Triple 9

It's strange to say the least that despite a first class cast, Hillcoat has failed to create anything more than a slightly above average genre spectacle. In truth, Triple 9 suffers from a kind of "overcasting" where the individual stars of the cast act more like staffage without adequate impact on the plot itself. It's as if John Hillcoat, after the successful Lawless, thought he'd now do a police heist with star actors for a change, except that John Hillcoat simply isn't Michael Mann, David Ayer, or Ben Affleck. The result is a kind of weird mishmash of police drama, gangster movie, and heist film that has its moments, but these are truly scarce. It's an example of wasted potential with an extremely poor Kate Winslet who has nothing to play and the scenes with her really hurt. [60%] (11/23/2020)

Triple 9 offers a fairly authentic excursion into the dirty streets of Atlanta, which are full of ruthless mobsters, dangerous gangs and corrupt cops. Even though the situation is portrayed quite believably, there was still something missing and I personally would have shortened the running time a bit. As far as the cast is concerned, I was mostly satisfied, (as always) especially with Kate Winslet, who really suited the villain role and had an absolutely great accent. (06/06/2016)

A great crime movie that would benefit from being a couple of minutes longer to make it easier to orient oneself in the story. These days it’s almost a miracle to see something so bloody with such a well thought-out storyline and such an excellent cast. Hillcoat puts on a great performance. Ejiofor is pleasant at last, and Winslet is just perfect. Triple 9 is both the purpose and the result in a thoughtful probe into the world of today’s police. This little piggy... (05/29/2016)

Seemingly perfect, because at first glance everything looks as it should to be a proper crime drama. It has nice covers, a stellar cast in atypical roles (Chiwetel Ejiofo, Kate Winslet), and a well-known director of cruelty behind the camera. But in the end, it only looks like that, because this heist story like The Town is just a conundrum of who survives the longest. There’s no tangible plot, and the little there is punishingly quickly wrapped up. Watching 115 minutes of mobsters, junkies, Nazis, tattooed Mexicans, etc. who's going to hit who first, a raw probe into the criminal rabble of a big American city population, it’s not bad, especially when the demon Atticus Ross plays along and that out-of-focus, volatile camera makes you feel like Ayer assisted. But script-wise, it's a complete piece of shit. (06/04/2016)

If I leave aside the fact that this film offers rather solid action scenes, I wouldn’t know what else I should talk about in this case. Triple 9 had a great cast of actors and it didn’t manage to work with them well enough for me to get used to any single one of them at least for a while. Instead, the movie focuses on a band of nasty Hispanic guys who make life miserable both for the group of familiar actors and for ourselves. And that’s a world I don’t need to see. (03/18/2017)