5.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
A couple off for a romantic weekend in the mountains are accosted by a bike gang. Alone in the mountains, Brea and John must defend themselves against the gang, who will stop at nothing to protect their secrets.
Starring: Paula Patton, Omar Epps, William Fichtner, Luke Goss, Laz AlonsoThriller | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
The famed occultist Aleister Crowley once opined “spelling is defunct,” and even though he may have been hinting at magic(k)al incantations and not orthography, anyone who has ever frequented the internet will know that there is a whole host of “alternative facts” when it comes to ordering letters in a “correct” way. Lest anyone mistake the film currently under review for Steven Soderbergh’s Academy Award winning 2000 film Traffic, this film’s title comes adorned with a “k” at the end, but here’s the irony (which some fans of the Soderbergh opus may already know): Soderbergh’s film began life in a previous incarnation as a 1989 British miniseries entitled, yep, you guessed it, Traffik. Any and all comparisons between Soderbergh's now classic film and this pretty lamentable outing end with the putative similarities of their titles, however, for this particular Traffik is more of a, well, train wreck.
Traffik is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. The closing credits for the film have the "captured with Alexa" credit, and the IMDb lists two Alexa products as having digitally captured the imagery, but I did notice that one of the cameras seen in the Spinotti supplement had a Sony label, for whatever that's worth. A lot of this transfer is aces, with excellent detail levels and really warmly burnished palette, especially in some of the "magic hour" sequences before the you know what hits the fan. However, large swaths of the film play out in near darkness, and there are definite deficits in shadow detail throughout rather long sequences, where it's downright hard at times to completely make out what's going on, even when close-ups are employed. While Spinotti does mention the use of Steadicam in the supplement devoted to his cinematography, there's quite a bit of "jiggly cam" at play as well, something that kind of unavoidably leads to a perception of softness since things in the frame jump around so much. Despite some variances in detail levels and overall shadow definition, there are no compression anomalies, and generally speaking this a solid accounting of a nicely filmed production.
Traffik features a fairly boisterous DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, one that derives quite a bit of energy and surround activity from a glut of source cues as well as the occasional set piece like the big car - motorcycle chase in a scenic canyon. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout and Geoff Zanelli's score resides nicely in the side and rear channels quite a bit of the time.
Traffik wants to combine a home invasion plot with human trafficking and the two just don't mix very well, even with the completely predictable "linkage" of having one of the people in the home end up as an ostensible sex slave. It's all pretty ridiculous, though the film does benefit from committed performances and some especially nice cinematography from Dante Spinotti. Technical merits are generally solid for those considering a purchase.
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