yeah!!! I hardly ever get to say those two words with an exclamation mark let alone three, but Skin Traffik is worthy of my enthusiastic vulgarity. Though the premise is simple (Gary Daniels vs. an entire army of scum bags), the essence of action movie Kung Fu heaven is brilliantly maintained. The first scene-setting quarter takes its sweet time preparing you for the bodacious mayhem that occurs in the rest of the film, this film must contain the most frequency of action scenes as there's one every ten minutes or less! It's the most I've ever witnessed in an independent film. Yet, somehow, it never outstays its welcome. Skin Traffik delivered on my every expectation. For ignorant optimists such as myself, that's a cinematic rarity.

This could have easily been a direct to video movie from the 1990's. Regardless of the era, this movie somehow found its way from the bottom of the barrel and made its way onto DVD. Even so, I thought I'd give it a go. Worst 10 minutes of my life.The cast which is made up of actors that are well past their prime including Gary Daniels (Fist of the North Star), Mickey Rourke (Angel Heart), Eric Roberts (Runaway Train), Daryl Hannah (Wall Street), Dominique Swain (Face/Off), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs), Jeff Fahey (The Lawnmower Man), and Alan Ford (Snatch). Although Mickey Rourke had his career resurrected with The Wrestler (2008), he must have been desperate for the money to appear in this crap. Eric Roberts and Michael Madsen certainly don't do their careers any favours here. Dominque Swain, who was on the pathway to being the "It" girl in the late 90's, looks like she will never get her career back.The 90's called. Their want their direct to video movie back.Don't waste your time and money with this garbage. You can find better entertainment elsewhere.1/10.

This is a review of the German 3D / 2D Blu Ray Uncut version. The picture and sound quality was perfect and it's a great transfer. Now the reason I wanted to watch this aside from the huge cast list was the action! These action scenes are something else, not the type of fights you would expect to see in a British produced film with a Hollywood cast line up. This is Hong Kong style martial arts action with a heavy dose of shooting, neck-snapping, back-breaking and head-exploding gore. Shot with perfect fluidity across what looks like three country's. The filmmaker also appears to have taken a few pages from the classic heyday of 80's/90's style Kung Fu and Heroic Bloodshed action. This film is not built on anything real, but more a collective cinematic dream of various genres and cast combined. The action scenes themselves have their own dancelike rhythm and grace. Lead actor Gary Daniels has never looked better considering his age and has never been supported by such a diverse cast. I would recommend this film to anyone with an interest in the traditional action film before CGI and blockbusters took over our screens. It's almost as if this film was transported through time from the 80's and is just being seen now. B movie classic!

Ara Paiaya is a veteran of low-budget filmmaking who's even achieved some underground acclaim with his DUBBED AND DANGEROUS series. He breaks into the slightly more mainstream arena of action cinema with SKIN TRAFFIK – a vehicle for Gary Daniels that addresses the very real problem of sex trafficking. Bringing a slew of cult costars and his own set of strengths and weaknesses to the production, Paiaya succeeds in making an entertaining but thoroughly flawed adventure that's nevertheless worth the price for most of Daniels' fans.The story: A guilt-ridden hit man (Daniels) seeks to regain his humanity by rescuing a young girl from the clutches of sex slavers.The film's biggest selling point is its cast, which constitutes a fine collection of veterans: Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Alan Ford, and Jeff Fahey comprise a pretty sweet lineup for any film, direct-to-video or not. However, the way these actors are utilized and how well they perform is another matter: few of them appear in more than a few isolated scenes, and even fewer of them get in on any of the action. Roberts and Fahey are the most rounded and integrated characters, while Rourke ad-libs awkwardly and Hannah does her best to speak her lines in an undertone. Luckily, Gary Daniels is growing as an actor, and he carries the picture well enough. Overall, the dramatic content is passable, though it's clear that most of these stars have been cast solely for their names on the poster.Director Paiayah may have overspent on this marketing move, for while the film usually looks professional enough, there are surprising dips in technical quality that briefly make it look like Ara's no-budget outings of yesteryear. However, the movie remembers itself promptly enough, and it certainly sobers up for its fight scenes. These too are imperfect, but do more things right than not. Ara edits the brawls a lot looser than I expected and often does not utilize sound effects to signify strikes, but the fights possess a level of energy that I haven't seen in a Daniels vehicle in well over a decade. While Gary's one-on-one dream matchups (against Ron Smoorenburg and Paiaya himself, respectively) disappoint, the mass brawls are an athletic delight. This marks the first time in Gary's later career that the action of one of his films was designed by a younger stunt team with a more modern take on fight choreography, and I'm happy to say that Gary holds his own throughout.With the movie's human trafficking theme, Gary joins a slew of fellow action heroes starring in pictures of the same topic. While I'm pleased that awareness of this crime is being treated as more than window dressing, I am critical about the proliferation of male heroes in this setting. Sex slavery is something that predominantly affects girls and women, but in this film, their trials exist only to fuel the righteous indignation of Daniels' character. (SPOILER) It doesn't do much for the tone of the picture when the only featured victim (Dominique Swain) is killed off for shock value after being established as a main character. In this regard, consider this review a distress call to Cynthia Rothrock: we need you to put a female face on this particular subgenre.Nevertheless, when viewed as nothing more than a cheap action flick, SKIN TRAFFIK delivers where it counts and most of its faults are overlookable as experimental touches. This one may divide general action fans and devotees of the more famous performers, but if watch this movie primarily for Gary Daniels' sake, you could definitely do worse. I hope that Gary continues to seek out ambitious projects like this, and that Ara Paiaya continues to hone his craft – he might yet become a good guy of the karate scene.