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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Human Traffic

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

12:46 / 01.02.04

Did anyone else watch this last night (UK, Channel 4)?

I can't believe it's the first time I've seen this movie. It absolutely cracked me up. Spot on in every which way possible, non-preachy, not angling for gravitas or pretension, it just had me in stitches from start to finish.

A healthy dose of Ecuadorian cubensis can't have hurt, but even so, a genuinely warm and heartfelt movie.

Just wanted to share, like.

15:55 / 01.02.04

One of my fav movies.. love the characters and, ofcourse, the lovestory

And the "new national anthem", right on spot..

15:56 / 01.02.04

Not Fraely, Bobossboy

Recntly I've decided to post less negatively, but, well, I'm sorry, um... I really, really hate this movie.

I mean I really hate it.

Awful script, awful acting, just awfully naff. In fact I've never seen anyone above the age of eighteen laugh at the bloody thing (unfortunately I've been unlucky enough to be present for a number of viewings - only ever watched it the once). As for being bang on with it's cultural references, well, it sure as shit didn't speak to the old raver in me.

Hmm, wish I had the movie to hand so I could aim my critical blade with greater accuracy.

Be interested in an American opinion.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

16:21 / 01.02.04

Wow, really? What was awful about the script?

That monologue from the E'd up cockney wanker in the back of a cab about torturing Peter Andre before blowing his head off Travis Bickle style was fucking genius. I can't even count on all my digits the number of twisted, grand guignol fantasies of this nature I've sat around discussing with total strangers. 'Codshit', I believe was the term.

The 'I wonder how the drugs scene works in here' flight of fancy from the 17 year-old newbie was piss funny as well, and the onset of paranoia from cockney boy. And the Star Wars guff. And the old skool Ibiza Bob's discussing how the scene's gone downhill and acting like wankers. And the black dude's dancing. And the gazing at your mates reflection and marvelling at just how disgracefully fucked they look, until catching sight of your own horrific visage.

Perhaps if I'd seen it at the time I would of scoffed, but it hit every single spot I can (vaguely) remember about being a wasted youth in the nineties.

If this missed you, what kind of raves did you go to?

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16:25 / 01.02.04

Oh, and that Howard Marks cameo, like some kind of Vlad the Inhaler, discussing the politics of spliff nabbing at the ringside of the dancefloor. Exactly what rang false for you?

21:26 / 01.02.04

Great film.
But you do realise how dated it looks to todays' kids?
I prefer the club scene in Spaced where Mike does the A-Team dance.
Niiiiice one bruvva!

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

07:43 / 02.02.04

But you do realise how dated it looks to todays' kids?

Well, yeah, since clubs are back to their discotheque 80's you-can't-come-in-here-looking-like-that stiletto's and handbags horror, and the drugs have gone back 20 years to fucking cocaine, again.

Ah, the kids of today. They'll never know what they missed. *sigh*

08:05 / 02.02.04

i watched a bit of this on saturday. a film so so bad it was as if the government had helped make it. not a single line that wasn't embarassing, not a single actor that could act.

10:13 / 02.02.04

I saw the film when it first came out in theatres in 1999 and I liked quite a lot. I didn't think it rang false at all and if you think that it's a bit daft in places, that's the whole point. For me, it perfectly captured what a lot of people (icl. myself and my friends) were doing during their weekends at the time.

Has anyone seen the re-edited DVD version with the "updated soundtrack"? Sounds like a shit idea to me.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

14:43 / 02.02.04

Khaologan23ris - Fair enough, I can see it's not for everyone...It's clearly one of those movies where you either see yourself and your mates there up on the screen, and glean loads of wry amusement out of its accurate observations and form-reflecting-content style (the asides and digressions and schizoid banality of the whole thing), or you don't, either 'cos you never immersed in that scene or because you were one of those leather trousered Milk Bar Bob's that was just too aloof to get off your tits and make a twat of yourself from Friday til Sunday night.

What was 'embarrassing' about the script? That's two criticisms with no examples, and I just don't see what you mean at all.

As a document of what it meant to be a clubber in the late eighties / early nineties, I can't think of a better film to show my son, when he's old enough, for a glimpse as to what went down.

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

15:05 / 02.02.04

I like this film though I wasn't really involved in this scene. My friends that were seem to think the film rings true.

Moff is a friend of mine and I love the scen with Jo Brand as the world trying to talk him down. My favorite bit however is the guy breakdancing in the alley, it's just beautiful.

The perfect film to watch before the anti climax of a night out.

15:16 / 02.02.04

'ey who are they to say that man? who's to say that the mad aren't just on a different level of evolution to the rest of us?'

having spent a bit of the evening at eastbourne psych ward looking at the bruises on my girlfriend's mother's neck, this was one line struck me as extremely crass, to the point where i was embarrassed, not for me or her but, y'know, for all of us. there were many others i found embarrassing: you know the petulant look teenagers get when their parents are teasing them about the silliness of the music they listen to? the earnestness, the worthiness, the inescapable-small-and-pointlessness that the youth feels? i felt as if almost every line was being said in that face.

