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Traffic Reviews

It is a legitimately epic film. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Sep 8, 2023

Soderbergh's film uses a level-headed approach. It watches, it observes, it does not do much editorializing. The hopelessness of anti-drug measures is brought home through practical scenarios, not speeches and messages -- except for a few.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 8, 2023

Steven Soderbergh's great, despairing squall of a film, Traffic, may be the first Hollywood movie since Robert Altman's Nashville to infuse epic cinematic form with jittery new rhythms and a fresh, acid-washed palette.

Benicio Del Toro... has the film actor's state of grace: he charms while he acts, not by trying to charm.

Soderbergh's movie is so full of action and event, it's not easy to signal out the most brilliant moments.

[It's] a complex, compelling ensemble drama about the morass that is the drug problem in this country today. Working at the top of his game and with a superior cast, director Steven Soderbergh vividly presents several distinct but interconnected stories.

In an ensemble of more than a dozen major roles and a hundred speaking roles, not a single performance misfires. [A stand-out is] Del Toro, whose quiet, intent, soulful performance should at last make him a star (if there is justice in this world).

Enormously ambitious and masterfully made, Traffic represents docudrama-style storytelling at a very high level.

Yet another indication of how accomplished a filmmaker Steven Soderbergh has become.

Director Steven Soderbergh never lectures his audience; instead, he shows viewers the complexities and pensiveness of the illegal drug trade.

Full Review | Sep 7, 2023

Traffic's engines are already revved when it starts, with a drug bust in the Mexican desert, and it careers through its multiple stories with a documentary-style urgency that never lets up.

The pulsing heart of Traffic lies in the predicament of Del Toro’s Javier Rodriguez, an honest cop in a tangled web of graft.

Traffic, with its carefully modulated stories and experimentation with various stocks and filters, mixes a Hollywood sense of scale with indie grit.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 7, 2023

The director [Soderbergh] methodically builds each story to a satisfactory conclusion. It's vibrant storytelling from a filmmaker on a roll.

Even as it ably dramatizes the pervasiveness of drugs in modern America... it puts the epochal social problem in a bright, shinning light for us to see it in a clear-eyed, bracing and sobering new way.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 7, 2023

What Soderbergh has done is texturize flat surfaces, creating a rather convincing illusion of something profound.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 7, 2023

Traffic is thrillingly alive. From the first frame to the last, the director would rather engage you, startle you with the vastness of his canvas, and offer his extraordinary movie as an antidote to gutless filmmaking.

On almost every level, Traffic is a rich and provocative movie.

Traffic is exemplary Hollywood social realism.

Traffic is fearless and uncompromising in its power and simplicity.

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Michael Douglas (Robert Wakefield) Benicio Del Toro (Javier Rodríguez) Catherine Zeta-Jones (Helena Ayala) Jacob Vargas (Manolo Sanchez) Andrew Chavez (Desert Truck Driver) Michael Saucedo (Desert Truck Driver) Tomas Milian (General Arturo Salazar) J.R. Yenque (Salazar Soldier) Emilio Rivera (Salazar Soldier #2) Michael O'Neill (Lawyer Rodman)

Steven Soderbergh

A conservative judge is appointed by the President to spearhead America's escalating war against drugs, only to discover that his teenage daughter is a crack addict. Two DEA agents protect an informant. A jailed drug baron's wife attempts to carry on the family business.

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From suppliers to dealers to users, from government agencies to federal and local law enforcement, the War On Drugs …

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FILM REVIEW

FILM REVIEW; Teeming Mural of a War Fought and Lost

By Stephen Holden

• Dec. 27, 2000

Steven Soderbergh's great, despairing squall of a film, ''Traffic,'' may be the first Hollywood movie since Robert Altman's ''Nashville'' to infuse epic cinematic form with jittery new rhythms and a fresh, acid-washed palette.

The agitated pulse of the hand-held camerawork (by the director working under a pseudonym) that roughly elbows its way into the center of the action is perfectly suited to the film's hard-boiled subject, America's losing war on drugs. The color scheme sandwiches a few lush patches between sequences filmed in two hues -- an icy blue and a sun-baked yellow-orange -- that are as visually discordant as the forces doing battle.

Where Mr. Altman's masterpiece portrayed American culture as a jostling, twangy carnival of honky-tonk dreams, ''Traffic'' is a sprawling multicultural jazz symphony of clashing voices sounding variations of the same nagging discontent. The performances (in English and Spanish), by an ensemble from which not a false note issues, have the clarity and force of pithy instrumental solos insistently piercing through a dense cacophony.

The characters run the social gamut, from affluent United States government officials and wealthy drug lords on both sides of the United States border with Mexico and their fat-cat lawyers, to the foot soldiers doggedly toiling in a never-ending drug war.

The most indelible performances belong to Benicio Del Toro as a burly, eagle-eyed Mexican state policeman of pluck and resourcefulness who has the street smarts to wriggle out of almost any squeeze; Michael Douglas, as a conservative Ohio Supreme Court Justice who is appointed the country's new drug czar, and Erika Christensen, as his sullen drug-addicted teenage daughter. Catherine Zeta-Jones is also riveting as a wealthy, ruthless, Southern California matron who is unaware that her husband is a high-level drug smuggler until he is dragged out of their house by federal agents.

The movie, which jumps around from Tijuana to Cincinnati to Washington to San Diego, from a posh Ohio suburb to the inner city to the Mexican desert to the White House itself, offers a coolly scathing overview of the multibillion-dollar drug trade and the largely futile war being waged against it.

But as despairing as it is, ''Traffic'' is not cynical. It gives its isolated heroes in the trenches their due. One of these is Javier Rodriguez (Mr. Del Toro), a wily, good-hearted Mexican policeman who conspires with the Drug Enforcement Administration to bring down his own boss (Tomas Milian), a corrupt Mexican general who uses torture to get his way. Other heroes include a pair of D.E.A. undercover agents, Montel Gordon (Don Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Luis Guzman), who spend half their lives in cramped vans engaged in surveillance.

