Directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham, the same man who directed Beautiful Boxer, 2014's Skin Trade begins with a scene in which a young Thai woman is duped into a human trafficking ring's sinister clutches. This sets up the bad guys, a group of Serbian thugs led by Viktor (Ron Perlman). Trying to bust up this ring is a Thai cop named Tony (Tony Jaa), but he always seems to be one step behind them. However, on American soil… New Jersey to be specific, a cop named Nick Cassidy, with help from commanding officer Costello (Peter Weller) and fellow officer of the law Reed (Michael Jai White), things are different. They bust open a container that was supposed to have a fresh batch of young ladies in it only to find them all dead. A fire fight breaks out and Viktor's son is killed in the crossfire.

After that, it seems like things are back to normal until the next night Cassidy's house is attacked by a group of armed thugs. The place burns down and they figure he's dead but he survives. His wife and daughter, however, appear to be dead. Once Nick gets out of the hospital, he hops the next flight he can to Cambodia where he intends to wage a one man war on Viktor and his cronies, but Reed figures he's completely snapped and so he heads there after him. When Reed makes contact with Tony and fills him in on what happened, Tony figures he'd better help Reed stop Nick before it all goes south but soon enough alliances shift and truths are revealed. Before you know it, Nick and Tony have joined forces to end Viktor's slave-trading ring once and for all, but it won't be easy because they're outnumbered and seriously outgunned.

Skin Trade doesn't reinvent the action movie rule book but it sure does what it does well enough. This is a seriously fast paced film shot with plenty of style but not so much that it overshadows the story or the set pieces. It'll come as a surprise to no one that those set pieces are the highlights of the movie, but the fight and stunt choreography on display in the picture is top notch. There are a couple of spots where stunt doubles are obvious and some CGI sticks out but for the most part this is top notch high-octane stuff. The main draw here is the fact that we get to see Tony Jaa go up against Dolph Lundgren and while it isn't quite as ‘David and Goliath' as the scene where Bruce Lee went up against Kareem Abdul Jabar in Game Of Death it does work on the same level. Lundgren looks massive compared to Jaa, while Jaa moves so fast that despite the difference in their physical size, they seem pretty evenly matched. No slouch in the movies department either, we get a great brawl with Michael Jai White too, letting him strut his stuff on an equally impressive scale. Through into the mix plenty of bloody shoot outs, a few great chase scenes and a lot of impressive stunt work throughout the movie and yeah, this is ninety-five minutes of action movie bliss.

As far as the performances go, Lundgren isn't really stretching here but he plays the big, ballsy tough guy well. The story doesn't ask much of him outside of looking tough and angry but tough and angry are his strong points so in that regard the movie definitely plays to his strengths. It's also refreshing to see him with a bit of grey in his hair and playing a character that would appear to be his own age. It makes his work in the movie more believable. Opposite Lundgren, Jaa is… okay. He's here for his martial arts skills and not his acting ability and while it makes sense from a storytelling perspective to have him speak his lines in English, his delivery is less than perfect. And that's fine, because English is obviously not his native tongue, but there are a couple of emotional scenes between him and his girlfriend in the movie that fall a bit flat for that reason. Throw in supporting efforts from an effective but underused Peter Weller, a bombastic turn from White and then Ron Perlman as the main villain and this turns out to be a lot of fun for fans of medium-tier action fare.

Nicely shot, set to an effective if not super original score and delivering plenty of action (and a little completely gratuitous T&A For good measure), Skin Trade is a pretty terrific ‘good guys vs. bad guys' tale of action, revenge and intrigue. It's not deep, but it sure is fun.

Video:

Skin Trade arrives on Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1080p high definition in its proper 2.39.1 widescreen aspect ratio and it looks excellent. Shot digitally there are obviously no problems with print damage or blemishes while detail and texture are strong throughout the movie. Some scenes do look a bit hot but that would appear to be intentional, because outside of those scenes color reproduction seems spot on. There are no obvious compression artifacts nor is there any edge enhancement and while eagle-eyed viewers might spot a tiny bit of shimmer and maybe a couple of instances of minor banding, this is otherwise a very strong picture.