Skin Trade

"There is no such thing as a bad Tony Jaa movie." Well this could be the exception.

On paper this was a "dream team" movie and I was anxious to see it.

Lundgrin both produced and wrote. That sounded very promising.

Not only is Tony Jaa in the film but he speaks English and his character is named "Tony." Also very promising.

Also starring Michael Jai White. In my review of Falcon Rising I called him "the most under-used action hero" in the business. Very very promising.

But here the total is less than the sum of its parts:

1. Lundgren wrote himself into a part meant for a 40 year old and he himself is pushing 60. Not cool.

2. Jai White is completely wasted (again!) and wears a suit all the time...?

3. The script is weak and the direction is terrible. Even the action scenes seem "off" by a few seconds here and a few seconds there.

Could have been so much more. The opening is the best part and is downhill from there. Perlman is great. but he never gives less than a great performance anyway.

What's extra entertaining about SKIN TRADE is knowing that 57-year old Dolph Lundgren gets to fight Hellboy a.k.a actor Ron Perlman and Spawn a.k.a actor Michael Jai White, and that Ong Bak dude, Tony Jaa, in this one movie. All joking aside, with all of the superpowered superhero movies out there that keep bombarding our theaters every weekend, it's a nice change for us action fans to receive something like SKIN TRADE, a throwback to those 80s R-rated brutal B action flicks that you and I grew up watching.

In this Ekachai Uekrongtham-directed film, co-scripted and co-produced by Lundgren, a tough NY Cop named Nick (Lundgren) is on a task to hunt down Russian mob and human trafficking kingpin Viktor (Ron Perlman) but in the process, Nick kills Viktor's son and of course, that comes with a retaliation, such that forces Nick to go all the way to Bangkok, the hub of Viktor's activities. Meanwhile, a Thai detective (Tony Jaa) is made to believe that Nick is the bad guy until he learns otherwise. Then they team up to terminate Viktor's human trafficking business OK, I admit, the plot is very thin and if you've seen Liam Neeson's "Taken" a thousand times (the first movie, not the sequels that blew) then the concept of SKIN TRADE is nothing new, in both cases you have this very hard pressing and present modern slavery problem as the background, but most of the time, the action takes a front seat. It's a treat to see Lundgren duke it out with Tony because they have different styles, and the fight choreography itself is more intense than Lundgren Vs. Jet Li in "The Expendables" movie. I think the way the production utilizes the streets of Bangkok is very intricate. The sequences are fast-paced and brutal. You can't help but be impressed at the fact that after all these years, even when his better days and better movies are way, way behind him, Dolph Lundgren managed to get something like SKIN TRADE made just to satisfy us old school action fans Read more at Ramascreen.Com

'SKIN TRADE': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Dolph Lundgren co-wrote and co-stars in this martial arts action flick, alongside Thai superstar Tony Jaa; in his American film debut (in a lead role). Lundgren and Jaa play NYC and Thai detectives, taking on human traffickers in S.E. Asia. The movie was directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham and written by Lundgren, Gabriel Dowrick, Steven Elder and John Hyams (doing uncredited rewrites). It costars Michael Jai White, Ron Perlman, Peter Weller and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. For a low budget B action flick it's pretty well-made; but how can you go wrong with this cast (it's an action movie lover's dream)!

When NYC cop Nick Cassidy (Lundgren) kills the son of a Serbian gangster, Viktor Dragovic (Perlman), his wife and daughter are killed, out of revenge, and Nick ends up in the hospital. When he gets out, he goes rogue and tracks Dragovic to S.E. Asia; the mobster runs a human trafficking ring there. Nick is then pursued by a corrupt F.B.I. agent, named Reed (Jai White), and a Thai Detective, named Tony Vitayakul (Jaa); Tony thinks that Cassidy killed his partner. Nick will stop at nothing to avenge his family and put a stop to the human trafficking network.

The movie reminds me, a lot, of old 80s and 90s buddy B action films; most notably 'SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO' (starring Lundgren and Brandon Lee). It's better made though. With a budget of $9 million, the film has decent enough production values and Uekrongtham's directing is more than adequate. Lundgren did a good enough job writing the script and he's not bad as the action lead either (even at 57-years-old). It's great to see Jaa breaking into American action films as well (between this and 'FURIOUS SEVEN'); hopefully it leads to bigger things. With the additions of Jai White, Weller, Perlman and Tagawa, what more can you really ask for?! It's not a great action film, but it is fun.

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Obviously just going through the list of names should and will get people excited (who are into the action genre that is and know their favorites). Having Dolph "team up" with Tony Jaa is a great move. Though it doesn't really matter which side of the law people are, based on the decisions they make during the course of the movie. Which also means, there is quite a bit of fighting ahead of you.

Ron Pearlman does a good job with his accent (playing a Serbian) and there is one particular fight scene (about 20 minutes before the movie ends) that is really good. But there are also cuts in the movie that seem to take note on the "jump cut" book, but don't really work. The overall story is easy to tell, the core of it is something that unfortunately is happening all over the world.

Also Tony Jaas English performance was captured a lot better in Fast 7, there are some weird lines he has to deliver here (not convincingly then). Decently made then, but could've been better

Great casting, cinematography and choreography, but the directing and/or editing wasn't that great, and the screenplay certainly needed some fine-tuning. The score was annoying and too evident. The runtime and pacing were decent. Nevertheless, it was actually better than I expected.