''Traffic'' is an updated, Americanized version of a 1989 British television mini-series, ''Traffik,'' that followed the drug trade from Pakistan to Britain. From an ambiguous, paranoically-charged opening desert sequence (reminiscent of the crop-dusting scene in ''North by Northwest''), in which Javier and his partner, Manolo (Jacob Vargas), surrender a newly captured truckload of cocaine to the corrupt general, to a late scene in which an American agent risks his life to plant a bug in a dealer's mansion, ''Traffic'' is an utterly gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller. Or rather it is several interwoven thrillers, each with its own tense rhythm and explosive payoff.

What these stories add up to is something grander and deeper than a virtuosic adventure film.

''Traffic'' is a tragic cinematic mural of a war being fought and lost. That failure, the movie suggests, has a lot to do with greed and economic inequity (third world drug cartels have endless financial resources to fight back). But the ultimate culprit, the movie implies, is human nature. Waging a war against drugs isn't just a matter of combating corruption but of eradicating the basic human desire to ''take the edge off,'' as Mr. Douglas's character, Robert Wakefield, says in defense of his nightly drink of Scotch. ''Otherwise, I'd be dying of boredom,'' he adds.

''Traffic'' is no friend of the government. When Wakefield returns from Washington, where he has been briefed by the president's chief of staff (Albert Finney) and other major Beltway players in the war, he describes the experience to his wife, Barbara (Amy Irving), and daughter, Caroline (Ms. Christensen), as like being ''in Calcutta, surrounded by beggars wearing $1,500 suits who don't say 'please' and 'thank you.' ''

While Wakefield is exploring this new turf, Caroline is rapidly succumbing to crack addiction under the tutelage of her cynical boyfriend, Seth (Topher Grace), her classmate at the exclusive Cincinnati Country Day School and as a scary a contemporary teenager as you're likely find in a recent movie. A high achiever who is sullen and angry beneath her preppy glass, Caroline quickly plummets to the bottom. Early scenes of her stoned friends sprawled around a fancy living room, drinking, sniffing cocaine and mumbling fuzzily about their discontents offer a devastating vision of youthful suburban ennui.

The movie does not shy away from portraying the pleasure of drugs, and Caroline's initiation into free-base cocaine by Seth is a voluptuous rush. Her head rolls back, and tears of joy trickle from her eyes as Seth repeats in a soothing voice, ''You see? You see?'' before making love to her. From that moment, Caroline is hooked, and she becomes a glazed-eyed baby-faced demon whose precipitous fall lands her in a seedy hotel under the thumb of the drug-dealing pimp who introduced her to heroin. As Wakefield tries desperately to wrest her from the gutter, this strand of the movie threatens to turn into a Charles Bronson-like vigilante drama. But the acting is so powerful that the scenes have documentary crediblity.

A parallel strain of the demonic runs through the story of Helena Ayala (Ms. Zeta-Jones), whose comfortable world begins falling apart the moment her drug-dealing husband, Carlos (Steven Bauer), is arrested. Six months pregnant and the mother of a young son, she finds herself a social outcast, her finances frozen, her son's life threatened by Carlos's creditors. ''I want my old life back,'' she declares furiously to her husband over a prison telephone. Then, with coldblooded determination, she sets about getting it back by any means necessary.

Her key to getting it back lies in forestalling the testimony of Eduardo Ruiz (Miguel Ferrer), a midlevel drug dealer busted by Montel and Ray who is being held in protective custody as the key witness in Carlos's trial. A harsh realist who knows his chances of survival aren't great, Eduardo bitterly scoffs at his captors for ''knowing the futility of what you're doing and doing it anyway,'' and his words resound through the movie. The film's most exciting scenes demonstrate the efficiency of the drug cartels at penetrating the most heavily guarded inner sanctum.

If ''Traffic'' illustrates how the underfunded, red-tape-bound good guys are no match against the enemy's superior resources, what makes the film more than a powerful thriller is its unflinching contemplation of human frailty. From Helena's take-no-prisoners schemes to stay rich, to a hired assassin tracked down in a gay bar and seduced into a trap, to Carlos's two-faced lawyer (Dennis Quaid), who is tempted to steal from his boss while he is behind bars, the film understands the sheer, brutal force of human desire.

A theme that percolates throughout Stephen Gaghan's screenplay is a reflection on addiction and dependence. From Wakefield's nightly Scotch, to the two glasses of red wine Helena recommends to her friends over lunch at a fancy La Jolla restaurant, to Ray's chain smoking, to the druggy past of Wakefield's wife (was it experimentation or something more?), ''Traffic'' poses unanswerable questions about selfmedication, pleasure, dependency and addiction. One character, who early in the movie invokes the slogan ''In vino veritas'' while plying a paid assassin with red wine to coax information out of him, later commits suicide by injecting heroin.

In the end, Wakefield, exhausted and demoralized after all he has been through, delivers the White House address he's been instructed to prepare in a weary, halfhearted voice, mumbling words like ''courage,'' ''perseverance'' and ''new ideas'' before announcing a new ''10-point plan.'' But as we've been shown, there are no new ideas. Wakefield's speech ring hollow until the moment he pauses and wonders out loud, How can you wage a war against your own family?

That family, ''Traffic'' implies, is not just his own drug-addicted daughter but also a culture devoted to instant gratification and quick-fix pain relief. The drugs, after all, don't flow out from the United States into the third world, they flow in. For this is a culture in which, at the end of the day, millions of people, just like Wakefield, find themselves ''dying of boredom.''

''Traffic'' is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has scenes of violence (including torture), sexual situations and the preparation of free-base cocaine and drug injection.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh; written by Stephen Gaghan, based on ''Traffik'' created by Simon Moore, originally produced by Carnival Films for Channel 4 Television (Britain); director of photography, Peter Andrews; edited by Stephen Mirrione; music by Cliff Martinez; production designer, Philip Messina; produced by Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz and Laura Bickford; released by USA Films. Running time: 147 minutes. This film is rated R.

