Traffic or Traffik??

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Rented Traffic on DVD this weekend. I thought it was somewhat better than average, but not great. However I have some difficulty being
objective as I recently had the opportunity to see the full British miniseries, titled Traffik, on which the movie was based. The miniseries was 3 X 2 1/2 hrs less commercials, so approx. 6 hrs in total.
Even though it was 'made for TV' it was very well done and well-acted. In comparing the movie to the miniseries, the limitations of trying to
develop 3 major plot lines within a 2 1/2 hour movie become obvious. The plot seemed so rushed and I felt character development suffered
greatly as a result. (I recognize that had I not seen the miniseries I may not have seen this as a weakness in the movie)
One way to look at it is that in the miniseries each of the 3 major plot lines was given the equivalent of a 2 hour movie, with the stories very skillfully interwoven. Also with the action shifting between the 3 locales about every 20 minutes or so, pacing was excellent. BTW the setting of the 3 stories was Pakistan (heroin source), Germany (heroin destination) and Britain (Michael Douglas character was a British politician). The addicted daughter was played very well by Julia Ormond.
FWIW the movie stayed very close to the miniseries in actual plot detail.
For those who thought the movie was great (and I'm assuming many did, given its box office success) I would urge you to try and track down the miniseries as it will give you essentially the same story but done more intricately and IMO much better. Apparently it has been released on DVD, according to IMDB, but I have not seen it in stores.

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The Cable Cooker

Topic - Traffic or Traffik?? - DOM 10:43:04 06/04/01 (1)

Will be released 6/26/01 -nt - Vertigo 15:24:04 06/06/01 (0)

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