agent friend, Darren Cole (Laz Alonso of "Detroit"), who set it up for them to spend time there, plans to surprise them with the arrival of his own girlfriend and himself. Meantime, John is so in love with Brea that he has rebuilt a sports car for her that everybody envies. Before they arrive at their rendezvous, they cruise into a convenience store/gas station, and some thuggish-looking motorcycle gearheads harass them about the car. This scene looks like it was lifted with minor changes from the Keanu Reeves' automotive revenge thriller "John Wick." Local Deputy Sally Marnes (Missi Pyle of "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle") intervenes before things turn nasty. She threatens to jail the gearheads if they don't leave Brea and John alone. At the same time, Brea has an encounter with a strange woman, Cara (Dawn Olivieri of "American Hustle"), in the convenience store restroom. She isn't entirely certain if the woman wasn't appealing to her for help. The leader of the biker gang, Red (Luke Goss of "Blade II"), reprimands his men about the incident. They have far more pressing issues than harassing motorists. The biker who spits on Brea's car, Scoot (Scott Anthony Leet of "Freeway Killer"), cannot leave well enough alone. He pursues them when they leave the convenience store. A brief chase ensues, but John loses the cretin after Scoot crashes his bike and skids off the highway.

Once they reach the luxurious estate, Brea and John plunge into the pool and make out. Imagine their surprise when Darren and his girlfriend Malia (Roselyn Sanchez of "Rush Hour 2") walk in uninvited on them. An argument follows, and Darren learns Malia and John were former lovers. John promises never to lie again to Brea. Indeed, he plans to propose to her, and he has a ring to back things up. While the four of them are circling each other warily, they hear a cell phone ring, but it sounds nothing like their cell phones. Brea concludes the woman she met in the restroom must have stashed it in her purse when she was not paying attention to her. Brea discovers the cell is in fact a satellite phone that contains hundreds of pictures of abused women.

Out of nowhere, Red shows up at the estate and demands Brea return his phone. He is so angry with the girl that hid it in Brea's purse that he shoots her in her head. When motormouth Darren tries to intervene, he receives the same treatment. Red shoots him, and John takes a shotgun blast in the belly. Before she realizes it, Brea is taken hostage by Red, injected with tranquillizers, and tied up in an underground tunnel with many other girls. Only then does she realize the genuinely desperate predicament that she is in.

"Traffik" qualifies as hokum from fade-in to fade out. The criminals believe so much in their invincibility that they make too many fatal mistakes. Brea gets extremely lucky when John and she initially eludes the bikers. As it turns out, the traffickers enjoy an edge over them that you should see coming if you are alert. "Traffik" suffers from a gridlock of clichés.

This film highlight the scary truth of trafficking of young girls and women. This is based on true events and should not be taken lightly of how deep the rabbit hole actually goes. Paula Palton's acting needs a bit of a boost, at the beginning she is a little annoying but as the films moves on her acting improves. All other actors were on the mark.

I would recommend this film. So many things we take for granted in life. Be vigilant people Trafficking is a Billion pound industry and our leaders are involved in this.