WITH: Michael Douglas (Robert Wakefield), Don Cheadle (Montel Gordon), Benicio Del Toro (Javier Rodriguez), Luis Guzman (Ray Castro), Dennis Quaid (Arnie Metzger), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Helena Ayala), Steven Bauer (Carlos Ayala), Erika Christensen (Caroline Wakefield), Clifton Collins Jr. (Francisco Flores), Miguel Ferrer (Eduardo Ruiz), Topher Grace (Seth Abrahms), Amy Irving (Barbara Wakefield), Tomas Milian (General Arturo Salazar), Marisol Padilla Sanchez (Ana Sanchez), Jacob Vargas (Manolo Sanchez) and Albert Finney (Chief of Staff).

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• DVD & Streaming

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In Theaters

• Michael Douglas as Robert Wakefield; Erika Christensen as Caroline Wakefield; Amy Irving as Barbara Wakefield; Benicio Del Toro as Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez; Jacob Vargas as Manolo Sanchez; Catherine Zeta-Jones as Helena Ayala; Steven Bauer as Carlos Ayala; Don Cheadle as Montel Gordon; Luis Guzmán as Ray Castro; Dennis Quaid as Arnie Metzger; Clifton Collins Jr. as Francisco Flores; Miguel Ferrer as Eduardo Ruiz; Topher Grace as Seth Abrahams. Also featuring Governor Bill Weld, Sen. Don Nickles, Sen. Harry Reed, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch and Sen. Charles Grassley as themselves

Home Release Date

• Steven Soderbergh

Distributor

Movie review.

Traffic is an exposé on hard-core drug trafficking. That fact alone will rule it out as pleasant family viewing. It does not, however, glorify drug use. And that is a huge distinction in a movie-saturated culture that embraces such rabidly drug-friendly films as Next Friday , Half-Baked and Dude, Where’s My Car? Setting aside his longstanding aversion to Hollywood sleaze, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch decided to make a cameo appearance in Traffic . Defending his decision, Hatch said, “I don’t see how they could have made it without violence and still accurately portray the drug culture—and how degrading it is. … They told my staff the movie would be about how drugs destroy families, and I thought that would be worthwhile.”So does the good Senator have a point? Yes. Traffic will positively impact millions of moviegoers who are already so familiar with vulgar and violent scenes that they’ll scarcely notice the film’s caveats. Desensitization aside, however, Traffic should be viewed as the equivalent of a moral flogging, not entertainment. The story is engaging. The acting impeccable. But there’s nothing “entertaining” about brutal violence, teenage prostitution and gritty depictions of drug abuse. After seeing the finished product, even Hatch was daunted by the lengths to which the filmmakers went to be “real.” “I was shocked and dismayed at the gratuitous amount of violence and profanity,” he said. “It was more than was necessary to reveal the devastation caused by drugs. I do not condone it. It detracts from its anti-drug message.”

In Traffic , Judge Robert Wakefield has just been appointed to America’s highest position in its war on drugs. He’s the new drug czar in the White House’s National Drug Control Policy Office. He’s bursting with great ideas. He’s brimming with grand plans. Then he discovers that his own daughter—16-year-old Caroline—is a junkie. Meanwhile, south of the border, Mexican State police officer Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez and his partner Manolo find themselves dragged into a fierce drug trafficking war in Tijuana. In San Diego, DEA officers fight their own battle (physical and legal) against a distribution kingpin. These stories never really merge, but they are tied together by an ugly network of illicit drugs.

positive elements: Director Steven Soderbergh has created a veritable anti-drug treatise. One can’t leave the theater with anything but a heavy heart, lamenting the destruction illegal drug use wreaks upon America, especially its children. Judge Wakefield stages a governmental, then a personal assault on drugs with the most honorable of intentions. Even better, he’s ultimately willing to put his daughter’s interests first, placing his status and position a distant second. After he and his wife have a fierce argument, he apologizes to her, and the two struggle together to rescue and support Caroline. Drug treatment centers are positively portrayed. Governmental corruption is never excused or praised.

nudity and sexual content: With drugs comes sex. Caroline and her prep school friend, Seth, get high on cocaine and have sex (the act is not shown, but Seth anticipates “taking a hit” together during climax). Later, in an excruciating scene, Caroline sells her body to a dealer for more drugs (their bodies are partially shown, but the sequence is more horrifying in its implications than in its explicitness). Characters trade sexual and homosexual jokes on a couple of occasions, and discuss masturbation. In Mexico, a cartel assassin is captured, stripped naked, tied to a chair and tortured. Caroline’s dealer is shown nude from the rear when their sex act gets interrupted by another “customer.”

violent content: Machine gun battles produce blood and violent death on several occasions. A few men are also killed with pistols at point-blank range. In one gruesome scene, a sniper shoots a man in the chest. An execution-style murder has the killers forcing their victim to dig his own grave and stand next to it so he’ll fall into the hole after he’s shot. A man convulses and dies after eating poisoned food. A car bomb explodes, killing its occupant.

crude or profane language: The f-word punctuates much of the dialogue. Before the credits roll, there are close to 100 combined uses of the f- and s-word (some are in Spanish and subtitled at the bottom of the screen). A couple crude expressions are used to describe sex and masturbation. The Lord’s name is abused about 10 times.

drug and alcohol content: Repeated depictions of hard-core drug use. Free-basing. Snorting. Smoking. Injecting. Not once, however, are these activities glamorized or glorified, and negative repercussions are made abundantly clear. Caroline prostitutes herself to score more drugs. One of Caroline’s friends ODs. Wakefield frequently drinks hard liquor and wine to “take the edge off.”

conclusion: Focusing narrowly on personal tragedy while also investigating widespread drug trafficking, Traffic takes on the modern drug culture with the vengeance of a she-lion fighting for her cubs. The result is sobering. That said, I can certainly empathize and understand why Soderbergh injected such liberal amounts of foul language, violence and drug use into this film. But that doesn’t make it right. Imaginative editing could have taken this R-rated indulgence and turned it into a strong morality tale that would have become mandatory viewing for every family in America. As it is, the raw images sure to be burned into young minds would compete fiercely with any life lessons learned. Too high a price for most families.

Steven Isaac

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Traffic Review

02 Feb 2001

147 minutes

Watching Traffic, it's a while before you realise you're watching a movie made in America. We open on a car parked in the desert, suffused with sun-bleached light. Inside, two Spanish men talk in their native tongue about dreams. Then a plane lands overhead and the movement starts in the form of constant running, camera slung loose over a shoulder, which doesn't let up for two and a half hours. Welcome to Steven Soderbergh's 'run and gun' movie.

