Written by: Matt Cook
Directed by: John Hillcoat
Starring: Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Clifton Collins, Jr., Norman Reedus, Teresa Palmer, Michael K. Williams, Gal Gadot, Woody Harrelson, Kate Winslet.
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
Criminals and corrupt cops attempt a heist at the behest of the Russian mob.
Verdict
I had such high hopes with a cast this vast, but the movie can't juggle so many characters. It has it's moments of superb action but lacks character development. The opening is fantastic, but it can't maintain the momentum or sharp writing. The conclusion is lackluster.
It depends.
Review
I liked Hillcoats The Proposition (2005) and The Road (2009). This cast is absolutely huge, and that ends up being part of the problem.
The movie opens with a bank robbery in progress, and it's apparent this crew is trained and ruthless. I can't help but think of Heat (1995), but the similarity is just that it's a thrilling bank robbery. It's a disservice to Heat to mention it in the same sentence as Triple 9.
The crew flees the scene, but red smoke floods their van, embedded in stolen cash. They are stranded on the freeway, which was a surprise that they didn't get away cleanly. On top of that, two men in the crew are cops. The writing impressed me. The butt of the gun didn't break a car window on the first hit and gun fire doesn't explode a car's gas tank. The crew even spoke Spanish during the robbery to throw off the investigation. The rest of the movie never seems this smart or clever.
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| Triple 9 - Solid action... and, well, solid action. |
The heist crew is forced to take on another job that seems impossible. The triple 9 plan comes to easily. The cops are going to kill a fellow officer. This will significantly delay response time to their new heist. The writing was less than deft. It's an interesting plan, but the cops should be more reserved. It's a neat solution handled clumsily. It just drops the idea with almost no lead up.
The movie handles action much better than dialog. It never does a good job of characterization. It never slows down enough, treating dialog like a chore. That and there are just too many characters.You could cut out half of the characters and provide a lacking focus.
Kate Winslet play a Russian mob boss, but her performance always felt too much like theater. Harrelson's part is too thin to make it interesting.
Casey Afflek is a rookie cop. We see him taking the lead on breaching a house, holding a bullet proof shield in front of him. The sequence is intense and ends in a shoot out.
You think you know what's coming, and the movie pulls the rug right out from under you in a surprising twist. We get another action sequence with Woody Harrelson driving a car like he's in a Grand Theft Auto game.
The ending is unsatisfying and undercuts a few story lines. We don't get a big showdown at the end. I expected it, and while I like to have my expectations diverted, this was a diversion just for the sake of it. The first heist is too good. We don't get anything to match it in the rest of the movie. The conclusion lacks the punch it should. I was left thinking, "That's it?"
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