Traded

RELEASED IN 2016 and directed by Timothy Woodward Jr., "Traded" stars Michael Paré as a father ruthlessly pursuing his runaway daughter (Brittany Elizabeth Williams) who has fallen prey to slavers in the prostitution trade. Trace Adkins plays an intimidating saloon owner while Kris Kristofferson is on hand as a bartender seeking redemption from the filth he's forced to live amidst. Tom Sizemore plays a nasty buyer in the slave-* business. This is a low-budget Western that has some technical weaknesses, like dubious continuity/editing, but a compelling story, gritty tone, brutal violence and fine locations, costuming & score. If you don't appreciate dark, violent modern Grade B Westerns like "Hickok" (2017) and "6 Guns" (2010) don't bother. The plot is obviously a melding of "Hardcore" (1979) and "Taken" (2008) in the Old West, but without the blockbuster resources. There are a lot of UN-pleasant elements as we see what those saloon babes REALLY had to go through in the Old West. There are some unexpected highlights, like Marie Oldenbourg as "Girl" in a meaty subplot, but the way it concludes (the subplot) is a missed opportunity. As dark and brutal as the movie is, there are thankfully brief rays of light, hope, reverence and (hopefully) happiness. THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 38 minutes and was shot at Paramount Ranch, Agoura, California and areas nearby. WRITER: Mark Esslinger. GRADE: B-

Acting, direction, script, dialogue. You name it, it's wrong. It is almost worth suggesting to friends as a nasty joke. One particular scene sticked to mind and that was when the mother takes off for the neighbour's house to ask where her daughter was. She was so hilariously uncomfortable with riding a horse it was crazy. The horse was practically crawling I bawled myself laughing so hard I think I cracked a rib. If you are going to watch it as a fan of horrid movies then watch it until that scene and stop. that was the highlight of this movie. This movie is a total and complete waste of time and if ever there was a movie that deserved a negative score this is it.

"Kansas soil is full of fools who thought they were quicker." Clay (Paré) is a loving father but after his son is killed something changes in his family. Not wanting to live in depression any longer his daughter decides to leave and start her new life. When Clay realizes that something has gone wrong he will stop at nothing to find his daughter and bring her home safe. There have been a ton of these cheaply made westerns and most are almost unwatchable. While this won't stand along side modern classics like Open Range or Tombstone this is definitely one of the better ones to come out lately. That being said, this is essentially a western version of Taken. Adkins is a little over the top in this, but it works. Paré does a great job of carrying the movie and adds something to the movie to keep it from becoming too cheesy. Western fans will definitely enjoy this one. Overall, one of the better westerns to come out in a while. I liked this. I give it a B.

It is very rare that I have the depth of feeling to write a review for a film either good or bad but after watching this effort, I just had to. On every conceivable measure of the film making and writing art, this is a crime. Kris Kristofferson must be facing bankruptcy for him to be involved in this epic failure. Every possible cliché, from every western, ever made, is unashamedly copy and pasted into the script. I must admit, I had a semi masochistic urge to watch this through to the end. Much like watching a chimp with a hand grenade, you know it will end badly but just how will it reach it's denouement? In both cases, predictably and messily. Some films are so bad, that they are funny and earn some redemption in that. This film is so far off the scale in bad it even fails in that!

I recently had the pleasure of viewing the film traded. The 19th century Western stars Kris Kristofferson, Tom Sizemore and has an appearance by Quinton Aaron. I was happy to see Quinton Aaron of whom I wondered what he would appear in after starring in The Blind Side. The film was fun and entertaining. Normally I am not a fan of westerns as I find them repetitive with the same characters, theme and action. Traded is the exception to the rule. Intelligent writing has caused interesting and believable characters. The dialogue is unique and not sleep inducing. The plot is well thought out and unfolds on screen seamlessly. I could not take my eyes off of the screen. I recommend Traded to anyone who is a fan of good film. You will not be disappointed.

I don't often critique films unless they're so good (since I believe it's nicer to be positive and ignore the negative), but I really enjoy westerns and this one was terrible. First, the story was weak at best since it's a western version of taken. Character development was so weak you just didn't care about any of these people. But what got me over and over was the seriously screwed up sets and props. It starts with the house. Look around and you'll see windows with flawless glass, stamped oak chairs (bad cheap modern reproductions), a flawless table, and a floor nothing reminiscent of what would have existed in the late 1800's.. or even into the early 20th century. Later on in the movie, you see clothing that's clearly not from the period and even the dad's holster and gun look totally modern store bought. Maybe the set clincher was seeing a plywood floor (in the scene where the guy is polishing the bell). Plywood?? I don't think so!! Make-up on "woman" (a character) that looked like rubber latex poorly stuck on. Even script where the writer(s) just didn't know how to make it sound convincing (e.g. I "recon" there are so many times I can say "recon" in a few sentences when "I recon" it's going to be easy to "recon" the writer "recons" he doesn't know what the heck a cowboy would say except "recon". Sheesh! A weak story. Acting that simply wasn't good (like the actors were trying to act like actors from REAL western movies!). Extremely poor sets and costumes. It was just a bad, low budget, cheesy movie. Sorry to all the people I know who are involved in this movie's production who worked hard, but it really was a bad movie.