Not much in Traffic's screenplay is entirely new— painstakingly researched and full of inside detail, certainly, but we have been here before (especially if you caught the original Channel 4 mini-series, Traffik, upon which Stephen Gaghan based his script). What elevates this company — drug dealers, corrupt cops, informants etc. — to a new plane is Soderbergh's storytelling skills. Just as his imaginative framing of a seduction reinvigorated the traditional love scene in 1998's Out Of Sight, Soderbergh works similar wonders with his largest canvas yet: two countries, three distinct storylines, well over 100 speaking parts. But what we are dealing with here is economy: Soderbergh's signature cutting, always to the chase, establishes a breathless rhythm which is more real than real. It's like a documentary with all the boring bits taken out.

Soderbergh describes Traffic as his $49 million Dogme movie, and certainly the hand-held style pushes the post-Blair Witch boundaries of mainstream moviemaking, but with the multiple storylines and delicately poised moral ambiguity, Traffic is closest in feel to a feature-length episode of NYPD Blue — indeed, it's no coincidence that Gaghan won an Emmy for his work on the revolutionary cop show. And the fact that Soderbergh, as his own cameraman and cinematographer, has employed natural light, doesn't make Traffic any less visually da ring. Pre- and post-production processes achieve a distinctive look for all three storylines: steely blues for the Beltway-bound Douglas; burnt yellows for the oppression of Del Tore's Mexico; bright colours and deep shade for the crumbling cocktail society of Zeta-Jones.

As for the cast themselves, newlyweds Douglas and Zeta-Jones are just fine in a uniformly excellent ensemble, Douglas especially finding real pain and pathos in an unshowy role; however, the ace in the pack here is Del Toro's Tijuana lawman, an honest guy caught in an impossible situation. Mumbling mostly in Spanish, Del Toro turns in a performance of such effortless and classic cool that they should spin him off into his own TV show.

If Gaghan's ambitious script is not perfect — there is a little hectoring at times, and some of the allegiance shifts in this treacherous world are not entirely convincing and sometimes hard to follow — Soderbergh's electrifying pace always keeps this huge project firmly on the rails, always moving, always running.

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Traffic (2000)

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Movie Review

US Release Date: 12-27-2001

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Starring ▸ ▾

• Michael Douglas ,  as
• Robert Hudson Wakefield
• Catherine Zeta-Jones ,  as
• Helena Ayala
• Benicio Del Toro ,  as
• Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez
• Dennis Quaid ,  as
• Arnie Metzger
• Don Cheadle ,  as
• Montel Gordon
• Amy Irving ,  as
• Barbara Wakefield
• Erika Christensen ,  as
• Caroline Wakefield
• Topher Grace ,  as
• Seth Abrahms
• Albert Finney ,  as
• Chief of Staff
• James Brolin ,  as
• General Ralph Landry
• Yul Vazquez as
• Tigrillo/Obregón Assassin

Michael Douglas in Traffic .

This is a great movie and should walk away with the Best Picture award at the upcoming Academy Awards. It is a multi-layered look at the billion-dollar drug industry, shown from almost every conceivable angle, from the Drug Czar to all levels of dealers and the officers who fight against them.

Steven Soderbergh masterfully intertwines the stories of a dozen or so main characters, each one connected to the trafficking, policing or using of illicit drugs, in both the United States and Mexico. The all-star cast; headed by Michael Douglas -in his best role in years- is very good, particularly Benicio Del Toro in a brilliant turn as south of the border cop Javier Rodriguez Erika Christensen is also quite moving as Drug Czar Robert Wakefield's (Douglas) drug addicted daughter who, through her ordeal, changes her conservative father's views towards how to carry out his powerful position. Don Cheadle, Dennis Quad, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Amy Irving round out this stellar cast and as if that wasn't enough the director enlists several big name cameo's including Benjamin Bratt, Albert Finney, Salma Hayek, James Brolin and several real life senators such as Barbara Boxer and Orrin Hatch.

The plot is fairly involved but easy to follow and the pacing and editing flow together nicely. The style of Traffic is reminiscent of Robert Altman in his prime and Soderbergh will probably win for directing also. This is definitely the American Beauty of this year's race.

In short, Traffic jams.

Catherine Zeta-Jones in Traffic .

As Patrick said, this is a multi-layered look at the drug industry. We are presented with the Mexican police officer caught between rival drug cartels, the American drug lord in LA, the drug middleman, a street pusher, the users, and the head of the anti-drug campaign in America. To me, that is about 3 layers too many. It didn't surprise me to find out that this movie was originally a British mini-series. It really needs the length of a mini-series to properly handle all the stories that it's trying to tell.

Don't get me wrong, I had no trouble following all the story lines. The editing is superb. And at the beginning of the movie, I enjoyed putting the story together, figuring out where each of the characters fit in to the chain. However, not too long into the story, I realized that I really only cared for about two or three of the characters and their part of the movie. This left me waiting through stretches of the movie about which I cared nothing at all.

The parts I did enjoy, I enjoyed a great deal. I'd have been interested in watching a whole movie around Benicio Del Toro's character as the Mexican police officer trying to do his best in an extremely corrupt system. The parts I didn't enjoy, I really didn't enjoy. What anyone sees in Michael Douglas, in this or any movie, is beyond me! And as for his daughter, while Erika Christensen does a decent job of acting in the role, I felt no sympathy or concern for her at all. The poor, little, neglected, rich girl who is angry at something, she just doesn't know what. I didn't buy it and her family's story was my least favorite part of the entire movie.

What this movie does and does well, and what might earn Soderbergh the Director's Oscar, is present all the different stories in a coherent, well edited, way. And each of the segments has their own distinct visual style. The Mexican storyline is gritty and brown. The Michael Douglas storyline is shot with a soothing blue filter as it begins and is gradually reduced as he comes face to face with his daughter's problems.

