Traffic

PLEASE!!! Is it not possible to make a show anymore that does NOT have the "amateur" camera movement. In my heart, I KNOW the anti-jiggle technology built into cameras now would enable a 5 year old to shoot steady shots.

They probably offer "Jiggly Camera 101" in film school now.

And why, please why, do we need 7-10 different camera shots of someone's face in rapid succession for a scene in which 1 or 2 would do nicely? Editor/splicers need the work, I guess.

I did not care for the movie, so I expected just about what I got from the mini series. Very little.

Glad they are repeating Dennis Miller's new show, which is running against this. Wifey wanted Traffic. She pays the bill, so guess what we watched.

"Traffic" is a 4 hour TV miniseries which begins as an exposé of international narcotrafficking with stories developed on both the supply side (Afghanistan) and the demand side (Seattle). As the film spins its web of intrigues which include a DEA agent on a smuggling mission in Afghanistan, human trafficking, and even a possible terrorist attack on the US it develops side plots involving the DEA agent's family, the Seattle DEA office ops, an immigrant in search of family, corrupt traffickers at both ends of the smuggling corridor, and more. The result is a convoluted drama which continually cycles through it's many stories providing convenient mini flashbacks as audience reminders as it pulls it's separate parts together to show their interconnectedness and provide a sort of global overview of the problem of contraband smuggling and its effects on people. Overall the miniseries is well directed with good performances by a nominal cast, good production value, and a post 9/11 story with a terrorism angle. However, it is somewhat scattered, lacking cogency, fraught with loose ends and plot holes, and occasionally tests believability. Realists interested in narcotrafficking should check out "Traffik (1998)" first. (B)

Traffic looks at the issue of smuggling in drugs, people and of course weapons of mass destruction. It ties the issues in distant lands, the war terrorism to things such as your children and your home.

Unfortunately it does it with that sort of 1980s cop show drama feel, though taking itself far more seriously. What is more, the simplistic anti-drug and anti-terrorism messages are not that interesting.

All in all, it is an OK series, it is well made. The plot may be cheap, but the plot twists are enough to keep it going.

What is more, the acting is superb and the realism of characters lifts this out of morass.

I did enjoy most of the mini-series, though the overseas "DEA Cowboy" seQuences were just the usual Hollywood schlock, bearing no resemblance to overseas drug or other covert ops. I expect a bit of hokiness, but this was definitely in extremis and could have benefited from at least come consultant who had been there. At least then these characters could tell the difference between heroin and raw opium: the product they keep calling "heroin" in Afghanistan is obviously opium, which is indeed grown there but NEVER processed into heroin there.

I'd probably have given this flick a good solid 8 as a pure action-adventure flick if it weren't for the abominable hack job obviously done to fit it into some magical six-hour block. Story arcs flew, and ended, at random, leaving bizarre loose ends all over the place. Obviously the junkie and the Tongs have some tie-in (as leverage for the DEA guy) that disappears entirely. And what really happens to "Ronnie?" Balthazar Getty obviously doesn't know, yet the Chechen basically kidnaps him, which will get him zilch, and then .....?? Ambiguity in endings is often fine, and this could have stood some, but this move just suddenly ended for no apparent reason. Obviously this was not for some artistic reason, it was just hacked to death by some idiot in one Hell of a hurry to make things fit. I think it's the most incompetent job of cutting I've ever seen anywhere, and it truly p***ed me off. This could have been a very good series if they'd given it the extra half hour it needed to sort out the subplots.

I own and have watched the Euro (not the HBO) mini-series numerous times. I originally saw Traffic (the Movie) at the theater when it was released. I own that video as well and have also watched it numerous times. I would give the mini-series a 7.5/10. Even for the time, some of the dialog is cheesy and some of the characters actions are less then believable. Both films require serious suspension of disbelief to swallow the ignorance of the main drug trafficker's (German/La Jolla) wife. Anybody with that kind of dough would have set up legitimate, working businesses to launder money and to create layers of cover. What bother me most is that somebody can come along and give the film a 1 star rating because it didn't have a "message". That puts this film in the category of the worst pix of all time and draws down user rating unfairly. That is a pet peeve of mine and made me register here just to defend this film. Maybe IMDb adjusts for this in there stats. I don't know. But I judge a movie based on how it holds up after repeated viewings. And, even knowing the story through and through, I get drawn in by the first scene and Del Toro's on-screen presence. From the on it's like sliding into an easy chair... If you haven't seen either version then I envy you. Don't pass up this or the original mini-series. They are both worth your time.