Traffic

Rating:
Summary: Great Cast
Review: While the shaky editing of "Traffic" took some time to get used to, I nevertheless enjoyed this movie. Most of the stories being told within the film are interesting and the cast was superb. Benicio Del Toro deserved his Oscar and Don Cheadle and Luiz Guzman were hilarious as DEA agents. While "Traffic" can get boring at times, it still lingers in memory.

Rating:
Summary: I really enjoyed this movie
Review: I thought the pace/presentation of subject matter was intense. The comic relief was wonderfully timed imho, and helped balance out the severity and seriousness of other roles. The movie also did a great job of 'bringing home' the personal cost associated with the drug war. Four point five stars. Well worth the price.

Rating:
Summary: Traffic
Review: It's great movie, I guess it's of the best movies which I've ever seen about drugs. We can see again wonderful directing by Steven Soderbergh. I was really shocked from this super film.

Rating:
Summary: Lots of hits and misses
Review: I think my feeling is that of a general consencious .The scenes with Michael Douglas are not good at all ,you have to really suspend disbelief ,although I liked the performance by His daughter (Christensen) even if i don't believe the situations were really possible .I also thought no one is gonna believe a woman is gonna go to that lengths to stay in the same lifestyle,especially since i lived in La Jolla for a few years it takes the cake in blandness .Kudos though to 3 great performances Luis Guzman Don Chealde and most of all Benecio Del Toro .Del Toro gives what is the best performance IMHO in the last 2 or 3 years of anyone male or female .There are many things to like about this movie also many things to dislike you can disect this movie too tidpits and you will still come to the same conclusions.All in all a little bit of a letdown but still worth more than all the oscar nominess of last years .If i was the ebert guy i guess i would have to give this one a big thumb up and a big thumb down

Rating:
Summary: A good film
Review: Americans make some of the best films in the world. They are however known for films which do not deal with real issues. Comedies, Action films and Romances are the sorts of things which generally come from American Cinema.

It was thus a surprise to see a film that dealt with a serious issue the war on drugs in a realistic and intelligent way.

Traffic is not preachy, it is fast paced and engaging despite using experimental techniques such as hand held cameras and processing the film for some scences in a bleached or non realistic way.

The issue with the drug was is that the margin on drug sales is such that drug runner can afford to lose half of their shipments and still make a profit. Detecting a high percentage of drug imports is close to impossible so that the long term price of drugs continues to fall and the purity rises. The film shows clearly the mechanics of the drug trade and why it is so difficult to stop.

Drug selling also makes huge amounts of money for suppliers. This gives them power especially in poorer countries and one of the films strengths is to show how easily the corruption can flow from the profits in the trade.

So many films show the drug war as a battle between some defined villians and Bruce Willis heroes. This film is able to convey a far greater sense of evil than any films of that type. A top notch film that mixes engrossing entertainment with an intelligent discussion of a real issue.

Rating:
Summary: ok.
Review: nothing special. it drug on a bit. i like the directing and
acting is great, but the plot was pretty loose, and if i look
hard, i bet i can find some holes.
the music is mediocre at best.

the worst part of it all is the way it downplays drugs and
addiction. yes, i agree that drugs are horrible, but the fact
of the matter is, its personal choice, and the government is
blowing absurd amounts of money on stopping drugs.
someone else said it's like a 2 hour "this is your brain on

drugs" comericial. exactly.

its still a good movie, though, and i suppose it's worth a look-
see. if you're over 16.

Rating:
Summary: Not very good.
Review: There are no characters worthy of our sympathy except the daughter. The script was lacking and had no real punch, just sordid tales of how people allow drugs to mess up their lives. This is a trit star vehicle and little more.

The movie is about three different drug stories that are somewhat linked to each other. The first is about the Federal Drug Czar and his career track ambition blinding him to both the futility of eradicating the harm illegal drugs cause in America, and to the boredom that leads his teenage daughter to prostitution to support her drug habit. The scenes in which the father looks for his daughter require a major suspension in belief. No one, especially a bureaucrat would troll the "mean streets' as we're expected to believe he does.

The second story, filmed sufficiently differently to remind us we're now watching new characters, involves a drug dealer and his wife that was unaware of her husband's business until a snitch makes a deal and the husband is arrested. Then we're expected to believe that the pregnant wife wants to become part of the drug trade so that she can maintain her lifestyle.

