The level of quality of a film determines how much effort I'll put into reviewing it, so this one will be brief. As Dolph Lundgren's long-gestating passion project, I had reasonably high hopes that this would be an entertaining, but hard-hitting, b-movie. While the film does address the problem of human trafficking, it never really felt organic to the plot, bringing the narrative to a standstill to comment on the issue at hand. From a writing standpoint, the film is in shambles, even for a b-grade action movie. There's too many characters and plot threads going on at the same time, with not enough development for any of them, let alone believable character motivation. One moment we're introduced to a character and then they're blown away in the next. Even the action isn't without fault here. Dolph Lundgren has never been an action star with a cool fighting style, usually just beating his opponents to a pulp. Same thing here, but that really isn't the core problem. It's the choice of the director/cinematographer/editor to shoot and edit some scenes in a quick-cut manner that doesn't let the audience get a good look at what is going on a lot of the time. Fortunately, Tony Jaa's scenes are better, in particular one extended sequence where he faces off against Michael Jai White. The acting is about what you'd expect from actors of this caliber. Overall, though, I was disappointed by how disjointed and unmotivated the story was, human trafficking angle or not. With the cast assembled, and how close the subject was to Dolph Lundgren's heart, I expected a little more.
Review of Skin Trade
