Review of Triple 9 (2016) by Laura O — 25 Feb 2016

The reason I give this movie such high marks is for the quality and subtlety of the actors. This could easily be a by-the-numbers heist movie. Hell, this could be a sequel to Aaron Paul's Need for Speed since the first third of this movie IS Payday 2.

I was halfway through this movie thinking it was mediocre. Somewhere along the way though, whether it was the scene with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Aaron Paul in the car or the tense moments with Mackie and Affleck, or even just the way Harrelson stole every scene he was in, something clicked and I loved watching this movie.

I had a friend hate the movie because they told us nothing about the characters, they could've cut out half an hour of the movie, everything was predictable, and nothing really happened, but I feel like all the tension and slower character stuff was what made this movie as good as it was.

Without the 'half-hour' of set-up, I would've not cared about any of these characters and the whole thing would've fallen flat at the end. I had very few problems with the movie overall (the biggest probably that one of the main characters gets absolutely nothing for character development or motivation and is just someone we'd feel okay seeing die in the end; straight black hat).

The actors make this movie.