Parts of this movie I would actually give 4 stars to, but the parts I hated, such as Michael Douglas's story arc, I would only give 1 star. Which is why I'm averaging this movie out at just 2 stars. On a technical basis, this is a brilliant film. As entertainment, it falls far short. This is not a movie I will ever want to watch again.

Erika Christensen in Traffic .

Traffic is a brutally honest look at the world of drugs. It shows it from several different angles and each one is very well done. From the drug manufactures down to the users. It covers all the bases.

My particular favorite parts were the segments with Michael Douglas and the story line about Catherine Zeta Jones. Catherine plays the innocent, pregnant, wife of a major drug importer/dealer. She lives in a life of luxury and pampering. All supported by her husband's illegal business that she claims to know nothing about. By the end of the movie she has become the dealer herself and a murderer. I did not care for Catherine's comedic performance in America's Sweethearts , but here in a dramatic piece she is very good.

Michael Douglas plays a government agent who at the start of the movie proudly stands firm and erect as a newly appointed anti-drug official. However, fairly early on he learns that there is little he can do to stop the flow of drugs. Witness the scene in the airplane when he asks for suggestions and no one responds. He does not actually realize just how impotent he is until he discovers that his very own daughter is a crack whore. As a father I found that scene very frustrating to watch.

I found the movie a bit depressing as it seems to say that fighting drugs is a losing battle. Although the film does end on the note that the battle will continue, I wished for a sunnier conclusion to a rather dark movie.

Photos © Copyright Gramercy Pictures (2001)

© 2000 - 2017 Three Movie Buffs. All Rights Reserved.

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“Traffik” begins with that classic cinematic lie “inspired by true events” and ends with statistics for women who have been victims of human trafficking. Between these two bookends is a steaming pile of exploitative horse manure masquerading as a feature concerned with the sexual enslavement of women. Movies of this ilk have existed since the dawn of moviemaking, pretending to be self-righteously informative while reveling in every salacious detail of that which they are rallying against. That’s quite often par for the course in the exploitation genre, but “Traffik” is especially egregious in its depiction simply because its absurd horror movie clichés make it impossible to be taken seriously.

Watching this film, I was reminded of Roger’s reviews for “ Wolf Creek ” and “ Chaos ,” two films he gave no stars because he found them completely devoid of value. I once asked Roger what the deciding factor was in giving a film no stars, and he told me these were films he found “morally reprehensible.” That I didn’t find “Traffik” morally reprehensible probably says more about me than it does the movie, but at least I’m willing to be honest about enjoying a few moments of the film’s home invasion section. There isn’t an honest moment in all 96 minutes of “Traffik.” Writer/director Deon Taylor ’s camera leers at Paula Patton ’s body, lingers on the tattered Daisy Duke shorts of a battered woman in distress and has one character call his girlfriend a whore for sleeping with another character. He also tosses forced drug injections and attempted rape into the mix, shooting these elements as if he were making the bottom half of a grindhouse double feature. Then just before the end credits, “Traffik” tries to gaslight us into thinking we’ve seen a journalistic exposé. I wasn’t buying it.

Spoilers from here on in. Let’s give “Traffik” the benefit of the doubt for a moment. Let’s suppose it really is trying to shine a serious light on human trafficking. Then why must the viewer endure endless minutes of soap opera-style histrionics before anyone even mentions the subject? Why do we not get to know one single woman ensnared in the illegal ring? Why are the villains one-note hicksploitation caricatures? And why do the heroes make the types of horror movie mistakes that get people talking to the screen in frustration?

“Just give him the phone!” yelled an aggravated patron at my very sparsely attended screening. The phone in question is a satellite phone slipped into the bag of Brea (Paula Patton) while she’s in a gas station restroom. I’ll come back to that phone in a minute. Brea has been fired from her job at the Sacramento Post , yet she doesn’t want this detail to ruin her romantic birthday weekend with John ( Omar Epps ). John’s sports agent friend, Darren ( Laz Alonzo ) has given John full run of a swanky pad deep in the Northern California mountains. But before they can get to this fine piece of architecture porn, Brea and John must deal with some racist bikers led by Luke Goss . The bikers make obnoxious, stereotypical comments about the awesome muscle car John has rebuilt from the frame up, which leads to John punching one of the bikers out. Before things get too violent, Detective Sally Marnes (an excruciatingly bad Missi Pyle ) shows up at the gas station to break things up.

Brea and John make it to their destination after a mildly thrilling chase scene thrown in specifically for the gearheads in the audience. After an afternoon of getting freaky in the great outdoors, Brea and John are unexpectedly visited by Darren and his latest flame Malia ( Roselyn Sanchez ). Darren is high and so infuriating that you almost wish someone would shoot him in the head. Be careful what you wish for, as the old adage goes. The foursome engage in a big argument where secrets come out and Malia gets angry. Brea is also angry, so it looks like John’s plans to propose to her are gone with the wind.

Notice I haven’t said anything about sexual slavery. The movie hasn’t either at this point, and we’re almost halfway through its runtime. The aforementioned misplaced cell phone rings and when Brea fetches it from her bag, she realizes it belongs to the woman in the restroom. She also recalls the cryptic message the woman said, a message that turns out to be the phone’s code. Once unlocked, the phone yields hundreds of pictures of beaten women, including the original owner of the phone. She shows up almost immediately to retrieve it from Brea.

Brea refuses the woman’s request. She wants to use the phone’s contents to write the big front-page story that will get her job reinstated. Despite warnings from her visitor that the people in charge will kill everybody, Brea stubbornly refuses to give up the phone. She’s not down with giving it up even after people start getting their brains blown out by the evil bikers. This leads to an increasingly ridiculous set of events where Brea imitates the Scream Queens of yore by doing incredibly stupid things. Most of the cast gets graphically murdered before Brea is captured and readied to be sold to the highest bidder. Brea’s capture is underscored by, I kid you not, Nina Simone’s “Strange Fruit.” As Miss Simone wails about lynched Black people, a smirking Missi Pyle walks in slo-mo toward the camera. I have no idea why Taylor, an African-American director, thought this was a good idea.

“Traffik”’s resolution is as absurd as everything else. After all that killing and violence, it’s journalism that saves the day and paves the way for a potential sequel. The credits roll atop upside down footage of the California Freeway, which makes about as much sense as anything else in this offensive fiasco.

