Message lost in B-grade production

The horrors of human trafficking are brought home in writer-director Deon Taylor’s explosive action yarn.

But once the message has been rammed home, the production degenerates into yet another fight-for-survival saga. It relies far too much on cheap genre thrills and the important message is blurred.

Paula Patton, credited as a producer, is a key element in the movie, a catalyst to the dramatic action that unfolds when a romantic weekend in the mountains turns sour. A ruthless biker gang, involved in trafficking kidnapped women, pitch up and will kill in order to keep their secret safe.

The movie boasts reliable performances from Patton, as Brea, and Omar Epps, as John, the Patton character’s boyfriend. They provide the production with a professional sheen, but its clumsy shift in tones and motivations badly hamper the movie’s narrative flow.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out the plot lines. The twists and turns inherent in the story are telegraphed to such a degree that there remains few elements of shock or surprise.

Patton plays an investigative journalist down on her luck after being fired from her newspaper by its editor (William Fichter). She accepts an invitation from boyfriend John to escape to the mountains.

Trouble first brews at a gas station where they encounter a not-sofriendly biker gang and the problems grow from there. Luke Goss, the British pop singer turned actor, plays the trafficking syndicate’s scary kingpin.

Laz Alonso portrays John’s obnoxious, motor-mouth childhood friend Darren, whose agency connections own the spectacular mountain mansion, and Roselyn Sanchez is cast as Malia, Darren’s neglected girlfriend.

The movie’s on-off social advocacy becomes an abruptly dominant factor in the final act, with director Deon Taylor providing numerous scenes of the terrors of human trafficking. This B-Grade production takes itself too seriously.