Skin Trade is an action-packed movie starring Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa and Ron Perlman amongst others. It concerns a detective Nick Cassidy (Lundgren) seeking revenge against an Eastern European Human Trafficking Syndicate that murdered his family. The story takes him to East Asia where he teams up with another detective (Tony Jaa) in order to fight the criminals he is chasing. At the same time he is being framed for a murder he didn't commit.
Whilst this movie has all that you would expect from a relatively low budget action flick starring Dolph Lundgren such as gunfights, extended hand-to-hand combat and explosions it also seems much better than the usual Lundgren Fare and actually tries to tackle a real issue that is human trafficking which affects millions of women and children annually. There are however problems with the story, the acting and the soundtrack which to me sounded like a bad TV movie at times. The acting goes from acceptable to mediocre and there are some issues with the story such as the implausibilities of how Lundgren takes out a bar full of criminals after escaping from hospital where he was treated for at least two gunshots to the back, and then goes to East Asia without much of a problem. Unfortunately the acting is most problematic with Lundgren (wooden acting) and Jaa (over acting) and this is a big problem given the fact that they are the main actors. The rest of the cast are also mostly one dimensional.
On the plus side are the fights between the protagonists and their foes. These seem very well done. Some of the effects are a bit dodgy at times but then again most of the time they were better than expected. Overall a 5.5 out of 10. Entertains if you disregard the acting issues and don't want to think too much while watching the movie.
Whilst this movie has all that you would expect from a relatively low budget action flick starring Dolph Lundgren such as gunfights, extended hand-to-hand combat and explosions it also seems much better than the usual Lundgren Fare and actually tries to tackle a real issue that is human trafficking which affects millions of women and children annually. There are however problems with the story, the acting and the soundtrack which to me sounded like a bad TV movie at times. The acting goes from acceptable to mediocre and there are some issues with the story such as the implausibilities of how Lundgren takes out a bar full of criminals after escaping from hospital where he was treated for at least two gunshots to the back, and then goes to East Asia without much of a problem. Unfortunately the acting is most problematic with Lundgren (wooden acting) and Jaa (over acting) and this is a big problem given the fact that they are the main actors. The rest of the cast are also mostly one dimensional.
On the plus side are the fights between the protagonists and their foes. These seem very well done. Some of the effects are a bit dodgy at times but then again most of the time they were better than expected. Overall a 5.5 out of 10. Entertains if you disregard the acting issues and don't want to think too much while watching the movie.