Odie Henderson

Odie "Odienator" Henderson has spent over 33 years working in Information Technology. He runs the blogs Big Media Vandalism and Tales of Odienary Madness. Read his answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire  here .

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Film credits.

Traffik (2018)

Rated R for violent and disturbing material, language throughout, some drug use and sexual content.

Paula Patton as Brea

Missi Pyle as Deputy Sally Marnes

Dawn Olivieri as Cara

William Fichtner as Mr. Waynewright

Roselyn Sanchez as Mali

• Deon Taylor

Cinematographer

• Dante Spinotti
• Melissa Kent
• Geoff Zanelli

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Traffic review: Tight script, stellar performances make it a must-watch

A remake of the 2011 malayalam film by the same name, traffic is about the victory of determination and goodwill over human insecurities. traffic does not preach or boast but it touches hearts. watch it for the emotional connect, and of course, the wonderful performances..

Traffic Director: Late Rajesh Pillai Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Divya Dutta, Parambrata Chatterjee, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Jimmy Sheirgill, Kittu Gidwani and Vikram Gokhale Rating: 4/5

A remake of the 2011 Malayalam film by the same name, Traffic is about the victory of determination and goodwill over human insecurities. It is a rare gripping thriller in Bollywood that also touches the right emotional chords.

Rajesh Pillai’s film, based on a real-life incident, is about people who meet due to tragedies in their lives. An accident intertwines their fates and the movie traces their journey towards saving one.

The cast – Manoj Bajpayee, Divya Dutta, Jimmy Sheirgill, Parambrata Chatterjee, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Amol Parashar, Sachin Khedekar, Kittu Gidwani and Vikram Gokhale – has delivered a stellar performance.

While Divya and Sachin make you feel the pain of parents scared for their children’s lives, Parambrata is brilliant with his portrayal of love and loss as he realises his wife was cheating on him with his own best friend. Manoj and Jimmy don’t have as much time on screen as others but their acting skills set them apart. Prosenjit fits effortlessly into his role as a superstar whose stardom does little to save his kid.

Suresh Nair, who adapted the Malayalam screenplay for the Hindi movie, has kept the script tight and narrative gripping. The build-up to the road mission to transport a heart sets the premise for all the characters and tells us about their lives. This portion drags at times but some good acting ensures we are not distracted.

You’d think covering 160 kilometres between Mumbai and Pune in peak traffic in two hours to transport a heart is too ambitious a project. But the traffic police managed a similar task in 2008 when they transported a heart from Chennai to Bengaluru for a transplant in record time.

Read: Manoj Bajpayee turns traffic cop for a day

Traffic does not preach or boast but it touches hearts. Watch it for the emotional connect, and of course, the wonderful performances.

Watch the trailer of the film

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2024 summer movie preview

By john clyde for ksl.com | posted - may 27, 2024 at 5:16 p.m., a look at movies coming in the summer 2024 movie season. (paramount, dreamworks, disney/pixar et al.).

Estimated read time: 7-8 minutes

Anyone who knows me, or has read any of my writing on this website or others, knows I am a movie fan. I love the movies. I don't love every movie, but I love the art of storytelling, the spectacle of cinema, film scores that are the symphonies of our era, and the theater experience.

I know not everyone is with me on this front, and that's OK. I get the comfort and beauty of sitting on your couch at home and the ability to pause the movie to get more snacks or for a bathroom break. I love that, too, but there is something about seeing a movie in the theater.

Going to the movies was my favorite thing to do as a kid. My heart would race in anticipation of the house lights dimming, the THX intro blowing out my eardrums, and waiting for that first trailer of some movie I had never heard about. While I have always loved going to the theater I have to admit, summer was my favorite time of year. Sure, I loved playing outside, running through sprinklers, and scrounging up as much change as I could to get my bike with my buddies and ride to the rec center and swim in the overcrowded pool. But the real reason I loved the summer was for summer-movie blockbusters.

My dad subscribed to Entertainment Weekly and every year, in early May, it would release the "Summer Movie Preview." I would check the mail daily, waiting for the issue to arrive. When it did, I'd run inside and thumb through every page, learning about each new movie coming out and marking my mental calendar of the release date.

Yes, to answer your question, I was a huge nerd. But I don't care, because I loved the summer movie slate. Summer has given us huge blockbuster favorites like "Jaws," "Speed," "Independence Day" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

My enthusiasm for the summer movie season has waned some as an adult, but my love of movies and the cinematic experience has not.

What movies do we have to look forward to this summer? From imaginary friends to giant tornadoes — there may be something for everyone.

Here's a peek at summer 2024's movies.

" IF ": May 17

There are a few family films to look forward to this summer and John Krasinski's "IF" kicked them off. A departure from "A Quiet Place" (Krasinski's earlier directorial effort), this new film seems to boast a creative and fun trip to the theater.

" Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ": May 24

This highly anticipated prequel to the "Mad Max" franchise, directed by George Miller, delves into the backstory of the fierce Furiosa, played this time by Anya Taylor-Joy, as she navigates the treacherous wasteland.

" The Garfield Movie ": May 24

Going toe-to-toe, or toe-to-paw with "Furiosa" is "Garfield." The lasagna-loving feline is back on the big screen with Chris Pratt lending his voice to the iconic orange kitty.

" Bad Boys: Ride or Die ": June 7

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence reprise their roles as Miami detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett in yet another "Bad Boys" sequel. When a new threat emerges, the dynamic duo must once again team up to take down the bad guys.

" The Watchers ": June 7

Ishana Shyamalan, the daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, is following in her father's footsteps and releasing her own psychological thriller, "The Watchers." The film follows a young artist who gets stranded in an extensive, immaculate forest in western Ireland, where, after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers, stalked by mysterious creatures each night.

" Inside Out 2 ": June 14

Pixar returns with another emotional journey into the mind in this highly anticipated sequel to the beloved animated film. Join Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust as they navigate new challenges, adventures, and emotions.

" Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 ": June 28

Shot here in Utah, "Horizon" tells the story of pre- and post-Civil War expansion in the American West over a 15-year span. This is just Part 1 of Kevin Costner's bold epic.

