Sorry, this movie sucks

Sadly Over-hyped

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

In the year 2000, a new USA drug czar has been appointed, Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas). As a former well-regarded judge from Ohio, Bobby has the credentials and the smarts to try new approaches to fighting drug trafficking. But, he soon learns, its complicated. Meanwhile, his own daughter Caroline, an intelligent, beautiful sixteen year old, is experimenting with drugs with her boyfriend, Seth (Topher Grace) and his gang. Her parents seem not to know. Also, a Mexican police officer, Javier (Benicio Del Toro) works for a small salary to try to stop the huge cartels from sending their wares to the USA. A good guy, Javier suspects his bosses are in bed with the traffickers. He witnesses torture. Lastly, rich beautiful Helena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) lives the good life in an exclusive community near San Diego. Her husband, Carl (Steven Bauer) is, to her knowledge, a hydroponic fruit grower and exporter. But, he's really the kingpin of drug smuggling in Southern California and well protected with his own lawyer (Dennis Quaid). Yet, police, especially Gordon (Don Cheadle) , determined to find out who he is, captures an underling and makes him talk. Now, Carl is arrested and the business is shut down. Helena, unaware of her husband's profession, receives threats against her five year old darling son and jumps into the fray to save her wealthy existence, despite being six months pregnant. Man, is this one tough lady who has no scruples about bumping off witnesses. Far away, Robert travels the country to learn how he can change the drug smuggling, Caroline disappears into the underground world of drugs, and Javier does the tap dance of a lifetime to stay alive. Who will make it in a dangerous, dangerous situation? This complex, amazing film, surely the best on drug trafficking ever, has a mesmerizing, four-tiered plot and a wonderful, huge cast. Everything it takes to make a movie terrific is here; cast, script, costumes, scenery, cinematography, and direction. One more important ingredient is its ambiguity, for it tells a tale and makes no judgments of what is right or wrong, for the most part. Do you love thrillers with a profound impact? Traffic is this and more.

Even though the movie was made in 2000, the subject stills up and really important to be discussed, since until today it's a tabu in society and many people need to be informed about it. Robert Wakefield had a really important post in the film, but he resigned it after seeing that the traffic is really different from what he thought. He realized that after losing his own daughter to the drugs, which was a good student and from a "good" family, so the concept that all the drug addicts was bad people was wrong. Also, he realized that there was no way to stop the traffic, since even if they arrest an important drug dealer, someone else would replace him. Another thing was that, he saw that most of the drug dealers didn't had another choice, so they were doing this for the sake of survival. The difference tones helped the storyline by the fact that is easier to notice where the part is happening.

This gem of the millennium comes with a great story (which has been done countless times before and after), great actors (funny faced most of them), and very well done action.Unfortunately all is wasted on the terrible actual telling of that story and its people in action. We get weird colors, useless zoom ins, shots into nothing, a boring soundtrack, the whole thing stripped off any continuity and stretched to 2 hours 30 minutes.It is understandable the makers of this film wanted to underline the realism with a documentary style, but come on. Or maybe they just were on some of the drugs shown in the picture, or maybe, and that must be it, they wanted the audience to feel like they were on drugs.

Drugs are everywhere, their presence has been steadily increasing (if it hasn't already maxed out) through the years. But, people who want to lament over today's drug problem lose sight of the fact that drugs have been prevalent since before modern times. People want drugs, not everyone mind you, but a lot of people do. They want illegal drugs, prescription drugs and drugs that aren't thought of as drugs, such as alcohol and cigarettes. Illegal drugs, for the sake of the movie I'll restrict myself to hard stuff like cocaine or heroin, are a big business, perhaps the biggest business in the world. The second biggest business may be the war on drugs, but the difference is one enterprise routinely prospers while the other runs in the red all the time.I'm not going to get into my own personal drug politics, but I am someone who has spent most of his life around drugs and has seen how they affect everyone they touch. Traffic isn't a message movie in the sense that it tries to say this is good and this is bad. It is a message movie on two fronts, first is the message that drugs affect everyone they touch. Second is the message that the war on drugs is being lost and may be more harmful than it is helpful. I happen to agree with both points, so in that regard Traffic is already off to a good start with me. But, it shouldn't come down to personal politics, the two main points touched on in Traffic should be common sense, but they aren't. It's easy to see how drugs affect everyone they touch, users, dealers and those who fight against drugs are all impacted by the mere presence of drugs. The war on drugs is an abysmal failure, that much is obvious by spending a few hours in any local high school. Traffic superbly tells its tale so as not to shove these points down the viewers throats, but rather to give the viewer a glimpse at what is happening and to allow the viewer to come to their own conclusions.Traffic excels in the banality of the drug world and in essence the world in general. The miscommunication shown between different groups of government, the plight of Catherine Zeta-Jones' character, how the smallest of details can affect gaggles of people. At the same time it excels in showing how the most banal of things in our world are escalated tenfold in the world of drugs.I was amazed in Traffic with the relative ease of the story and Soderbergh's direction. Up until Traffic I was not a member of the Soderbergh fan club, but with Traffic I can see little touches that do make him a modern filmmaker to watch out for. His use of colour was not something I was prepared for, but it was exquisite to take in. Each region being filmed in a different hue not only allowed the viewer to know what place they were at in a hectic and fast moving story, but it added texture to each locale. Mexico looked grimier, Ohio looked more serene, and so on. Without these markers I don't know if the story would have flowed quite so easily, nor do I think it would have without Soderbergh's inventive shot selection and pacing choices.The acting in Traffic was great across the board, with nary a performance that didn't grab my attention. Michael Douglas & Benicio del Toro are the obvious point of discussion because their performances do anchor the film. But, I was most impressed with Don Cheadle and even more so with Luis Guzmán. There was genuine humour in Traffic, and most of it was supplied by Cheadle and Guzmán, but they were also poignant and honest characters.It's always a joy to discover an overlooked gem. The masses may not have overlooked Traffic, but I did and I am glad to have finally discovered it. Traffic was a well put together story with interesting characters, a compelling narrative, messages I found intriguing and honest, as well as moving at a fast pace while maintaining a unique look and feel. If you haven't yet seen Traffic, try not to miss out on this gem like I did.