TRIPLE 9 Review
Alright, another cops and robbers movie! And directed by John Hillcoat, the relatively consistent Aussie director responsible for unique genre entries like THE PROPOSITION and THE ROAD? And a truly stacked cast that features the likes of a Russian Kate Winslet, a jacked Chiwetel Ejiofor, and uhh Casey Affleck putting on a southern drawl? This should be great, right?
Not quite. TRIPLE 9, named after a supposed police code that signifies a downed officer, is a cops and robbers film that struggles to carry any meaningful sense of originality in its tale of crooked cops, good-hearted criminals, and villainous Russians. As with other films that cover similar ground, TRIPLE 9 fires off its only interesting shot in its required introductory robbery sequence as we follow Ejiofor’s Michael, the aforementioned good-hearted criminal, as he leads his band of robbers (played by the likes of Anthony Mackie, Norman Reedus, Aaron Paul, and Clifton Collins Jr) through a bank robbery gone slightly awry, which ends with a red-smoked shootout/chase through Atlanta. Eventually revealed to be working for the Russian mob, more specifically Winslet’s accented Irina, a cold hearted wife now in full control of her incarcerated husband’s criminal empire, the audience learns that Michael and his crew are robbing to repay debts owed and after one of them is violently offed by Irina’s goons due to things going south in the last hit, Michael and his remaining members become desperate, leading them to plan a daring “final” heist that will repay their debts…if they can get out alive, of course.
Planning to utilize the dirty cops of the group that are Mackie and Collins Jr. (one of whom is dirtier than the other), the gang devises to utilize the power of code 999, which will require the use of a shot and subsequently dead officer to distract the entire police department as they embark on their final heist. Being a sprawling crime epic, the film expands its cast of characters by quickly introducing the target of the gang’s plan, their own 999 in the form of Affleck’s boy scout new cop, Chris. From there writer Matt Cook throws all of these characters into one another, letting the themes of corruption and paranoia among thieves do the heavy lifting as characters sit back and spout out vulgar everyday police shit-talking and expositional character reveals. Cook, with so many interesting pieces laid out, ranging from Paul and Reedus’ criminal siblings to Winslet’s power hungry matriarch, instead opts for one-note cop and robber characters we’ve seen time and time before. Even with such a stacked cast, whether due to Cook’s writing or Hillcoat’s surprisingly pedestrian approach to directing here, there is a startling lack of urgency or drama to be found in any of their performances as each actor also agrees to just coast on the laurels of established crime clichés. When the most surprising performance comes from acclaimed dramatic actor Chiwetel Ejiofor’s out-of-nowhere jacked arms (seriously, I need his bicep routine stat!), don’t be surprised to find yourself nodding off intermittently when said arms are nowhere to be seen.
That sense of boredom runs wild here as Hillcoat and Cook opt to go towards a more character focused route despite the lack of any actual interesting characters. While Ejiofor’s Michael has complicated (i.e. familial) reasons for committing to a life of crime, every other important character and their interactions with one another feels pedestrian and business-like, simply there to just move the plot towards its titular plan of planned cop-killing. We should feel sympathetic to Michael and his family drama, but hardly anything of value is explored in that relationship leading to one hardly caring for what happens to Michael’s family if his last heist goes south. We should feel tension for Affleck as he makes his way in unintentionally with Mackie and Collins Jr’s’ dirty cops, but their interactions hold little fire or dramatic weight, resulting in sequences that feel like off-brand TRAINING DAY. As mentioned, there are a lot of opportunities, both narratively and thematically, to explore in TRIPLE 9, whether that be in the daily ins and outs of metropolitan policing, it’s subsequent room for corruption and just the general rhyme and reason for crime to occur in a racially diverse city such as Atlanta. Alas, all the audience gets is two “just solid” action sequences at the beginning and end separated by idle moments of expository dialogue and toothless character building in between. Just as random as this mention, Woody Harrelson turns up as a Woody Harrelson-like detective, all skeezy charm, but even his scenes feel tapped on despite his importance to the film’s central narrative moments. All of these meandering characters and plot points eventually converge into the grand, climactic scheme but either brilliantly or disappointingly, Hillcoat and Cook craft their finale with an almost matter of fact sequencing and pace that once more takes away any cinematic drama that could be wrung from its teasing plot line.
TRIPLE 9 isn’t really fun. It’s got an interesting set of performers (more specifically, again, a jacked Chiwetel Ejiofor) to pull you in but after that, what’s left is a crime film that simply walks from the beginning to the end, hands in pocket. Truly, bank robbing has never been this boring (and there’s literally a movie out there where 80-year old Robert Redford robs banks with just his hand!).
2/5
