Review of Triple 9 (2016) by Kevin A — 01 Mar 2016

Need a testerone fix? Then this is your ticket. Bullets to the left, car crashes to the right, stand up, sit down, fight fight-cut a throat, rig a bomb, cross your partner, this Guy Flik has all that, plus Kate Winslet (she of heaviing breasts) with teased blondness worthy of GaGa herself and a non descript Balkan accent, supposedly Russian mafia Orthodox Jewish, but just as easily could have been Ukranian, Latvian or Minsk, Belarus anyone? I did enjoy the smash up opening crime caper ala Michael Mann's HEAT where the boys in camo disguise pull off Atlanta's biggest bank heist in who knows when? Does it matter? No, it does not.

This is a fun ride for action, good cop/bad cop movies. Of course the plot has loose threads all over the place, but this is a FUN RIDE! The cast is first rate with Woody (gimme a blunt) Harrelson as the true blue pot smoking detective assigned to the bank robbery which doesn't smell right.

It's reported as a "211 in progress" . It's old hat since Adam Twelve to use California Penal Code numbers to denominate crimes NOT committed in California, e.g. 187 is murder in California and robbery is a 211, but a robbery in Georgia is violation of section 16-8-4.

I looked it up. Anyway, the cast is superb led by Casey Affleck, last seen repairing busting pipes in a sinking tanker off the coast of MA in Our Finest Hours. Also in a lead is Chiwetel Ojiofor, best known as the enslaved, educated man in 12 Years a Slave.

Anthony Mackie leaves his folding Avenger wing suit at home to play a damaged, greedy cop in cahoots with former SEAL and special forces killing machines under the thumb of Kate, Irina the Russian wife of Vasily, who will stop at NOTHING to get what she wants.

Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad) is a loser junkie, fringe crew member former crew member who can bring the entire crew down, but will he? Atlanta is the focus of the entire setting showing both the good and the dreadful of most major citiies polluted by poverty, drop outs, public housing and the general liberal inner city approach that money will win out over corruption of the soul and a broken moral compass-ain't gonna happen.

So enjoy the show. The good guys win but they don't; the bad guys lose but they don't. That's the way of the world isn't it?