Traffic

Rating:
Summary: Moving "Traffic"
Review: 2000 was a good year for director Steven Soderbergh. First was the entertaining "Erin Brockovich", then the tense, complicated, well-acted "Traffic", which was probably the best movie of last year and which won Soderbergh the Oscar for Best Director. The plot is constructed of five interlinking sets of people: a newly appointed American drug czar and his family, the Mexican drug cartel, two Tiajuana plainclothes men, a couple of U.S. wiretap specialists, and a wealthy San Diego family whose fortune is a little less than legitimate. Michael Douglas is the star, playing the drug czar who discovers that his teenage daughter (Erika Christensen) has been inhaling free base and is hooked. Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman are nicely paired as the eavesdroppers, and Steven Bauer and Catherine Zeta-Jones play the San Diego couple whose lives collapse when an informer names the husband as a leading importer=exporter of illegal drugs. Dennis Quaid,who gets over-the-title billing, is convincing in a small, unsympathetic role as their opportunistic lawyer. Ms Zeta-Jones' character is the most controversial, morphing from suburban mom to Lady Macbeth right before our eyes. But, of course, most of the attention has been focused on Benicio Del Toro as Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez, the Mexican cop whose loyalties are constantly being challenged. He deservedly won the Oscar, though in the wrong category. Because his character both opens and ends the story, and because he has (I think) more screen time than Douglas, he should have been nominated for Best Actor. Some of the movie's plot elements, particularly in the second half, don't work. The informer is obviously poisoned by a breakfast that is brought to him while his police escort is in the room. Why would they allow a stranger to serve food to a heavily-protected state witness? (The informer is played by Miguel Ferrer, the son of Jose Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney.) Also, I didn't believe the drug czar's aborted acceptance speech for a minute, and his daughter's return from the dead was too pat and painless. But the quiet conclusion, with Javier watching a baseball game, was effective, proving that Stephen Gaghan's screenplay (another Oscar) didn't need a bang-up ending to complete a forceful story.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good, but not quite great...
Review: I hesitate to heap tremendous amounts of praise on this film. Its strongest point is clearly the exceptional characters. They make all the difference. The PLOT is, well, I don't know how to describe it. A bit disjointed I suppose, but still strong enough to pull you in. This movie isn't really about a story, it's about people being affected by the drug trade in North America.

Soderbergh's direction is excellent. The scenes in Mexico just LOOK hot because of that grainy yellow tinting. And living in San Antonio, near the border, I can certify that yes, that's genuinely how it feels down here. Often. The lack of steadycam shots gives it a "newsreel" feel to it. It will draw you in if you let it.

Now onto the characters. My favorite was Del Toro's. I just think the guy can act and he shows it to you here. His character faces the trials of loyalty, friendship and ultimately the choices between doing good and doing for yourself. Catherine Zeta Jones character was also captivating in her descent into the drug game. The characters I least liked involved the Michael Douglas storyline. While they were genuine and somewhat interesting, I found myself waiting for their scenes to end so that I could get back to the more intriguing developments. Also, I'm not quite ready to buy how easily it wrapped up near the end. A hint of optimism is good, but that was a little too much sunshine after a mostly cloudy set up.

Overall, it's a good film, and Soderbergh's Oscar for direction isn't a bad choice (though I still think it probably took more skill for Ang Lee to make people FLY). Watch it for the characters and the perspective on the drug "war."

Rating:
Summary: All Star Cast Delivers In The Greatest Film Of 2000
Review: All of the great reviews, the Golden Globes, and the Oscars were nothing short of well-deserved in what is argueably the best film made in the past decade. Steven Soderberg never fails to amaze motion picture-goers; and TRAFFIC is no exception. The movie is set in multiple locations: Mexico, San Diego, Ohio, & Washington D.C. (for the most part) These are the settings in which the main characters deal with what each of them has in common... drugs. Some sell it, some take it, and some try to stop others from selling and taking it. For the most part, the top-billed actors which portray the main characters never really interact in the film. However, in many cases, they somehow effect eachother's lives with what each is doing. As complicated as TRAFFIC may sound, it really isn't. But it does demand your attention span the entire 2 hours and 20 minutes. But not only does it demand that attention, it holds it for the entire length of the film. Never has a film given the viewer such an insight into a taboo, yet much talked about topic in the world today. But the expirience is nothing if not incredible.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Movie of the Year
Review: I feel that I don't really even need to write this review. There are so few things wrong with this movie, if any, that there's really no reason that anybody living in America shouldn't watch, both for its powerful and relevant social message and for its beautiful cinematography, moving acting and the phenomenal job Steven Soderbergh does of weaving so many complicated and multifaceted stories and characters together.

Rating:
Summary: YOU NEED MORE STARS TO RATE THIS MOVIE
Review: why? cause is a masterpiece,this movie won 4 academy awards of 5 nominations.traffic also deserved the best picture oscar why? because:best director + best editing + best screenplay + best secondary actor = a best picture. i don't know how gladiator won the best picture and don't get me wrong i think that gladiator is a very very good movie but is not oustanding like traffic. (warning this movie is for people that likes movies with something that is missing nowdays........a plot)

Rating:
Summary: A framework for a greater film
Review: Drugs are what economists call "demand inelastic". Drugs will be sold, bought, smoked, sniffed, ingested and injected in great numbers, over an astonishingly wide price range. The Third World costs of plantation and delivery make for a most agreeable mark-up when sold at First World prices. Such a profitable enterprise, given the invisible hand of Laissez-faire, would attract ambitious prince-pins to the market, shifting the supply curve to the right (increasing the amount of drugs on the market, lowering the price and making drug dealing, economically, a less rewarding proposition.) So far so capitalist. But what if the whole enterprise were illegal; production and consumption? The price stays high, profit margins bloat, and addicts get fall into depressingly patterned methods of procuring the expensive product. Next time a government tries to help sugarcane farmers they should perhaps consider this novel idea: make sugarcane illegal.