Take a number of hasbeens or neverweres, fold in a truly bad, derivative script with neither surprise nor finesse, add indifferent direction, lackadaisical editing, shake well, fling onto a screen. The resulting drips form this sorry excuse for a film. The screenwriter also owns a food delivery service. He should continue to only deliver bologna to Angelenos too stoned to shop for themselves instead of trying to feed it to viewers. Oh, wait. He did write that "Brady Wives" episode. Trace Adkins would never leave the confines of a paper bag if purposed with escape through acting. Michael Pare? Really? Is he still alive? It's difficult to determine as he zombie-walks through this role to give 'phoning it in' a new definition. It is again good to see Kris Kristofferson's trademark face screwing and teeth gnashing. This Director, like all others Kris worked for, couldn't tame these tics either. When did Sizemore get released from prison? Oh, the plot. I haven't seen a film plot like this in a good fifteen minutes. Yada yada daughter kidnapped. Yada yada track kidnappers down. Yada yada bang bang kill kill. Nothing new. Nothing original. Thank me now for saving you from this - the softest word I can use without expletive - snoozefest. Okay, POS. You figure it out. Who puts up money for dreck like this? I suppose when you're Michael Pare and offered a few ducats you take them. Good thing he found time with all the buzz about his tour-de-force performance in the TV remake of "The Philadelphia Experiment." It rankles bux are put into useless celluloid as this when there are thousands of scripts far more worthy of entertaining an audience. This film is not only bad, it's a tragic indicator of a deal regardless the outcome. Wake up money men. You're going to lose your underoos on this. Have some cojones and mount better films. Bah! NOTE: IMDb delayed this review until opening weekend was over, and there's noting more desperate than filmmakers who plant reviews from users who've just joined (and consider this the best film ever made) or are either obsessed with, or work for, Trace.

Can't go wrong with Kris Kristofferson in your western, too. In the same premise as the movie Taken, a man, who just lost his son to a snake bite, loses his daughter to white slavery and has to use a particular set of skills he retired 15 or so years before to bring her back. The movie gives this speech at the beginning of the film that talks about how slavery has just ended but white slavery still existed. It put me in the mood to see a whole movie about white slavery, but the movie was made very personal as we just followed this cowboy on his journey to finding his daughter. Although Tom Sizemore is in the movie as a pimp trying to create the best * house on this side of the Mississippi(his words) which made for a more insightful look at prostitution in the wild west. Michael Paré does a great job as a lead actor playing a cowboy. silent but deadly and a real talk is cheap type of person. He's traveling all over the west looking for his daughter who was sold and traded into being a *. The concept of the movie is really dark, especially when the fact that through the movie you never know exactly what's going on with the daughter as the movie is all from the lead actor's point of view. Although I must admit, the film itself is not as dark as the concept. I feel like I should have been more on the edge of my seat concern about the whereabouts of this child, rather than how bad ass the cowboy is. Well overall, I wish this was the Taken for the prequel with Liam Neeson

All I can say is that I actually laughed during this movie !! Acting was mechanical, emotionless, jerky and below poor. (Not to be crude, but I have seen better acting in a Porno movie !!) editing is choppy and confusing at times, the story line is predictable and you can 'See it coming' like a train on a clear day !! There is no suspense nothing to make you sit on the edge of your seat, there's no connection with the characters, you don't feel anything for them! Well, I did actually feel sympathy for them, I was sorry they decided to make this movie !!! It was a total and complete failure on every level. I can honestly say I have watched made for TV movies that surpass this by leaps and bounds. As far as the positive reviews posted here, all I can figure is that the posters must be friends or relatives of the actors, director or producer. If you really feel the need to see this movie I strongly suggest you wait till it comes out on TV or is in the .99 cent clearance bin at Walmart. Then you won't feel so bad for having watched it. It was a waste of 98 good minutes of my day. I cannot think of one positive thing to say about it, not one!! I'm very sorry to have to write such a poor review, but that's just the way it is. I actually sat here for 15 minutes trying to think of something positive to say and all I could come up with was, the horse were very handsome. The only reason I gave it a 1/10 rating was because the scale doesn't allow for negative numbers, otherwise I would have honestly rated it at -8/10. It gets +2 negative points because the horses looked good!! Don't PLEASE don't waste your money. If you have money to throw away, which is what you will be doing if you buy a ticket to watch this, you may send it to me! I could use it and at least it will go to a good cause. Spending a single dollar on this movie is going to make you hate yourself afterwards. Sorry Kris, Michael and Trace, you guys could have found a much better project to get involved in. Kris and Trace definitely, at least they can act with a good script and director, Michael should maybe stick to made for TV stuff, which by the way I have seen made for TV movies that look like Academy Award contenders when compared to this !!! Hope this helps you save your hard earned dollars, don't waste your money or your time, seriously !!!

First off, how this western ever got as high a rating on IMDb I will never know. The rating here is the only reason I decided to watch the movie. Boy was that a mistake, this movies has to be one of the worst westerns I have ever seen, just plain awful. Obviously the high ratings came from people associated with the movie. Don't waste your time on this one, I could not even finish watching it, it's that bad.The acting was simply terrible.The story and plot was full of gaps and the filler content added to lengthen the movie did nothing to add any value to an already bad film.Take my advice, save your money and your time as you will never get either back.This is not even worth a watch on a day when you have absolutely nothing to do...