Director John Hillcoat
Genre Crime | Thriller
Cast Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Woody Harrelson
Rating R
Release Date February 26th, 2016
“A gang of criminals and corrupt cops plan the murder of a police officer in order to pull off their biggest heist yet across town.”
When I watched the first trailer for Triple 9 my excitement for the film was borderline manic as I found myself telling anyone that would listen about how great it was going to be. Triple 9 is a crime thriller directed by Australia born John Hillcoat, who also directed Lawless and The Road, and is written by Matt Cook who is fairly new to film according to his IMDb page. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead), Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Winslet, and Clifton Collins Jr. With a cast like this and a premise designed to get our imaginative juices flowing Triple 9 looked like a guaranteed success.
Right out of the gate I will say that Triple 9 was unable to meet my high expectations. To use a 4th Of July analogy, Triple 9 isn’t quite the Jason Pierre-Paul blowing his hand into bits of mangled meat, but it is also a far cry from the light up the sky spectacle the American people have come to expect from such an exciting holiday. Simply put, I expected it to be great. The action is aplenty and the shoot outs and car chases are exhilarating which is an obvious plus, but Triple 9 simply attempts to bite off more than it can chew and it shows. The storyline unfolds similar to the spinning of a spiders web and the unavoidable end result is the plot and its characters becoming the fly stuck somewhere in the middle.
What should come as no surprise to anyone is the fact that the acting in Triple 9 is top tier as expected. Initially, I was unsure as to who out of the impressive cast would get the most screen time but they actually did a good job of spreading it out. To me a big flaw in the writing is the mistake of not better executing character backstories in an effort to allow the viewers an opportunity to care about the characters on screen. Each and every actor in the film has the talent necessary to handle the task but for one reason or another, the focus shifted away from character development which hurts the film in the long run.
Triple 9 is an entertaining thrill ride that gives the audience a glimpse into the world of organized crime, corrupt cops, and the thin line that separates them. Unfortunately, it does underachieve all things considered mainly due to the high expectations brought on by such a star studded cast. What is most frustrating to me is the simple fact that a few minor changes could have made a world of difference. If I were given the opportunity to sit down with director John Hillcoat and writer Matt Cook prior to the films release, I would ask that they lock themselves in a room, watch season 1 of True Detective followed by The Departed, and then make the necessary changes to make this film what we all expected it to be. As hard as it tried, it just never quite achieved that gritty edge that it needed. Triple 9 is still worth seeing and will certainly make for an enjoyable trip to the theater but it’s not the instant classic I hoped it would be.
