everything you have heard about this movie is true.
View MoreIt’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
View MoreJust intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?
View MoreThe film may be flawed, but its message is not.
I'm biased because I have quite intimate knowledge of this world from multiple perspectives. But this documentary was just awful! Seriously, I've watched a lot in this category (and many others) and this one was the worse by a long shot. I'll give it some credit. It was well put together. A lot of these documentaries come off looking really low budget, this was not the case. But, I'd rather take a low budget documentary that makes me think, instead of some well polished hatchet piece that insults my intelligence at every turn. Spoiler: The whole point of this documentary is to make you believe that all sex workers are tortured slaves (mostly children), and pimps are their evil slave masters. If we eradicate the pimps then the whole system will collapse and live will be better once again....If you have a brain then you can see how silly a premise this is. It glosses over all of the core issues of morality dealing with sex work. The issues that make this issue intriguing to begin with. Is it not a victimless crime? If the victim is created by the illegality then shouldn't the legislators be the target? Where does personal responsibility come into play? Etc, etc, etc. NONE of this get's asked. Instead, it stays true to the course. All prostitutes are victims of some overlord who is forcing them via violence to give away their most precious possession. OMG the grandstanding in this documentary was so retarded. You have a guy telling the camera that he would murder if someone talked his daughter into selling sex. Because murder is more OK than selling sex I guess. And there are no white pimps in this whole movie. You really want me to believe that all pimps are black? If that's true then the numbers posed at the ending definitely can't be true.Like I said. This is Reefer Madness for it's genre. I'm assuming a state funded shot at trying to force beliefs that don't make any sense down your throat instead of simply providing information from all sides and letting you come to your own conclusion.
View MoreA numbingly simple and one-sided myopic glance at a much larger and complex social issue. Played out old pimp stereotypes, sob story from family, cops that don't care, and posturing. When I sit through a doc I want to learn something and if fail that at least be entertained, neither of which this movie was able to do. I struggled to give it a 4 instead of a 3 but had to go with 4 because it does have camera quality and audio was good. So minus points for A/V I feel happy with a solid 2 rating.So this thing is making me write a longer review then needed sooo. Things they could of done to make this a much more relevant film..... Show how modern technology is playing a deeper and much greater role in prostitution. Show the laws/loopholes/associations/ that are helping prostitution instead of a vague reference to them and touting out some major news headline like a dog with a bone. (the Vegas Redlight thing) Show how the sexulization of children in our main stream media play a role in making them softer targets for pimps. Show cases where prostitution is legal and actually benefits the women to offer a more rounded view and offer some possible solutions. The list goes on for miles...
View Morenot the whole truth, with some creative license to make it more interesting. Crazy characters to make it more outrageous and crazy. It also plays into stereotypes and not every pimp is some fast talking, uneducated, black thug. If they wanted to show the true trafficking, it is more than just kidnapped girls, there are some that choose it as well but they are still victims, of course, never forget that. Side note: this "examines all sides" of the trade, and yet no mention is made of the men and boys that are victimized. Male victims are less likely to seek help or report as well as less likely to receive help or even be taken seriously. The estimate is a "mere" 2% of the estimated three MILLION people currently victimized in sex trafficking are male. Regardless, male or female, no one should be a slave no matter what the reason.
View MoreI saw this at a screening in Denver last night. It's basically an exposé of the teen prostitution phenomenon that exists across the country, as told by cops, pimps, journalists, johns, legislators and (most compellingly) former prostitutes. I felt it offered a very intense glimpse into a dark corner of our society that many of us know little about. It's interesting that, for all us Americans talk about the bad stuff that goes down in other countries, there are apparently things here in the states (e.g. The Players' Ball - look it up) that occur more or less openly and are pretty damn egregious.The two things I wanted more from this film were: some more direct verbal interaction between people who support "the game" and those whose job it is to destroy it; and more consideration of how the "pimp and ho" culture interpenetrates with mainstream culture.All in all, though, I was quite impressed. Daniel Steele, the main cop featured in the film, is a freakin' jedi.
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