" A Quiet Place: Day One ": June 28

The terrifying world of silence returns in this prequel to the hit horror film. Discover the origins of the deadly creatures and witness the first days of the apocalypse as humanity fights for survival.

" Despicable Me 4 ": July 3

Get ready for more Minion mayhem in the fourth installment of the animated franchise. Gru and his lovable minions embark on a new adventure filled with laughter, mischief, and heartwarming moments.

" Fly Me to the Moon ": July 12

This movie may be under-the-radar to some, but it stars Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson as they are tasked with filming the moon landing just in case the real thing doesn't go as planned.

" Twisters ": July 19

Remember "Twister?" It was one of those summer movies when I was a kid I was excited to see. Am I excited for "Twisters"? Not like a young and kind of chubby John was, but who knows? Maybe it'll be OK.

" Deadpool & Wolverine ": July 26

Deadpool is back for a third round, but this time he has Wolverine and Disney along for the ride. Don't plan on that meaning the hard R rating will be left in the past.

" Harold and the Purple Crayon ": Aug. 2

Based on the beloved children's book, "Harold and the Purple Crayon" follows the imaginative adventures of a Harold who makes it into our world with his magical crayon.

" Trap ": Aug. 9

M. Night Shyamalan has his own film coming out this summer. The movie centers around a father who has taken his daughter to a pop concert but becomes concerned as he finds out a serial killer has been identified and police are on the way. He's not worried about being in danger from the killer because he is the killer.

" Borderlands ": Aug. 9

Based on the popular video game, "Borderlands" promises to be an irreverent action flick filled with jokes, scoundrels and treasure.

" Alien Romulus ": Aug. 16

The "Alien" franchise is back for another round. I'd lay out the plot for you, but we've heard it before: Space travelers come face-to-face with the most terrifying life form in the universe as they scavenge a derelict space station.

" Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 ": Aug. 16

This is Part 2 of Costner's sweeping epic. Hopefully Part 1's three-hour run time left us wanting more to jump into Part 2.

" Reagan ": Aug. 30

Dennis Quaid steps in as President Ronald Reagan in a new biopic from the director of "Soul Surfer."

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Cormac McCarthy's Novel 'The Road' Is Even More Disturbing Than the Movie

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The Big Picture

• The Road film omits graphic scenes of horror found in Cormac McCarthy's novel.
• Charlize Theron's expanded role as Woman adds depth and alters the emotional impact of the movie adaptation.
• The film offers a more optimistic conclusion than McCarthy's book, providing closure and a sense of safety for the boy's future.

Known as one of the bleakest post-apocalyptic stories out there, The Road is also one of Cormac McCarthy 's finest works. Released in 2006, the novel received a coveted Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the following year, and it wasn't long before Hollywood swept the tale up for itself. In 2009, a film adaptation by director John Hillcoat , from an adapted screenplay by Joe Penhall , brought the harrowing tragedy to life. Viggo Mortensen stars in his best post- Lord of the Rings role as Man opposite Kodi Smit-McPhee 's Boy. Charlize Theron is featured as Woman, with Robert Duvall and Guy Pearce in supporting roles as Old Man and Veteran, respectively. There's nothing quite like this survival adventure, which threatens to take you into its dark abyss, but it makes for a thoughtful fable about the tenacity of the human spirit. Still, The Road film makes a few notable changes from the book, taking McCarthy's original material in a distinctly different, though similar, direction.

‘The Road’ Movie’ Cuts Out Graphic and Horrifying Details From the Book

It's hard to think of The Road as being anything but intense. This survival story puts the man and the boy in the most perilous of situations, where they encounter bands of cannibals and plenty of violent offenders. The grey coloring of the film adds to the hopelessness riddled throughout, which constantly threatens to overtake our heroes. But even in the pulse-pounding intensity of the live-action adaptation, it fails to fully capture the same horrors that Cormac McCarthy pens in his novel . While cannibals still run free in this post-extinction world , we see less of what they and others are capable of than we read about in the book. Though, maybe that's a good thing.

For instance, in the novel, McCarthy chronicles a moment when the man and boy hear a woman giving birth in the middle of the night, but the initial hope of new life is quickly extinguished. The very next morning, the pair come across the newborn infant lying dead on the ground, having been roasted and eaten alive. It's a horrific, chilling moment that wasn't included in the film. It's too much in the book, and it would be far too much if we had to see it also. Likewise, there's a point in the original story where the man and the boy watch some marauders from afar as they drag some young boys along beside them that they keep for sexual intent or practices. Given the already hard and disturbing nature of cannibalism as seen in the production, The Road film was wise in omitting these particular details from the adaptation . Though, we're still curious as to why they cut the boat scene...

Because of these (and other) changes, some have noted that the general atmosphere of McCarthy's prose crackles differently on the page than it does on screen . While the filmmakers certainly did their due diligence in bringing the author's words to life, renowned film critic Roger Ebert was right in pointing out that the film "lacks the same core of emotional feeling." He continued to describe how McCarthy's work, due to his unique, unfiltered prose, may be "unfilmable," though director John Hillcoat does his absolute best . It's true that the novel better weaves together the contrasting themes of hope and hopelessness as well as survival and death, together in a marriage of carefully chosen words. The result is that the book feels more intimate and tense than the feature film adaptation, even though the movie tries to get us there. If you haven't read the book before, here's your cue to dive in.

Charlize Theron's Woman Has a Bigger Role in 'The Road' Movie

A major change made in translating the original novel to the screen is that the woman, played here by Charlize Theron , is given a more significant role. In the book, all we know about her comes from a series of dreams the man has where he recalls the moments before her death. She supposedly died by suicide to prevent cannibals or rapists from getting a hold of her, and as a result, the man plays with his wedding ring in the aftermath. The woman even states that, if it wouldn’t have wrecked the man, she would have taken the boy with him into death’s embrace. In the film, however, we see a lot more of the woman than we did before, with the man having dreams of their happy life together from before the apocalypse . It actually makes the whole thing more heartbreaking.

