TRIPLE FRONTIER – GREAT PREMISE, POOR QUALITY CONTROL

Netflix’s Military Heist Almost Delivers it’s Payday

Plot: Former Special Forces operatives reunite to plan a heist in a sparsely populated multi-border zone of South America. For the first time in their prestigious careers, these unsung heroes undertake this dangerous mission for themselves instead of their country.

Triple Frontier is proof enough that ensemble casts can’t always save a movie, the names were big enough -   Bigelow, Boal, Affleck and Isaac. Bigelow and Boal had delivered the slow burn thriller Zero Dark Thirty and Bigelow had also shown great handling skills on Hurt Locker. Hell, even her 1991 heist thriller Point Break with the late great Patrick Swayze and a young Keanu Reeves proved she could throw a ball around with the big guys in Hollywood.

Additional cast nods go to Pedro Pascal (Narcos), Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) and Garrett Hedlund (Tron Legacy)

The problem with Triple Frontier is that once the energy in the movie gathers pace, it quickly drops off and the viewer is left wanting more, or at least expecting something to happen which never does which in effect chops the balls off the movies pace. Don’t get me wrong, Boals script is pretty good, Bigelow’s producer skills are also as you’d expect top notch, the photography in the film is phenomenal and sound delivered via dolby 5.1 is superb, but this ensemble cast, top writer and producer team are all wasted on the final quality control that could have delivered a real Netflix killer thriller.

Overall Triple threat is a very watchable thriller,in fact its one of the better Netflix efforts of recent times, however as the majority of over a thousand comments on the Facebook trailer advert will reveal it left people wanting and expecting a lot more than it eventually delivered. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool, we share promote, recommend and help support things we like with the viral nature of social media. Netflix uses social media buzz as essential feedback on what is gaining traction and which is losing traction with its audience (its partly the reason Daredevil was canned) From my own perspective there are three major pacing issues with Triple Frontier, the very slow burn start in getting the guys together takes about 15 mins too long. The heist on the drug lords hideout itself which had the softly, softly raid pulled off with a nicely done stealth approach could have cranked up the suspense another notch with some great tactical gun play and a bit more against the clock suspense. Lastly a final gunfight in the mountains could have given us the outgunned last stand, Lone Survivor thrill we were all expecting. 

Except it didn’t, none of this materialized, which was surprising given the nature of the movie and location, a last big finish here with an escape that was the fight of their lives could have really helped the movie with a final car chase boat chase setup that finished it off. Cranking this up could still have retained the movies messaging that the bond of brotherhood and doing the right thing mean more than greed and the goal itself, in the movie the team make some very questionable choices that change your perception of them (particularly Afflecks character), ultimately they are punished for those choices, and some would say deservedly so, but the bum note that the movie delivers cheats the audience who wanted the win and are instead left feeling like the investment they made into watching the film didn’t deliver the payoff. Netflix’s marketing for the movie gave us a trailer that suggested more, that this was a special forces heist movie with plenty of action with a great cast. It does have these elements and the helicopter sequence is pretty dramatic -  just not in the quantity or quality it should have.

Triple Frontier fell short, it fell frustratingly short actually, this despite the fact that the production qualities and cast were up there matching a major financed movie and cinema release. As a subscriber it still provided a pretty decent movie, I feel with Netflix I do get my money’s worth most of the time but it’s when movies like this that can really help push the Netflix brand and appeal have the opposite effect on social media because the production faults and pacing issues let the overall viewer experience falter.

Looking at the films troubled past at getting off the ground since 2010, Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Channing Tatum and Tom Hardy were all names attached at one point or another, when Paramount  pulled out it pretty much tossed the film into the wind for Netflix to snap up. Affleck left the production then rejoined but not before Mark Whalburg sniffed around the project. With a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 72% it’s held up pretty well considering its troubled past.

Netflix can and will bounce back, I’d like to see more movies where they’re looking for projects that invest in good writers like Mark Boal (Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) and Katherine Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty, Point break, Hurt Locker) with the credible acting talents of good Hollywood and TV actors like Oscar Isaac, Pedro Pascal and Ben Affleck.

Triple Threat is a good thriller, just not a great thriller, it’s watchable and gives us a cast we can root for with a solid enough script and great production values let down by some questionable pacing decisions and lack of climatic resolve by writer and director J. C Chandor.