Movie review: ‘Triple 9’
There was good reason to be somewhat optimistic about the new, good cop/really-bad-cop thriller Triple 9.
Directing is John Hillcoat, whose résumé includes Lawless and The Proposition, films with a distinctive sense of mood and style. Starring is a wish list of not-quite-heavyweight but respectable male stars — Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Norman Reedus, Woody Harrelson.
Kate Winslet, fresh from her Oscar-nominated turn in Steve Jobs, gets to play a Russian-Jewish mob boss.
Indeed, Triple 9 — the title is cop-code for “officer down” — at first seems like it might be a satisfyingly serpentine tale set in a noir-ish Atlanta underworld of bad guys with badges. The slam-bang opening bank robbery and chase channels the best of Michael Mann from his Heat days.
But Triple 9 soon bleeds out and becomes a perfunctory hodgepodge of other crime movies.
Russel (Reedus), brother Gabe (Paul), Marcus (Mackie), Jorge (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Michael (Ejiofor) are all either current or former cops/special ops or just plain mercernaries who moonlight by doing the bidding of Russian gangsters. Michael, who has a child with the mob boss’s sister, is the connection for their extracurricular crime sprees.
But the latest assignment that Irina (Winslet) wants them to stage verges on the edge of impossible. Whereas most of their heists can be done cleanly and quickly, this new job — retrieving a package from the bowels of a Homeland Security facility — could take as long as 10 minutes. No doubt, the cops would be on the scene long before they could make a getaway.
That’s when they hatch a plan to stage a 999: kill a cop so the bulk of the law-enforcement resources will be diverted. You don’t have to wonder long who the fall guy is going to be as there’s Chris (Affleck), Marcus’ new, disliked and perhaps expendable partner.
But what they don’t seem to know is that Chris has an uncle (a particularly goofy, weed-smoking Harrelson) who’s a longtime detective in the department. You’d think this is something that these guys — who both investigate and commit crimes for a living — would pick up on.
Triple 9 does have moments of tension, but it’s full of loose sketches rather than well-formed characters. Ultimately, it’s hard to care about any of the principals, or what they’re doing or why.
The actors do the best with what they’re given. Beyond Affleck chewing lots of gum and Winslet putting on a Russian accent, they’re just not given much though.
Anyone on the hunt for a film about morally dubious law enforcement should track down last year’s Sicario instead. Triple 9 just doesn’t add up to much.
Cary Darling: 817-390-7571, @carydar
Triple 9
☆☆ 1/2 (out of five)
Director: John Hillcoat
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson
Rated: R (strong violence and strong language throughout, drug use and some nudity)
Running time: 115 min.
This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 1:47 AM with the headline "Movie review: ‘Triple 9’."