Skin Trade

aHere's a movie of it's worn ilk, that comes off better than you think it will, thanks to some nice little plot differences, it's realistic end, a surprise, leaving a kind of sting in your tale. Face it. There's been so many movies on Human Trafficking, almost more than I've had hot dinners. ST is almost a fresh take on these movies. An aging Dolph who heads a task force against human trafficking, butts heads with a slave trade owner (Ron Pearlman, a nice choice of casting) who in an act of family revenge, (think The Punisher) kill's his beautiful half Asian wife (what a waste) and supposedly daughter. Lundgren's not the only aging actor. His boss and friend, is an almost bald Peter Weller, who looks (pardon me) bloody awful. We also don't have a team player in this task force. Lundgren's furious and no holds barred vendetta to kill Pearlman, becomes the driven plot, in what is an engaging and well made action pic, with not just action to boot. Dolph's force is not the only ones with eyes on Perlman. A Japanese task force is also in operation, a female colleague, working undercover as one of the bought girls. Lundgren's rage and wild antics of course, jeopardizes the Asian operation, headed by Tony Laa. When Dolph enters their territory, being mistaken for the guy who shot Laa's partner and close friend, now he too becomes fueled with revenge. Cary Haya Tagawawa co stars as a another corrupt force and we see a familiar Asian face, at the start, we've seen in too many of these movies, again playing a low down pimp. Skin Trade is exciting action entertainment, a few notches better than others in this weathered slave trade/genre. Don't snub it just cause of it's stereotypical appearance.

"How do you sleep at night. How can you do this?" Nick Cassidy's (Lundgren) family has just been killed by an international criminal syndicate. His quest for revenge leads him to Thailand where he teams up with Tony (Jaa) a Thai detective who is investigating a human trafficking network. When they realize they are looking for the same group they join forces and try to put an end to the all of it. I have said before these are hard movies to review. Movies with Segal, Van Damme or Lundgren are essentially all the same. Same plot, same idea, same acting. This one is no different, either you like these movies or you don't. That holds true for this one. The biggest problem with this one is that is seemed like the middle part of a 3 part series. The movie opens to what feels like halfway through the actual story. There is really no intro to what is going on and you are trying to play catch up throughout. The way the movie ends felt like, we are out of money, if we can't get more funding we will end it here. There is still more that could have happened to tie it all up but it left you hanging. All that said, most people don't watch these movies for the story or acting and the action is decent enough to keep them interested. As for me, this is just another Lundgren movie. Overall, fans of Dolph will like this, otherwise I would avoid it. I give it a C.

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.

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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