Bullet Points: Skin Traffik
You often hear the term “passion project” thrown around when talking about movies but I doubt that anyone involved has ever shown the amount of passion that director Ara Paiaya puts forth in Skin Traffik. Not only does he direct the film but he also acts as producer, writer (story), fight choreographer, director of photography, editor, music supervisor, and performs as a top-tier henchman for Eric Roberts. It wouldn’t surprise me if he also delivered the Subway sandwiches to the crew during filming.
Seeing this kind of involvement from one man isn’t something that you would gather from just sitting on your couch and watching the film but it’s definitely something that adds to its enjoyment, once known. The fact that Skin Traffik doesn’t quite need you to find obscure reasons to watch it is a feather it’s cap. It’s nice to have a director that was pumped up about his movie but it’s also nice to have exploding car, men on fire, broken bottle bar fights, and exploding heads. As I said, if you can’t find reasons to enjoy Skin Traffik then you just aren’t looking.
Synopsis: When a jaded former hitman encounters a savage pimp and a desperate woman under his control, he embarks on a quest to save a young girl from the clutches of the brutal gangsters who trade human beings as currency.
- Powerhouse Cast: There are so many big-time names in Skin Traffik that they can’t even fit them all on the poster. Normally it’s a bad sign when all these actors appear in one scene, collect their check, and then leave the heavy lifting for the less talented actors to carry the film. But Skin Traffik does it a little differently. The big name actors are spread out enough that nearly every scene has someone like Michael Madsen pop up to lend credibility to the character without taking lots of time to develop. It works several times throughout the movie and it gives plenty of time for Gary Daniels to really bring out the best in his character.
- For the first time in forever: I’m not normally one to give praise to Gary Daniels. Despite my near-superhuman levels of knowledge on the action genre, I still haven’t seen that one Gary Daniels movie that made me a fan. Maybe Skin Traffik is that one! It is possible that I have yet to watch some of his early work where he really kicks ass but I’m thinking he’s aged more like a fine wine. He’s always had the fighting abilities to deliver when it came to the action but I believe his acting chops have finally caught up and it lends more power to his performances as a leading man.
- “Some people, they just need killing”: It’s the tagline for the movie (one that I really love) and also a line uttered by Bradley (Gary Daniels) during his opening narration, but it also describes the motivation of Daniels’ character pretty well. Bradley is an assassin working for a mysterious dude called “The Executive” (Eric Roberts) who goes into hiding after somewhat of a botched assassination job. He witnesses some low-level pimps doing their worst to some of the girls and finds himself, almost reflexively reacting to save the girls. It leads him down a rabbit hole of bad guy killing and he delivers some superior ass kicking to a group of guys that deservedly get no pity.
- The Pace: The movie runs at a break-neck pace. Each scene delivers something important to the overall plot and Bradley will most likely look back at his past few days after this movie and think, “Damn, I need a nap!” It’s important for a movie like this to grab the attention of the viewer early and Skin Traffik does that by slapping Mickey Rourke’s battered face on screen and then minutes later giving Gary Daniels several men to beat the hell out of. It’s a recipe for success as we get numerous introductions of characters played by actors Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Alan Ford, Jeff Fahey, and Dominique Swain; most of them don’t need 5 pages of dialogue to get over that they’re a bad guy so it works to perfection that you have Michael Madsen appear and then seconds later we understand that he’s not a good man.
- The Ass-Whoopings: Bradley hands them out throughout the movie like he’s a third act Ebenezer Scrooge. The good thing about fighting skin traffickers is that you don’t need to waste much time considering whether or not they deserve it. Daniels gets plenty of opportunities to show off his fighting skills. He even gets to beat up the director! The hand to hand stuff is done really well and Daniels even takes a fair amount of beatings from no-named, mask-wearing guys. In the end, though, Gary hands out beatings to 90% of the cast and we finally get our payoff on the Eric Roberts conspiracy.
Some movies, they just need more Bullet Points:
- Gary gets his chance to show his killing skills when he goes against what I’ll call the “parade of losers”. You know when the bad guys keep sending in these “special forces types” who die just as easily as the common bad guy. Daniels almost enjoys killing these dudes.
- No one curses like Alan Ford.
- When you need to kill people in various places on the map, it’s good to have friends in low places to provide you with weaponry. In America, he could just go to Wal-Mart.
The Verdict: Fans of action movies, fans of Gary Daniels, fans of killing perverts and pedophiles, people who think that Daryl Hannah and Michael Madsen need more scenes together; those are just some of the groups that Skin Traffik covers. This is easily my favorite Gary Daniels movie and a really good second entry into my “movies I’ve seen by Ara Paiaya” list. If you’re looking for a high speed, low drag actioner with plenty of recognizable actors and vey little wasted time then Skin Traffik is the movie for you.
