Review: Triple 9

A couple of cops (Anthony Mackie and Clifton Collins Jr.) have hooked up with ex-military guys Chiwetel Ejiofor (who is the leader of the operation) and Norman Reedus as well as Reedus’ unhinged ex-cop brother (Aaron Paul) to pull off a big bank robbery. They’re working for Kate Winslet, the wife of a Russian mafia guy currently imprisoned. She needs the robbery money to get him out of prison. The robbery doesn’t go well, Winslet isn’t happy, and it just gets worse from there for all involved. Casey Affleck plays an honest cop, with Woody Harrelson as his essentially good but drug-addicted uncle and superior officer.

I don’t know how John Hillcoat (“The Proposition”, “Lawless”, “The Road”) managed to rope so many familiar faces into this lousy cops-and-crims flick from 2016, as neither he nor screenwriter Matt Cook (“Patriots Day”) bring anything interesting, new, or worthy to the genre. If you’ve seen “Sabotage”, “Street Kings”, and “Streets of Blood”, you’ve seen this film. And if you indeed have seen “Sabotage”, you’ve seen this film done a bit better.

Barely dumped into US theatres around Oscar week and sent straight-to-DVD in Australia, this is seriously dull and dreary stuff. Also not helping things is the appalling cinematography by Nicolas Karakatsanis (who has extensive short film experience) that is so under-lit and murky it’d give “Streets of Blood” a run for its money in visual incoherence. So much so that when someone puts a light on it’s still too dark. Add to that a cast of crims who, despite being played by familiar actors don’t really stand out all that much. Anthony Mackie probably fares best, whilst Casey Affleck and Woody Harrelson (as cops) seem to be having a Marlon Brando mumbling competition. It gets even worse when Affleck (a mumbler at the best of times) starts chewing gum or Harrelson (who often sounds like he has a mouth full of marbles) is eating something. Meanwhile, Chiwetel Ejiofor just doesn’t have the intensity or menace or presence to play the lead criminal here. He’s thoroughly unpersuasive and seems like he’s playing understudy for Jamie Foxx, Ving Rhames, or Michael Jai White. Probably the weakest member of the cast though, is the most surprising: Kate Winslet. Although she adopted a subtle and effective foreign accent for “Steve Jobs”, her turn here as the Israeli wife of a Russian criminal bigwig is nowhere near her finest hour. Overly made-up, she’s silly, dull and free of any intimidation whatsoever. A total bust in a pretty important role. The enormously talented Michael K. Williams meanwhile, narrowly manages to pull off playing a transgender hooker/police informant without seeming too campy or particularly offensive. Aaron Paul is just OK as the loose cannon of the crims, but Norman Reedus and Clifton Collins Jr. hardly make any impression at all (the former barely has any screen time, though). Hell, I could barely see Teresa Palmer as Affleck’s squeeze because the whole thing was so fucking dark.

Hillocoat is a talented director but this is tired corrupt cop stuff acted by an either overly mannered or poorly wasted cast, and shot in near pitch darkness. I can see why this one has been but a blip on the radar. It’s a snore. Don’t let that big name cast lure you in.

Rating: C-