Traded

This movie starts of very slow but eventually it has some action. It was also a bit predictable. I totally saw the end coming.

It's so sad when people write in saying that this is the best western they have seen or even the best movie ever. Since the start of the twentieth century many thousands of westerns have been made with hundreds considered classics and works of art. Will Traded still be watched in fifty or sixty years time? No, probably not even next month. It's great to be loyal if you're a friend or relation of someone in the cast or crew, but don't send movie goers off thinking they'll be seeing a Peckenpah, Ford, Stevens or Eastwood. There is nothing better than a good western, but nothing worse than a bad one and this is bad on so many levels. The direction, (if I slow it right down it will appear more arty) script, (must hold the world record for how many times the phrase 'son of a bitch' is used. Acting often very amateurish (apart from the actress playing Girl), and costumes and props straight from the hire shop. So many shiny new guns. Will the director be kind enough not to make any more. For me and countless others, westerns a too important and you're giving them a bad name.

It would appear that often people are motivated to write their first review here out of admiration for the way a film moved them, or shock at how badly it was made. Unfortunately I'm here because of the latter.

Just to preface, I'm not a critic, I have no agenda other than someone that just likes to enjoy the escapism that is provided by a movie. I love to be entertained, and I admire a wide variety of genres, so I'm certainly no film-snob.

This film doesn't deserve the rating it currently has on IMDb. Overall it's pretty bad. Whilst the plot isn't terrible, and it all starts off quite nicely for about 20 minutes or so, it all goes downhill into quite a mess. The supporting actors are terrible, and the dialog makes you want to cringe. Overall it's not the most horrible experience in my life, but I do wish I had just mopped the floors or something else instead of watching it.

RELEASED IN 2016 and directed by Timothy Woodward Jr., "Traded" stars Michael Paré as a father ruthlessly pursuing his runaway daughter (Brittany Elizabeth Williams) who has fallen prey to slavers in the prostitution trade. Trace Adkins plays an intimidating saloon owner while Kris Kristofferson is on hand as a bartender seeking redemption from the filth he's forced to live amidst. Tom Sizemore plays a nasty buyer in the slave-whore business.

This is a low-budget Western that has some technical weaknesses, like dubious continuity/editing, but a compelling story, gritty tone, brutal violence and fine locations, costuming & score. If you don't appreciate dark, violent modern Grade B Westerns like "Hickok" (2017) and "6 Guns" (2010) don't bother. The plot is obviously a melding of "Hardcore" (1979) and "Taken" (2008) in the Old West, but without the blockbuster resources. There are a lot of UN-pleasant elements as we see what those saloon babes REALLY had to go through in the Old West.

There are some unexpected highlights, like Marie Oldenbourg as "Girl" in a meaty subplot, but the way it concludes (the subplot) is a missed opportunity. As dark and brutal as the movie is, there are thankfully brief rays of light, hope, reverence and (hopefully) happiness.

THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 38 minutes and was shot at Paramount Ranch, Agoura, California and areas nearby. WRITER: Mark Esslinger.

GRADE: B-

Can't go wrong with Kris Kristofferson in your western, too.

In the same premise as the movie Taken, a man, who just lost his son to a snake bite, loses his daughter to white slavery and has to use a particular set of skills he retired 15 or so years before to bring her back.

The movie gives this speech at the beginning of the film that talks about how slavery has just ended but white slavery still existed. It put me in the mood to see a whole movie about white slavery, but the movie was made very personal as we just followed this cowboy on his journey to finding his daughter.

Although Tom Sizemore is in the movie as a pimp trying to create the best whore house on this side of the Mississippi(his words) which made for a more insightful look at prostitution in the wild west.

Michael Paré does a great job as a lead actor playing a cowboy. silent but deadly and a real talk is cheap type of person. He's traveling all over the west looking for his daughter who was sold and traded into being a whore.

The concept of the movie is really dark, especially when the fact that through the movie you never know exactly what's going on with the daughter as the movie is all from the lead actor's point of view.

Although I must admit, the film itself is not as dark as the concept. I feel like I should have been more on the edge of my seat concern about the whereabouts of this child, rather than how bad ass the cowboy is.

Well overall, I wish this was the Taken for the prequel with Liam Neeson