'god no-one understands me. poor me in my rubbish job.'
'that's nothing, i can do a fanny fart'

err, and the acting was it? come on bruvva nice one bruvva - coming from he who was in the borrowers and kevincostner: king of thieves? well geezer geezer geezer indeed, the jamie oliver of boring pillheads and...did you really think his acting was good? and the acting of the others (esp. the main guy who's ian hart w'out the...intent)? the acting of egg?

and as for my rave credentials, well i've spent a few long weekends on e's-whizz(96-7)-coke(98-9) w. absinthe in the pub for starters, but i didn't spend my late teens in a piss-ant bag of shit place like cardiff, and have little symapthy for anyone who did. last decent e's i remember as a thing were the mitsubishi's in 98, but by the time this film came out i'd got over the facefuck techno that had been my darncemuzik initiation, had no interest in the 'hard' house scene that Human Traffic seemed to be about (musical lightweights no matter their impressive tolerance of poisons), and whenever I went to a club ended up going 'what's this? breakbeat? you mean hip-hop without the vocal counter rhythms? what's the fucking point of that?' and shoving home in a humbug. for the record these days i go to a club about four times a year and dance myself sick on mushrooms and powders.

the episode of spaced does it so much better to my mind:
'my work here is done'

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

15:30 / 02.02.04

Er, I wasn't questioning your 'rave credentials'...As for the mushies, I watched the whole film on 30 grams of Ecuadorian beauties, so maybe that helped somewhat.

Re: the crass e'd up conversations...Surely it was sposed to be crass? I don't think it was intended as a penetrating insight, it seemed you were s'posed to be aware that these people were fairly hopeless, with only youth on their side, fast running out. I've heard naive little gobshites saying exactly that kind of thing after a face full of drugs, verbatim.

Tryphena Absent

16:26 / 02.02.04

i didn't spend my late teens in a piss-ant bag of shit place like cardiff, and have little symapthy for anyone who did

You're a cruel human being.

20:18 / 02.02.04

i think this movie's hysterical. favorite bits: Koop on the turntables ("he can't actually scratch, he just digs the fantasy"), Moff's very expensive wank, the aforementioned Travis Bickle bit, the aforementioned bit with the evening news guy, the Star Wars bit, Jip narrating his impotence story, the white kids with dreads just back from Amsterdam, the Itchy Trigga Finga Niggas, Spliff Politics...

less funny, but weirdly striking, was all the stuff about Jip and his mom's line of work, especially the part where the john's talking to him in the car until he has to scream at him to shut the fuck up.

i don't know, i suppose liking this movie makes me lame to some posters in this thread, but oh well. i thought it was funny.

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:27 / 03.02.04

It's clearly one of those movies where you either see yourself... or you don't, either 'cos you never immersed in that scene or because you were one of those leather trousered Milk Bar Bob's that was just too aloof to get off your tits and make a twat of yourself from Friday til Sunday night.

Followed by:

Er, I wasn't questioning your 'rave credentials'...

Brilliant! What is a "Milk Bar Bob", though? Is it the male equivalent of someone who wears stilletos and has a handbag (well done for pointing out what a pernicious trend that is, by the way!)? I hear in some clubs they even have men who wear handbags - crazy scenes! What would Bez say?

I've never watched this film because I suffer from a brain condition that means I cannot watch a whole minute of it without having a pschotic episode, but I wish I could. I want to watch it because it has Howard Marks in it, and he is a great hero of mine. Did you know, he used to sell drugs! And he still talks about it on TV and everything! There's a man who doesn't give two fucks about what The Man thinks.

I rose like the phoenix

08:54 / 03.02.04

I really used to love this film. I couldn't bring myself to watch it though. I used to see myself and my friends in the characters.

I'm more interested in running a club night rather than going out and getting wankered, maybe that's why it doesn't appeal any more.

It brings back great memories though

09:24 / 03.02.04

People who don't relate to this movie just aren't in touch with their WKD side.

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10:15 / 03.02.04

Milk Bar Bob : Clubber circa 1990-1992 who would only be seen at the Milk Bar (since defunct) wearing leather trousers, and bemoaning the fact that lots of people who weren't in the Balearics in 1987, never went to Spectrum or Shoom and don't wear leather trousers are now off their heads all over the shop, ruining a precious underground scene with cheesey and cliched enjoyment.

11:42 / 03.02.04

Money, I don't want to steal your joy. It's just that IMHO Human Traffic is appalling acted, has clunky wooden dialogue, and manages to be utterly juvenile all the way through.
Yes, yes, yes I know its supposed to be lighthearted, satirical entertainment, run through with a thin skein of social and political comment but I would argue that it is bad lighthearted entertainment. In fact, I would question whether it shouldn't take itself a little more seriously (just a little) - raving might be a good laugh, but yoof like nothing more than to take their good laughs seriously. I know I did.

Could we please get away from the tacit suggestion that if you don't enjoy Human Traffic you either weren't there or have grown old and jaded - there are other ways to look at the merits of a movie.

All that said, this ain't an attack. If you enjoy it, fine. Sometimes a movie pushes all the right buttons. Simple as that.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

11:50 / 03.02.04

All true, I actually never intended to get in the corner of 'if you don't like this movie you weren't there', which is obviously, er, codshit.

*Evil Dead* It's only a movie...

12:27 / 03.02.04

Evil Dead is not only a movie.

I'd like to point out that I like - indeed love - plenty of *bad* movies.

It's just that I'm not going to tell you about them.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

13:08 / 03.02.04

Joythief

13:25 / 03.02.04

these people were fairly hopeless, with only youth on their side, fast running out.

sure. maybe this was covered better in the movie's latter scenes, i'd run screaming to itv by that point.

if i was in a milk bar (do they have such things outside a clockwork orange? milk+mescaline sounds alright) i'd be a milk-bar-bob, but just 'bob' is fine if looking to accurately label my tribal affiliations. pretty close guess though.

ps clarty ONLY likes bad films. bitch be pissing himself waiting for the next star wars.

17:02 / 03.02.04

Re Al a tee . . . is that you?

18:32 / 03.02.04

John Simm's character in this fill-um is the most killable character in the history of cinema.

I wish he was real so I could fight him.

Just say no.