REVIEW: Triple 9 (2016) Blu-Ray

The cast of this movie, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Norman Reedus, Clifton Collins Jr. and Casey Affleck, make up a posse of ex servicemen now working the system as corrupt cops.  On what seems like an occasion, the more straight laced Woody Harrelson shows up as an investigator snooping around suspect activities and coincidences that he dismisses as too miraculous to accept.  Our team is tight, but they find themselves enveloped in a quagmire of blackmail and threats, as highly connected Jewish gangsters force them to pull off a heist, or two.  You get a few of those in this movie, although you start to wonder how far the naivety of the ‘heroes’ can extend, as one instance of strong arming leads to another.

The film has everything going for it but a well flowing story.  It’s filled with half baked sub plots that really don’t go anywhere, ‘resolved’ at the end with one of those script doctoring Frankenstein stitch jobs.  I have to wonder how many drafts this movie has gone through and if the bloated cast might have contributed to that.  Don’t forget, there are a lot of actors in this movie that can command a good position in a movie at this point in their careers, but there were even more considered.  Christoph Waltz, Shia LeBeouf, Charlie Hunnam and Cate Blanchett all passed in and out of the project.  The story then feels unsatisfactory, too much going on yet nothing there to bind it all together.  No coherence.

I will say though that it has some decent action.  The first heist is unique, fairly believable and keeps your attention, and the violent foot chase in the middle of the movie is quite thrilling.

The movie hits Blu-Ray as a native digital movie, yet it has an odd veneer of noise covering it.  Which I like, it kind of gives a naturalist weight to the appearance of the movie.  It’s enticing but even better is the audio, the DTS-HD track throws its weight around on all six speakers, without being intrusive or blunt, those with a good set up are going to appreciate it.  On the down side, there is little to speak of features-wise.  There are two brief ‘documentaries’ where the director casually discusses innocuous things, but they make up little as extras, about four or five minutes combined. Two deleted scenes work for even less time at around two to three minutes.

Triple 9 is a decent movie, but it has story and pacing problems and its Blu-Ray release is uninspired.  But if you like the movie, the A/V experience is great.