The movie itself opens with the man and the woman (while she's still pregnant) at the beginning of the apocalypse . We see the man begin to fill the bathtub with water as they both recognize the end is upon them. Throughout the first act, we're privy to more flashbacks that elaborate on the declining nature of their relationship as the woman argues with her husband over her desire to die by suicide. Just as in the novel, she's distraught and overcome with despair over the thought of living any longer in the world. Unlike in the novel, which only sparingly reveals information about her, the film helps us better understand the woman's thought process in doing so, as well as her slow decline toward hopelessness . Of course, the man continues to hope for a better life, and is left with the boy to pursue as such.

Viggo Mortensen's Movie Ends More Optimistically Than Cormac McCarthy's Book

There are other differences between the original material and the theatrical adaptation, of course. The man's ultimate resting place in the book is at their campsite in the woods, as opposed to his final moments on the beach in the film. But in both cases, his last back-and-forth with his son is heartbreaking, and it leaves the viewer and/or the reader in an absolute mess. Afterward, the boy stays with his father's body for three days before moving on, realizing that he's now all alone in the world. But this is only the preamble to the story's actual end. McCarthy's novel concludes with the boy being convinced by a man that he and his family are the "good guys" and can take care of him . While that sounds hopeful at first, within the context of the book it feels more suspicious than anything else, with the author ultimately leaving the boy's fate up to interpretation .

For the film, director John Hillcoat takes a different approach. While this same veteran (played here by Guy Pearce ) makes the same offer to the boy, the film reveals that the man and the boy had been followed by the veteran and his family for several days . While the veteran himself is still a little skittish, The Road implies that after introducing the man's family (which includes his wife ( Molly Parker ), son, daughter, and their dog), the boy is going to be okay after all. In conveying a more Hollywood-ish, finite ending, The Road doesn't leave the viewer wandering in search of what happens next . Though we don't know what's in store for the boy with his new family, we know that he will be safe from those who would seek him harm. The book gives us no such closure, and instead leaves us with the burning question, "Are they indeed carrying the fire?"

But this change in the ending works for the film in the same way that Frank Darabont 's bleak adaptation of Stephen King 's The Mist works for that one. It honors the ideas explored throughout and calls back to the boy's prior discovery of another young boy as well as the dog they heard from the bunker midway through the picture. In hindsight, this overtly hopeful finale almost turns The Road into a different movie . It makes the man come across as more paranoid or needlessly worrisome about the world around him than before. Perhaps it even downplays the constant life-and-death struggle they face earlier in the film. Perhaps not. It's worth noting that the people they meet in the first half are generally violent and dangerous, while those they meet in the second (save for the archer) generally aren't. The film itself tends to shift from hopeless to hopeful the longer it carries on, and maybe that's for the best.

'The Road' Is an Honorable Adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Novel

Though No Country for Old Men is by far the best Cormac McCarthy adaptation out there, The Road comes in at a close second. Sure, the ending is a bit more optimistic than McCarthy would've likely penned it, but that, too, is a read one could have on the original novel. The casting of Viggo Mortensen as the man is perfect , and he encapsulates the role of the weary and protective father better than most. His chemistry with a young Kodi Smit-McPhee, who is as good here as ever, is exactly what one could ask for after reading the novel. It never feels unrealistic or too over the top (despite some criticisms to the contrary), and the pair expertly rip The Road right out of the page. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis make the whole thing even more eerie with their understated score, which evokes emotions from straight dread to near hope.

The Real Danger in 'No Country for Old Men' Isn't What You Think

Anton Chigurh is scary, but this is scarier.

There are other things that make The Road stand out as a particularly compelling adaptation. The way it honors McCarthy's description of the ashen world filled with crisped trees, layers of soot, and a forever sun-less sky feels like we've walked right into this post-apocalyptic waste . The cinematography, which was nominated for a BAFTA award, is haunting, and cleverly matches the look and feel of the words the author first penned on the page. There's no such thing as a perfect adaptation, of course. There's always something left out, something rewritten, or something re-imagined from the original. Good or bad, The Road has its clear differences from the 2006 novel, yet it still sticks the landing. Cormac McCarthy himself once called the picture "very powerful" and "a film like no other film [he's] seen." With that kind of praise, The Road should be considered one of the better book-to-screen adaptations out there.

The Road is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

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Politics chat: How voters are responding to Trump's felony conviction

by  Ayesha Rascoe ,  Mara Liasson

The Americas

Mexico votes for a new president after a campaigning season plagued by violence.

by  Eyder Peralta ,  Ayesha Rascoe

Middle East

Aid workers in gaza say nowhere is safe after israeli attacks on 'humanitarian zones'.

by  Hadeel Al-Shalchi

Girls in the U.S. are getting their period earlier. Here's what parents should know

by  Ayesha Rascoe ,  Maria Godoy

Bookstores have come under attack in Ukraine. But interest in reading is only growing

by  Joanna Kakissis

25 years ago, Napster changed how we listen to music forever

by  Ayesha Rascoe

What locals think of the proposal to build U.S.'s tallest building in Oklahoma City

by  Graycen Wheeler

Sunday Puzzle NPR hide caption

Sunday Puzzle: Second in Line

by  Will Shortz

Movie Interviews

A new animated film follows a lonely dog and his robot friend in new york city.

by  Ayesha Rascoe ,  Matthew Schuerman ,  Andrew Craig

Conservative media sows doubt about the verdict in Trump's felony convictions

by  Ayesha Rascoe ,  David Folkenflik

Supreme Court judge accused of bias towards Trump declines to recuse himself from case

by  Ayesha Rascoe ,  Matthew Schuerman ,  Hiba Ahmad

Some states are adopting a new form of reading instruction to combat falling scores

by  Juma Sei

A new movie tells the story of Kemba Smith Pradia, race and incarceration

Strange news, meet abby lampe, two-time champion of the cheese-wheel-chasing race, meet abby lampe, two-time champion of the chees-wheel-chasing race, 100 years ago, indigenous people were granted u.s. citizenship by law.

by  Sandhya Dirks

The first professional women's hockey league in the U.S. has a winner

Music interviews, jon lampley, a veteran of stephen colbert's talk show, releases his debut album.

by  D. Parvaz ,  Ayesha Rascoe ,  Ryan Benk

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