Extra Expendable, by Aaron Pinkston
When you are about to watch a film starring the likes of Dolph Lundgren, Ron Perlman, Tony Jaa and Michael Jai White, you bring in certain expectations. It’s not really fair, nor possible, to judge Skin Trade as anything other than what those expectations set. There is obvious joy in seeing Lundgren as a cop on the hunt for revenge, Peter Weller as a disgruntled police captain and Perlman as a sinister Serbian sex trafficker – and there is plenty of that to go around. Skin Trade doesn’t always want to rely on being a simply fun, violent action film and the need for “big social issue” plotting is rough around the edges. I’m not sure if its sex trade stance makes Skin Trade a better film, but it is a decent ride with plenty of action.
Lundgren stars as Nick Cassidy (action hero name grade: solid B), a New Jersey detective investigating Serbian mobster Viktor Dragovic (action villain name grade: B+). On the other side of the world, Thai detective Tony Vitayakul (Tony Jaa) is investigating the shipment of young women in the sex trafficking business. Inevitably, their paths will cross. At times the film is labored in its plot – like many action films of this scale and scope, the script isn’t exactly sparkling. But after a few interesting plot twists that lead Cassidy overseas, the action really picks up and the film zooms through its second half.
None of Skin Trade’s action setpieces are going to compete with the biggest Hollywood tentpoles, but its mix of gunplay and hand-to-hand combat are competent and (more importantly) not afraid to be realistic. The film is a pretty hard R, not only for its disturbing sexual themes but also for intense violence. It is smart to allow its action stars do what they do best and interchange. Backstabbing and misinformation leads to the film’s three most adept tough guys to face off with each other. That’s right, we are able to see fight scenes between both Lundgren-Jaa and, perhaps more effectively, Jaa-Michael Jai White. If a film is going to cast this talent, it would be a sin not to use it, and it does decently well. This is where Skin Trade covers for the mistakes made by other B-list action get-togethers.
Its most common association is the slew of late period Jean-Claude Van Damme films, though I enjoyed this more than most post-JCVD. The film might take itself a little too seriously, but it never goes over the top. The gang are good enough actors to work through some of the bad dialogue and hit the emotional beats. Lundgren doesn’t have quite the charisma of Van Damme, but he does enough for the role. Similarly, Skin Trade does enough to be worth its B-level Expendables cast.
If you come to Skin Trade looking for something in the “so bad it’s good” realm, you’re looking in the wrong place. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check it out, especially if you consider yourself a fan of this tier of action flick.