Lastly there is the story of the drug trade south of the border in Tijuana. This is shot with another color filter and in subtitles. This is the best story in that it is much more likely and realistically done. The Mexicans see all US governmental agencies involved in drug interdiction as 'tres letras' or Three Letters as in DEA, FBI, CIA etc. They're all seen as equally ineffective.

The acting is generally good except for Michael Douglas. The movie is stylistic which makes it nice eye candy but otherwise it is insubstantial. We do not come away from this movie having learned anything whether of benefit or not. I saw nothing of groundbreaking note here. It's a sad commentary when one finds oneself more interested in picking out the cameo actors than paying attention to the storyline.

If you have to see the movie, borrow it from a friend. Don't spend money on it. It's long and generally boring. It won't stay with you.

Rating:
Summary: Emotionally depressing. Dramatically provocotive.
Review: Steven Soderbergh's film about the war on drugs centers around three seperate stories somehow caught around the same enemy- drug power. First off, there's Benicio Del Toro, a Mexican police officer battling drug related enemies across the Mexican border, visually realizing the dramatic death and cause of corruption that drugs destroy the world with. Then there is Don Cheadle who is out to stop Catherine Zeta-Jones and her husband with their drug marketing in which Cheadle's federal officers and witnesses are being killed. And more dramatically, we are introduced to a the highly powered Michael Douglas who is pitted against fighting the drug war that has corrupted his daughter, in which she's become a serious addict.

Not only is this film smart, but it mixes depressive reality with heavy drama. This film is shot in three textures- a rustic faced picture, a deep and eerie, cold blue; and finally a modern regular picture. These textures of picture set the tone of emotion throughout the film. This film is powered by its performances from Benicio Del Toro, Don Cheadle, Michael Douglas, and Dennis Quaid. This film is almost hard to watch because it is very durogatory and saddening, but it is the world today. What helps this film is its ending which sheds light. The ending sequence in which Del Toro watches the baseball game was a delight to see. This film also introduces some interesting points- maybe not good- but interesting. It opens up a new world to me. 25% of the world's teenagers and high schoolers are addicted to drugs. It's easier for a 16 year old to buy cocaine and heroine rather than alcohol. Street punks make five hundred dollars in two hours everyday from selling illegal drug produce, then spend the rest of their day doing whatever they please. Murder and lies corrupt police stations and federal armies only to protect powerful drug companies. Only 75% of the parents who's kids are on drugs will realize that they are doing it. The world in Traffic is mad and deleriously sickening. This film knows drama. It knows what the audience doesn't want to see, and it gives them it anyway, because they don't want to tone down the war, Soderbergh wants to make it as real and as simple and harsh as possible. However difficult it seems to comprehend, the more people will open there eyes and realize that the majority of the world is in chaos. It may not appear as though it is, but it really is.

Soderbergh's dramatic piece hits where it hurts and where it is impacting. It isn't perfect though, because it seems as though we are delivered too much. It was hard for me to hold it all in as truth. The sad part about it is that it is truthful.

I guess I can say this film is terrible, but actually good at the same time. It depends on how you look at it. Traffic is just merely an eye opening experience that is depressing and dramatic. I can't recommend it to anyone only because I don't agree with what it presents and I don't like it, I just understand it and it means something to me to learn what the world is actually like.

DRAMATIC. SADDENING. DUROGATORY. IMPRESSIVE. IMPACTING. EYE-OPENING. ... TRAFFIC.

Rating:
Summary: overhyped , overbloated , boring , dribble
Review: Why? Why? Why? was this movie considered a great accomplishment and an in depth study on the war on drugs. This movie was nothing more than boring , and long , and I found myself dozing off here and there during it. The only interesting story was Douglas and his daughter , the mexican cop , and the druglord's wife were boring and a waste of film. If the movie was about the czar and his daughter it may have earned at least 3 stars , and whats worse it'll switch characters to characters like about every minute , so you can't keep up with it. A 3 hr waste of time even though it had one of the coolest lines when the actor from That 70's Show and the czar's daughter are on the bed smoking heroin. Whats even more disgusting this film won an Oscar. It's trash like this that try to be groundbreaking and prove a point of some kind , but does nothing more than suck 3 hrs out of your life. Nauseating dribble

Rating:
Summary: This is your brain on drugs commercial
Review: Could be one of the worst movies I have ever seen. After paying to see this movie, I felt ripped off. This experience is like watching a 2 hour commercial. The movie left me feeling insulted and very disappointed. I have yet to meet anyone that saw this that actually liked it. Don't assume it is good just because of the hype and the actors.