Triple 9
Sitting through a screening of the heist film Triple 9, Heat from 1995 popped into my head immediately. Heat was directed by Micheal Mann, who had his fair share of good films. Heat has had its fan for so long after so many years due to its cast and it was well made above everything else. Triple 9 is directed by John Hillcoat who's had a nice quiet career in Hollywood. I've seen many films from many genres not work because they are too similar to something else. Triple 9 is not as good as Heat, nor as good as another similar heist film The Town from 2009. But Triple 9 works well even if doesn't have originality.
Set in Atlanta, a group of corrupt cops and an ex-military leader lead, who are known for robbing banks. The team gets blackmailed by the Russian mob to perform a difficult heist. All the same, police officer Jeffery Allen (Woody Harrelson) tries to stop this group while realizing he's really in the middle of it.
It's getting very cliche to keep putting an all-star cast together but Triple 9 is surely an all-star cast. From Anthony Mackie and Casey Affleck to Arron Paul, Norman Reedus, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, you have basically everyone here. Even Kate Winslet is here playing Russian mob leader Irina Vlaslov, even if casting as Winslet as a Russian character makes not a whole lot of sense. It's very hard to make sense of each character's relationship to one another at times but there's all have too much star power not to succeed, and acting is not an issue as expected.
Maybe even more-so why Triple 9 works so well is because of its action scenes. From the rough kill scenes that are surprisingly gruesome to how brutal Atlanta culture is presented to us, it is a surprising film in many ways. It's action scenes have a lot of energy and its shows John Hillcoat's strength. A film that really wants to be gritty and it doesn't come short of it.
Right from the first act, you know what your getting with Triple 9 and eventually, it all speaks for itself. Much like Pretty in Pink was a cousin film to Some Kind of Wonderful, Triple 9 is the cousin film to Heat. Triple 9 will be forgotten down the road. I don't see it having a lot of staying power. But still, it's a pretty good heist film even if better heist films can be found.
