Triple 9 may have a pretty impressive cast in the forms of Chiwetel Ejiofor, Casey Affleck, Kate Winslet, Gal Gadot, Aaron Paul and Woody Harrelson, and it could just be relying on the names alone to attract its audience as this storyline falls flat of any real excitement.
Triple 9 comes from the director of Lawless and The Road, John Hillcoat seems to have lost his mojo with this one. With a storyline that is far from original with a crew of dirty cops pulling off robberies on behalf of a merciless Russian mafia mob, it takes a little more than just this straight out story, which doesn’t consist of any of the twists and turns you would expect to thrill in an oversubscribed genre of movie.
Terrell Tompkins (Chiwetel Ejiofor) heads up the gang of corrupt cops, who just so happens to have a son with the sister of Irina Vlaslov (Kate Winslet), the head of the Russian Mafia mob while her husband is incarcerated. Using his son as bait to get him and his crew on board for one last heist, a surely impossible heist he has no choice but to get his crew together for this one last crime.
Member of the crew, Marcus Atwood (Anthony Mackie) gets a new partner, Chris Allen (Casey Affleck) who just happens to be the nephew of Sergeant Detective Jeffrey Allen (Woody Harrelson) who is investigating the activities of the Russian Mafia. A plan quickly falls into place, a plan which includes murdering Chris, distracting the force while they carry out their heist; these things never go quite to plan though and everything gets turned on their heads but Terrell gets his perfect revenge.
The only standout performance has to be Woody Harrelson as Sergeant Detective Jeffrey Allen, playing an eccentric, alcoholic cop with a big heart when it comes to his family seems to be in his blood. You can’t help but take to this character as he delivers the best one-liners breaking up an otherwise dull script. Kate Winslet appears as a smouldering powerful woman but her whole costume and make-up makes her look cheap, unfortunately, Winslet’s part is only small and we only get a handful of appearances from her. The rest of the cast performances leave a lot to be desired, it feels like they need a rocket up their backsides to really get them involved.
Triple 9 is out in UK Cinema’s 19th February