TRIPLE 9 (2016) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

triple 9 (2016) movie

Genre               |   Action Drama

Classification   |   MA 15+

Running time   |   115 minutes

Released         |   3 March 2016

cast

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Michael
Casey Affleck as Chris
Anthony Mackie as Marcus
Woody Harrelson as Jeffrey
Aaron Paul as Gabe
Kate Winslet as Irina
Gal Gadot as Elena
​Teresa Palmer as Michelle

director

John Hillcoat

writer

​Matt Cook ... (written by)

cinematographer

Nicolas Karakatsanis ​

music

​Bobby Krlic
Atticus Ross
Leopold Ross
Claudia Sarne

film editor

​Dylan Tichenor

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box office result

Worldwide             $ ​23,119,442  

Australia                 $​​​631,619

North America        $​12,639,297      

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the best dialogue

Jeffrey Allen: Out here, there is no good and there is no bad. To survive out here, you've got to out monster the monster. Can you do that?

Irina Vlaslov: There is no limit to what desperate men will do when pushed.

Jess: I don't hear anything... only silence.

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TRIPLE 9 (2016) IMAGES

TRIPLE 9 (2016) STORY SYNOPSIS

In TRIPLE 9, a crew of dirty cops are blackmailed by the Russian mob to execute a virtually impossible heist. The only way to pull it off is to manufacture a 999, police code for "officer down". Their plan is turned upside down when the unsuspecting rookie they set up to die foils the attack, triggering a breakneck, action-packed finale filled with double-crosses, greed and revenge.

TRIPLE 9 (2016) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 2 March 2016
​Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐

TRIPLE 9 is an intense crime drama that borrows from the genre’s best works to deliver a film that pays homage to its forebears as much as it entertains in its own right. Much like Martin Scorsese’s THE DEPARTED, TRIPLE 9 keeps viewers guessing as to who might live and who might die right up to the end. TRIPLE 9 blurs the line between criminal and cop, showing police officers to be "human" and just as easily tempted by the lure of vice in the same manner as the drug pushers they pursue. With TRIPLE 9 Australian director John Hillcoat turns in an above-average feature film that uses its talented cast extremely effectively, is not afraid to use the genre’s tropes and provides one of the more off-beat but hypnotic film scores from Atticus Ross.

TRIPLE 9 opens with an extended bank robbery sequence that echoes a similar set-piece from Michael Mann’s classic crime film HEAT; the film which it has been modelled upon the most. Like the bank robbery scene in HEAT, this one does not go exactly to plan and the perpetrators of the crime end up being covered in red dye from the cash they have stolen (but were not meant to). The post-robbery scene introduces four of the film’s main characters: Michael Atwood (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Marcus Belmont (Anthony Mackie), Frank Rodriguez (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Gabe Welch (Aaron Paul). Hillcoat and screenwriter Matt Cook waste no time in revealing that Belmont and Rodriguez are both Detectives on the Atlanta PD, working with Atwood and his former Special Forces buddy Russel Welch (Norman Reedus). Tensions rise early among the group after Russel’s brother Gabe is called to task by Marcus for taking the cash when it was not part of the plan. Gabe’s behaviour gradually deteriorates throughout the story as he becomes lost in a haze of alcohol and drugs.

It's revealed the bank robbery was no run-of-the-mill operation. Michael and his crew were ordered to pull the heist by Irina Vlaslov (Kate Winslet), wife of an unseen incarcerated Russian-Israeli mobster. Irina has taken control of her husband’s “business” affairs and uses Michael for her dirty-work because Irina’s younger sister Elena (Gal Gadot) had a child with him; a young boy who Irina mercilessly leverages to get what she wants from Michael. Michael becomes anxious when he discovers that the safety deposit box secured during the bank robbery has brought Federal Agents knocking on Irina’s door. His concern deepens when Irina explains in no uncertain terms that the “job” is not yet finished and additional information must be secured from a Homeland Security facility in downtown Atlanta for her to secure her husband’s release.

The action cuts away to Marcus (fresh from the bank heist) and his new partner Chris Allen (Casey Affleck), who has just joined the Atlanta PD Gang Squad and is the nephew of one of the department’s best detectives, Jeffrey Allen (Woody Harrelson). Things don’t go so well on the first day when Chris arrests a senior local gang member after a verbal altercation. Marcus is furious, telling Chris that he doesn’t know a damn thing about how the neighbourhood operates. Chris tells Marcus to keep out of his way and let him do his job. Their immediate dislike of each other sets the wheels in motion for the film’s climax. The plan that serves as the film’s title is hatched by Marcus and Rodriguez, explaining to Michael that a 999 call is code for police officer down. They tell him that it will give them the breathing space they need to pull their heist, as the Atlanta PD will prioritise the 999 call over a robbery. Marcus tells them that his new partner is the target and that he’ll lure him to the city’s abandoned apartment buildings to do the job.

Given the array of characters that inhabit TRIPLE 9, the story takes its time with each scene and the film’s pacing is slower for a 115 minute crime thriller. This is by no means a negative. The direction is assured and characters develop in meaningful deliberate arcs, where their actions are not dictated by absolutes (apart from death), but by the "grey" of circumstance. The majority of the film’s set-pieces are well executed, but an Atlanta PD raid on a gang unit complex about two-thirds of the way through the film is the best and is vital in setting in train the events that lead to the film’s finale. The cast is a true ensemble and only the best of their performances have been used by the film’s editors to bring the story to life. TRIPLE 9 precludes using the word “enjoyable” to describe the cast’s work, but every character contributes something of interest to the overall outcome. With TRIPLE 9, John Hillcoat, Writer Matt Cook and their cast may not have created a classic crime thriller, but they have certainly done the genre any harm.

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