Dolph Lundgren. Tony Jaa. Michael Jai White.
Need I say more?
…Sadly, yes.
I squirmed in anticipation for this movie based on its cast alone, and couldn’t wait for it to come out on Redbox (which, at the time of this writing, it finally has). Its already quite-accomplished roster of martial artists, of varying levels of charisma, was enough to sell me, and it’s supporting cast was no less electrifying. Appearances from Celina Jade (Shado from Arrow), Peter Weller (Robocop, The Naked Lunch), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (every movie ever made), and Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Teen Titans) were all deliciously welcome, the latter of which made me actually scream “RON PERLMAN!!!” at the TV, because that actually happens to be a thing I sometimes do.
Because war. War never changes.
Sadly, much of this cast is pretty underutilized, specifically Weller and Tagawa whose roles are both non-challenging and non-pivotal. Jade seriously brings her A-game to the table as the “face” of the tragedies of the eponymous skin trade, but the lines she has to work with just don’t feel like they have the punch required to bring her performance to the point of poignancy it deserved. Perlman plays the main villain, complete with hammy Serbian accent, which I have absolutely no problem with because RON FUCKING PERLMAN.
I like Ron Perlman.
Anyway, let me back up and take a quick look at the film’s story, which is slightly more complex than I might have expected. The story focuses on the Thai skin trade and the millions (yup, millions) of women and children who are taken or sold from their homes to be hooked on heroin and sold to the highest bidder, or traded to work in clubs. This is looked at from the angle of three different characters – Tony Jaa (Ong Bak, The Protector), a Thai police detective who’s trying to take down the trade by the book; Dolph Lundgren (Rocky IV, Masters of the Universe, Showdown in Little Tokyo), an American detective whose wife is killed and daughter taken by the Serbian cartel and has a personal vendetta; and Michael Jai White (Blood and Bone, Spawn, Black Dynamite), a corrupt FBI agent trying to protect the cartel from within.
I cannot begin to fucking describe how misleading this poster is.
Things twist and turn around a little bit, as once Lundgren goes on his rampage (which is, admittedly, pretty sweet) both Jaa and White are on his tail, with nobody knowing that White is the real bad guy. This conflict between these three moral axes isn’t looked too deeply into, but it is efficiently taken care of. We easily get the impression of each character’s position – Jaa is Lawful Good, Lundgren is Chaotic Good, and White is Lawful Evil, and they act their parts pretty well.
Though by “act” I don’t really mean… like, “act” act. Lundgren does alright and is probably the highlight of the three core characters. White does fine with the small amount of material he’s given to work with, but doesn’t exactly shine. Jaa sounds like he’s speaking his lines phonetically, and acts far better when speaking in Thai than in English (this can be starkly seen in one scene where he switches between the two). If I had a shiny “best actor in this movie” medal to hand out (which I realize that I do not), it would end up going to Celina Jade for her scarred and abandoned performance. So, hopefully that counts for something.
By the way, if you’re in this for Michael Jai White, you’re gonna be disappointed. If you’re in this to see Michael Jai White fight Dolph Lundgren, just turn around now and go. Actually, if you’re in this to see anyone fight anyone, you might want to consider just rewatching Blood and Bone instead (I assume you’ve seen it, because if you read my reviews it must mean you like good things). As an action movie, this seems to want to blend the “run and shoot” style of the 80’s with the “let’s you and me fight” style of more modern action films. It doesn’t pull off either particularly well, even if the variety might have been appreciated in a film that utilized both elements a little better.
“You, uh… come here often?”
While the actual martial arts scenes are pretty few and far between, they share an unusual trait for an action film of this type – you have to suspend the fuck out of your disbelief, specifically if you normally might not believe that Tony Jaa is an unbeatable, indestructible terminator. Seriously – besides a single scene where his shoulder is dislocated and he has to put it back in place, the 130lb. Jaa is able to tank repeated earth-shattering hits to the face and body from both Lundgren and White (who are both in the 250lb. range) and not only keep on fighting, but show no signs of either tiring or damage. Seriously, he makes it through the entire movie with like, a very small booboo on his head and that’s about it. Jaa, I realize you’re tough, and I love ya, but I just can’t go for the concept that you can laugh off repeated punches to the face from Ivan Drago. Sorry.
Ultimately, this action movie contains two noteworthy fight scenes (Jaa vs. Lundgren and Jaa vs. White). Two. As in one plus one. Because I know if I made a an action movie starring three prodigious and likely expensive martial artists, I wouldn’t have them do much fighting. That sounds like a profitable idea.
(I’m being sarcastic though, actually. I wouldn’t do that.)
This guy gets it.
But maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way. Maybe this shouldn’t be seen as an “action film.” After all, at its heart, Skin Trade is an awareness-raising film about the very real problem of sexual trafficking, and even gives us some chilling statistics about the reality of the issue before the credits roll. Thing is, if we’re going to look at it as an awareness film, how well does it capture the horror of this situation?
Actually it does pretty alright. Not as good as some movies, certainly. Nuance and symbolism are put to no real use here. We do, however, get plenty of shots of dead-eyed, drugged-up young women, and a look at the reality of the violence and nauseating treatment of these women. There’s even a particularly chilling shot towards the end that shows what appears to be several dozen women and girls packed elbow-to-elbow in a long, chest-high cage, really helping to drive the point home. In addition, we have the dialogue of Perlman’s character, showing the rationalization of the vileness of the people that take part in and perpetuate human trafficking – and eventually the realization that it’s the buyers, not the sellers, who keep the trade alive.
If we look at it like that, then the action elements of Skin Trade feel somewhat… tacked on, don’t they?
But I really like watching people kick other people. I can’t help it.
Let’s pan back, then, and look at this entire thing as a whole. A sum of its parts.
Skin Trade features enjoyable action, in far too small of doses. It features a passable if irrelevant story about a serious issue that, while it could have been done better justice, still deserves to be looked at and exposed. Its acting is mixed but consistent (if we exclude the garbled Jaa), with highlights in certain characters and areas.
With its powers combined, Skin Trade is exactly what I was hoping it wouldn’t be – an utterly mediocre movie that squanders its dazzling cast and is too sluggish to leave much of an impression. The cogs turn just fast enough to get the movie off its feet, but it never really feels like it reaches for anything higher than the ceiling.