A good political action movie that makes you use your brain a little bit.
Comment
11/07/08
Traitor (2008)
53
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:32
Fresh:17
Rotten:15
Average Rating:5.7/10
Consensus: Despite another reliable performance from Don Cheadle, Traitor suffers from too many cliches and an unfocused narrative.
Theatrical Release:Aug 29, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $23,501,463
Synopsis: TRAITOR is writer/director Jeffrey Nachmanoff's powerful rumination on post-9/11 foreign affairs wrapped up into a taut contemporary spy thriller. Balancing the film's sometimes conflicted... [More]
Starring: Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Said Taghmaoui, Neal McDonough
Director: Jeffrey Nachmanoff
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Reviews for Traitor
Top CriticIt was complicated but ultimately it failed in that attempt to deliver a complicated message.
11/07/08
Top CriticPromising premise devolves into a by-the-numbers espionage thriller.
08/29/08
Top CriticTraitor gets a leg up thanks to a solid cast, including Guy Pearce, an underused Jeff Daniels and chiefly Cheadle's Horn, whose quiet dignity makes his blurred loyalties believable and his true sympathies indefinable.
08/29/08
Top CriticTraitor becomes too busy, ultimately frustrating, and never delivers on its tantalizing promise of offering a little insight into terrorists' motives -- and it's even got an inside man.
08/29/08
Top CriticThe wait isn't worth it in this fearmongering, opportunistic political/spy thriller, a slippery entertainment that's all feints and few punches thrown at a fight card of indistinguishable terrorists, Muslim and otherwise.
08/28/08
Top CriticThe script seldom rises above formula, but its respectful treatment of Islam is both unusual and welcome.
08/27/08
Top CriticTraitor traffics in the cliches of the terrorist chase film -- including the usual stereotypes of Muslims -- while trying not to succumb to outright bigotry.
08/27/08
Top CriticTraitor delivers plot twists but few real surprises.
08/27/08
Top CriticTraitor is smart, effective, and at times suspenseful. It's one of a very few terrorist-themed movies that presents its situation without resorting to exploitation or oversimplification.
08/27/08
Top CriticObserving the conventions of the millennial thriller, it succeeds in amping up the suspense. Yet it never fully engages the ethical conflicts it raises.
08/27/08
Top CriticTo call Traitor deeper than the average Hollywood thriller may not be saying much, but the film deserves credit for trying to both challenge and entertain its audience.
08/27/08
Top CriticUltimately the film is both too contrived and too casual, both relentless in the way it manipulates its plot and sloppy in its understanding of the consequences.
08/27/08
Top CriticA solid, intelligent international thriller showcasing the underrated Don Cheadle in an intriguing and morally ambiguous role, Traitor is the best end-of-August movie I've seen in years.
08/27/08
Top CriticThe twisty, turny Traitor succeeds where similarly topical thrillers often fail because, like its protagonist, it plays its cards close to the vest.
08/27/08
Top CriticFlat and just plain boring most of the time, Traitor wastes some fine actors -- Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Jeff Daniels and Said Taghmaoui -- and a topical story, finding no sparks in what should be an incendiary tale of terrorism.
08/27/08
Top CriticIn the subgenre of post- 9/11 films, it falls between the serious, compelling Syriana and the slighter, action-packed Vantage Point.
08/27/08
Top CriticA confused and unsatisfying experience with some nice moments that don't amount to much.
08/27/08
Top CriticTraitor offers up one of the more maddeningly, gratifyingly complex lead characters seen in movies lately.
08/27/08
Top CriticTraitor, a somber, absorbing and only moderately preposterous new thriller written and directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, manages an impressive feat of economy.
08/27/08
Top CriticLatest News for Traitor
January 04, 2009:
This double or maybe even triple agent dude decidedly favors a kind of 'this hurts me more than it hurts you' scorched earth policy, a mentality not exactly conducive to cozy plot resolutions. 
More...
January 03, 2009:
This double or maybe even triple agent dude decidedly favors a kind of 'this hurts me more than it hurts you' scorched earth policy, a mentality not exactly conducive to cozy plot resolutions.
More...
December 30, 2008:
This double or maybe even triple agent dude decidedly favors a kind of 'this hurts me more than it hurts you' scorched earth policy, a mentality not exactly conducive to cozy plot resolutions.
More...
December 18, 2008:
Five Favorite Films with Don Cheadle
In last August's Traitor, Don Cheadle took on the challenge of tempering a Bourne-like action hero with the moral ambiguity of real world concerns: namely, terrorism and the... More...
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