At first glance, it's not easy to tell if Traitor is typical big-budget action fare or something better. After all, it stars Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, and Jeff Daniels -- all known for making good choices at least some of the time. And the trailer doesn't look completely bad. I mean, it's confusing, but doesn't make the movie look awful. The basic gist seems to be that Cheadle's character works undercover for the government (the FBI, I think), and his handler seems to be Daniels. But then Cheadle disappears and everyone in the FBI thinks he's gone bad and is now out to hunt him, suspecting him of all sorts of high-level crimes. Daniels still trusts him, but only sort of. He communicates with him without FBI knowledge, but also tells him to "remember who you work for." It's not really clear who's good, who's bad, or if there even are good or bad guys. The makings of a decent film, you might think. But then you see it's directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, the guy who brought the world the highly mockable but barely watchable The Day After Tomorrow. That makes me think this movie might be too political for its own good. If it's not, and it can remain a film instead of a pulpit for proselytizing to the masses, it might wind up a decent movie. But if not ... well, it could wind up being an unentertaining mess. With so few movies worth watching coming out this week, I'm going to hope for the former.

Reviews By People Who've Actually Seen It:
Variety
Rotten Tomatoes