Review of Traitor (2008) by Matthew P — 18 Aug 2011

When I first saw the preview's for this movie they made the movie look not all that particularly interesting. Some sort of a 'Bourne Identity, Muslim style' slant. That idea isn't all that bad in & of itself but, the preview's didn't even really try; they made the move look, well, ...boring! Basically, the preview's just showed the action scene's with none of the heart...

This movie is actually a character driven story, that focuses in on, what is essentially the title character, Don Cheadle's character, Samir Horn, focused on doing what is right, not willing to make sacrifices. And yet sacrifices get made that are, at least in part, beyond his control.

The two thing's that I didn't like about this film were, one, the death scene for Jeff Daniels; why would Carter meet Horn in that, whatever it was (a parking garage?), the very spot that horn was to meet Omar? How did Carter even know that Horn was going to be there?? (The cell phone has a tracking device, perhaps, bc, I sure can't see Horn telling Carter to meet him at that location when it's not exactly convenient!) That scene only seemed to serve a single purpose; heightening the tension in the story for the audience, besides the fact that in terms of the actual story itself it didn't seem to make to much sense.

And two, I can understand why Horn put all of the bomber's on the same bus, that does make sense; but, why give them real bomb's?? Even if they were going to explode, why not make the bomb's only large enough to do damage to what is within a two foot diameter of the bomb itself? Such a small explosion likely wouldn't even kill the bomber setting off the bomb and there's a real possibility that no one would die at all.

The basic message of the movie however is that not all Muslim's are terrorist's & I can think of a list of stupid ppl in general, Teabagger's, Islamophobes, etc., that would benefit from seeing this movie.