Trafico Humano

When I realized a movie had come out in 2015 which counted as members of its cast- Rourke, Roberts & Hannah, I decided to go for it. I took a chance on a movie I had never heard of. This movie is about as different from "The Pope of Greenwich Village," as any film could be. The star of this movie is an actor I was not familiar with who plays the role of a hit man - so deluded that he believes his mission has been to do "good" in the world - at least until he began asking hard questions. You should take the title, "Skin Traffik," to mean exactly what you think it means. The main characters differ in how they relate to said, "traffik," and the varying degrees of moral relativism each of them possesses. A missed opportunity with this cast.

Skin Traffik excels, unapologetically, at what it seeks to be: a fun, violent action romp, built upon a amazing cast and plenty of action where Bradley (Gary Daniels) kills mobsters, assassins and all the middlemen in between. As for the actual narrative: it's blessedly simplistic and unsophisticated, with no illusions of grandeur: Bradley's hit goes sideways with Vogal (Mickey Rourke) and his old employer (Eric Roberts) wants him dead. He drops out the game and is hiding out in London where he comes across a hooker (Dominique Swain) who needs help. He makes a promise to help her find her little sister and from that point everyone who gets in Bradley's (Gary Daniels) way as he makes his journey of vengeance ends up in a body bag. Simple. The invincible tough-guy archetype and action mixed with the amazing cast of EVERYONE!!!!! which include MICKEY ROURKE, ERIC ROBERTS, DARYL HANNAH, MICHAEL MADSEN, JEFF FAHEY, DOMINIQUE SWAIN, ALAN FORD ! This is an independent film written, produced, directed, filmed, edited, action, fight choreography and co-starring all by one man ARA PAIAYA. The action and cast are the most enjoyable aspects of the film. Paiaya creates both the visual and physical dimensions of the film it's no surprise that the director is able to put together some of the slickest action sequences seen in an independent film with such a high profile cast being a martial arts expert according to IMDb Trivia and looks to have starred in a bunch of low budget DTV chop socky flicks. Certainly a step up from the usual Hollywood shaky cam action fare. The action is very well executed, slick and polished in design. When the violence and action isn't taking place, some good production and set design plus some nice cinematography help keep the eye reasonably satisfied whenever things slow down. It's action, it's British and it has an all star cast not the greatest story in the world but it's a little action gem.

Unthinkable and disgraceful exercise in action movie-making by computer. The CGI graphics are as bad as the score, and the incredible cast must have been paid a lot of money to participate in something this bad. It's hard to pin-point just where things aren't wretched throughout the movie, as it comes so fast, supported by the vocabulary of modern B movie camoflauge--like, ooooh, drone shots. A truly magnificent botch. You would think any writer or director would compensate such a solid cast with decent characters and some surprises. But it's not the case here. The action cliche's and sloppy fight scenes don't play out in 3,000 cuts a minute, but the realism and effects re: bruise and injury makeup are as absent as in the most B-movie efforts of the 1950s. Might as well not have people clutch their CGI wounds like victims did their absent ones in old films, as this movie is so transparent it almost seems like the sets and locations themselves aren't real.

Here's another of this grind house sort flicks, British style and pretty bad at that. Another indie sort, that does have it's share of action, it's lead, a likable bad arse. Daniels plays a hit-man, who makes a fatal error, ending the life of an innocent party, the daughter of his objective, a swelled, puffed up libosuctioned faced Rourke, in a why bother film. Daniel's who gone off the radar of his agency, is implored by a young Russian prostitute (an annoying overacted Dominique Swain who needs a good whack in the head) to find her younger sister, caught up in the rackets (stereotypical sexy scenes of young groomed girls, in sexy lingerie, going off reluctantly with older clientele) Daniels visits an illegitimate model agency, run by that memorable cockney guy from Snatch, and finally ends up seeing a guy (Jeff Fahey) who's mistaken for the infamous executive, who has the missing girl. High kicks and fistfights go hand and hand in some great choreographed sequences, but is just bottom b grade. It's frightening to see good actors wasted in crap like this, where more here, it's crap with a trashy b grade style of it's own. Again likable bad arse Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah, who looks terrible here libosuctioned lips share screen time as hit man accomplices, Madsen, providing one shocking amusing moment. The head of the agency, Daniels works for, is played with slimy sleek professionalism by Eric Roberts, (him and Fahey, the best actors in the movie). Daniel's does make a great action hero, but take Skin Traffik for what it is, trashy entertaining CRAP, nothing more.

Most definitely a guy's movie. It has a very nice retro feel to it. Like a throw back to the 80's. Classic cast of Hollywood veterans seen for the first time all together. Blood, guts and a lot of action from the start to the end. The best part is Gary Daniels he has never looked better and finally the fight scenes are done right with a Hong Kong flavor and in a Hollywood movie. He gives the proper intensity and he's back to his best performance ever!. Damn he looks good for 50 years + old! Essentially it's an all star cast movie about a hit man who kills hundreds of bad men to avenge a dead hooker and save her little sister from human trafficking. Prepare to watch the hero engage in hand-to-hand combat, then shoot, one person after another, non-stop, for the entire 97 minute run time of this movie. Every scene has a famous face in it and it's one for the action movie collection especially for fans of all these Hollywood legends.