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Traffic
USA Films


8.0

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 40 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for pervasive drug content, strong language, violence and some sexuality

Starring Michael Douglas, Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Quaid, and Catherine Zeta-Jones

Traffic evokes the high stakes and high risks of the drug trade, as seen through a series of interrelated stories, some of which are highly personal and some of which are filled with intrigue and danger. (USA Films)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Simon Moore (miniseries Traffik) Stephen Gaghan
DIRECTED BY:	Steven Soderbergh
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: May 29, 2001 Video: May 29, 2001 Theatrical: December 27, 2000
RUNNING TIME:	147 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Germany / USA

Out of five 2001 Oscar nominations (including one for Best Picture), the film picked up three awards: for Best Director (Soderbergh), Best Supporting Actor (Del Toro), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Gaghan). Traffic was also named Best Picture for 2000 by the New York Film Critics Circle. Gaghan and Del Toro also received Golden Globes and British Academy Awards for their work.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Variety Todd McCarthy

Enormously ambitious and masterfully made, Traffic represents docudrama-style storytelling at a very high level.

100

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

It is a remarkable achievement in filmmaking, a beautiful and brutal work.

100

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A flat-out electrifying experience.

100

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Borderline brilliant. Tackles the war on drugs from a kaleidoscope of perspectives.

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The rare Hollywood epic that dares to entertain an audience by engaging the world.

100

Salon.com Jeff Stark

In the scorching new film Traffic, director Steven Soderbergh captures the hypocrisy -- and tragedy -- of the nation's unwinnable war on drugs. Traffic is a huge, determined movie in every way.

100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

There's not a smarter, more demanding American film from the past year.

100

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A stunning film.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Soderbergh's story, from a screenplay by Stephen Gaghan, cuts between these characters so smoothly that even a fairly complex scenario remains clear and charged with tension.

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's a thriller that really thrills, a drama that really engages, a portrait of a world and system out of joint that is painfully convincing and totally engrossing from the first simmering minute to the last explosive second.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Explosive entertainment, with the tension and volatility of its subject matter.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Traffic is a riveting, semi-documentary drama, and yet calling it that is a disservice to just how suspenseful and stylish an entertainment it is.

Newsweek David Ansen

Traffic doesn’t quite come to a full emotional boil at the end. Soderbergh is too knowing to offer easy solutions. But what a journey it takes us on: disturbing, exciting, completely absorbing.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Sinfully watchable ensemble movie.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

One of the things that makes Traffic so very good is the wry humor that's laced throughout the film. It's a funny movie.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

May be the first Hollywood movie since Robert Altman's "Nashville" to infuse epic cinematic form with jittery new rhythms and a fresh, acid- washed palette.

Film.com Robert Horton

Movie excitement from beginning to end.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

His (Soderbergh's) work has taken on echoes of a classier, bygone age of cinema, at once more literate and lighthearted.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Traffic is not just an ultra-procedural--it's the Big Picture, the Whole Enchilada, complete with a complicated war between two Mexican drug cartels.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

It's a thrilling, powerful movie, and one that certain people in certain quarters may have at one time called dangerous. Some of them may yet still.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

It's every bit as thrilling and engrossing as the best spy thriller or cop flick.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

He's (Soderbergh) among the few directors working today who makes me wonder what he'll do next - and draws me into the movie house, whatever it may be.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Atriumph on almost every level. It is breathtakingly stylish, wonderfully acted and its three interrelated tales of the "war" on drugs are brilliantly structured to form a cohesive, powerful whole.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

It's the best drug-busting movie since ''The French Connection.''

USA Today Mike Clark

The story itself is surprisingly seamless, yet it's the individual components that linger.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Where Traffic stumbles is in its inability to engage the heart with the same fervor it engages the intellect.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The picture's thoughtfulness and ambition make it unusually suspenseful, gripping, and disturbing.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Though meticulously researched, well acted and filled with striking moments, the movie ultimately feels oddly disconnected.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

So though it takes important steps in that direction, the film pulls back from what seems to be its own logical conclusion.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

As with much of Soderbergh's avant-garde work, his garde isn't quite as avant as he would have us believe it is. Still, Soderbergh's jazzed stylistics can be smartly entertaining. Without them, an uneven movie like Traffic might seem more of a mélange than it already is.

TNT RoughCut Andy Klein

It’s Del Toro who really gets to strut his stuff with a subtle, ambiguous, and riveting performance. In a field of top-notch actors, he’s the one whom you remember days later.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

I don't see this slightly better-than-average drug thriller, with slightly better-than-average direction by Steven Soderbergh, as anything more than a routine rubber-stamping of genre reflexes.

Time Richard Schickel

Finally, though, Traffic, for all its earnestness, does not work. It leaves one feeling restless and dissatisfied.

Slate David Edelstein

You could get high on this movie's technique, dizzy on its storytelling. Yet it's one of the most lucid bad trips ever made.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 40 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

J B gave it a6:
[***SPOILERS***] This terribly pandering piece of cinematography is redeemable only for the scene in which the film's drug czar concludes that one can't wage a war on drugs without waging war on one's own family and friends. Everything else about this film was dull and unimaginative, clearly designed as filler for this ultimate message that is nearly lost is the sea of meaningless drivel that surrounds it.

jon gave it a10:
Extremely powerful, traffic was definitely robbed at the Oscars for Best Picture.

Gabor A. gave it a9:
Simply one of the best movies ever made.

Dan C. gave it a 10:
The ultimate anti-drug. Traffic is great in every sense of the word. The 5th best film of the new millennium (behind LOTR and Finding Nemo) and the best of 2000. I'll never do drugs now. Thanks a bunch, Soderbergh.

Jordan B. gave it a 10:
This is an amazing film, but to be interested in it have to have a passion for the drug conflict in the first place. This is not a propaganda film as one person said, it is a film that explores the various perspectives and problems in the "war against drugs". The movie is designed to make you think, a rarity in big hollywood films. Great character development, too. The mood and attitude of the movie follow Douglas' character's development beautifully. I cannot recommend this movie to everyone, because it could bore anyone who doesn't find the drug conflict interesting, but if you pay attention you might get something out of it.

Pat C. gave it an 8:
This comprehensive examination of an international drug traffic situation has the authenticity of a documentary and the gripping breadth of perspective of a classic epic. The character development is a little sparse.

raVen gave it an 8:
This movie drained me a little. But I'm not exactly sure that's a bad thing. It also required a lot more concentration than I had expected. And I'm not so sure that's bad, either. It most definitely isn't a movie you can pop in every Saturday for a good time. But it's worthwhile and made very well. As an aside, I would say that Don Cheadle is a close personal friend of mine, but it isn't true, and nobody would believe me anyway. But dang, does this guys show up for the big ones! He always seems to surface and thrive in movies overflowing with A-List actors. Traffic is no exception.

Traffic USA Films

Traffic
USA Films