This is, admittedly, a rudimentary assessment of the problem, possibly even wrong on some fundamental level (I don't want any e-mails from angry academics). But the hypothesis is not; drug wars in the first world, driven by narrow-minded moral elitism aggravate the problem. The villain makes the hero, and the drugs czar makes the kingpin. What makes Traffic, Steven Soderbergh's labyrinthine film compelling is trying to separate the villains from the good guys by observing actions and their results. What you're likely to come up with is that "nobody gets away clean". Which is also the film's tagline. Dig in, and you will find two revealing scenes: 1) The newly appointed drug czar, Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), in what he thinks is generosity, gathers his team of lawyers and experts and asks them "for this time only" for their ideas. He is greeted with dead silence. 2) A mid-level dealer sits in custody of two agents and explains to them, in a surprisingly eloquent manner, why they are in fact were working for his competition when they arrested him, "you know what the sad thing about is. You know what you're doing and you do it anyway."

The film reportedly has over 100 speaking parts. Soderbergh, who shot it himself, narrows it down to three main threads; in the blue tinted Cincinnati, Ohio, the new drug czar, Douglas, prepares for his high profile job whilst his daughter falls deeper into addiction. The pat moralistic tone of this segment would be purely TV movie if it weren't for the reliability of Douglas and the director's hand-held technique that gives it an immediacy it doesn't deserve. Further west, in brighter San Diego, a rich, pregnant housewife, Helena Ayala (Catherine Zeta Jones), is dealing with the fact that her husband is a prominent drug dealer. A journey of self-discovery later, and she goes from being a member of her son's school board to ordering an assassin, over the phone to "Get out of the car and shoot him in the head." By the end of the film, she's still on the school board. Still in San Diego, and closer to the violence are Montel Jordan (Don Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Luis Guzman), two drug agents. Their scenes are rich with humor and warmth that nicely modulates the film. But it is further south, in the bleached, burnt out Mexico that Traffic touches greatness. There, honest Tijuana cop, Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) navigates the hazardous "entrepreneurial drug war", quietly but desperately holding on to his dignity. It's a beautiful, expressive and subtle performance. Incidentally, one of the few deserved accolades at the recent Academy Awards.

What Traffic lacks, and what many critics have overlooked, is...anger. Soderbergh displays an uncommon mastery of structure, and style that actually adds to the film. His film is fascinating from start to finish. Something political films share with science fiction films is that they let the viewer see what they never have; what really happens in the corridors of power as opposed to what evil blob really lurks beneath the earth's crust. Burdened with a sense of responsibility, the director tried, perhaps too hard, to be even handed and mature. Isn't the failure of the such an elaborate system worthy of jet black humor? Shouldn't the film go after the targets it reveals to self-aggrandizing and delusional? Watching the Cincinnati segments, I remembered another blue tinted, political film, Michael Mann's The Insider. That film took a tobacco/journalism controversy and transformed into something operatic. By contrast, Traffic, often seems to have its foot on the breaks, refusing to get emotional. Yet I still agree with most critics who call it one of the best films of 2000. Its sheer scale compensates its reserve. For Soderbergh this is worthy return after the nonsensical Erin Brockovich. It is an impressive achievement that would have been a great film had afforded the same insight to its characters that it affords their trade. It is at those times that Traffic could have used a little hit.

Rating:
Summary: What a piece of Junk
Review: No plot, dumb characters, gunfire, gore, bad language, and no redeaming virtues what so ever. Hollywood has really sunk to new lows.

Rating:
Summary: 4 Academy Awards
Review: Traffic the years second best film with 4 Academy Awards is a must see and a must buy for anyone's collection.

The biggest award won by Traffic went to Steven Soderbergh for Best Director. A good choice when the clear winner for best film was Gladiator. This was a good choice since the Best Picture Award was not going to go to Traffic even though it was running close with Gladiator for the year's top spot for Best Film.

I highly recommend this film which could have been the year,s best film. It is better than some other year's Best Films that's for sure.

Rating:
Summary: FOUR AND A HALF STARS ACTUALLY GRINGOS!
Review: WELL THIS MOVIE WAS RELLY AMAZING, GREAT ACTING, GREAT STORIES,WELL EVERYTHING IN THE MOVIE WAS GREAT, BUT I HAVE SOME MINOR COMPLAINS: WELL FIRST OF ALL WHY YOU POLICE GRINGRA, PUT US MEXICANS AS WE DON'T DO NOTHING, WELL YOU ALSO DON'T DO, THANKS A LOT, BUSH!, NOW SECOND, THEY SHOULD HAVE SHOWN MORE OF JUAREZ AND EL PASO, HERE IN JUAREZ, WE HAVE MORE PROBLEMS WITH DRUG TRAFFIC, THAN IN TIJUANA, ALSO THE STORY OF ARMANDO CARRILLO, WELL IT WAS QUITE REAL AND GREAT, BUT IF THEY HAVEN'T EXAGERATED ALOT, I WOULD BE GIVING THIS MOVIE A 10, BUT IT'S GREAT VERY GOOD MOVIE.

Rating:
Summary: And the Oscar goes to Benicio Del Toro.(crossing my fingers)
Review: I saw this movie the first week it came out. I could have done without the Michael Douglas storyline. I thought it was boring. The Catherine Zeta-Jones story line was good. What can I say about the Benicio Del Toro story line??? I know. WOW!!!!!! This is his movie from beginning to end. If he doesn't win tonight something is really wrong.