Netflix
Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Garrett Hedlund, Pedro Pascal, and Charlie Hunnam lead an all-star cast in Netflix’s new original film, Triple Frontier. With a cast like this, it might as well be Expendables 4. J.C. Chandor directs this film about five former special forces operatives who reunite to plan a heist in a sparsely populated multi-border zone of South America. Triple Frontier is currently streaming on Netflix but also received a limited theater run as well. I was surprised with the cast and crew when I first heard about this film and it instantly made me interested in seeing this movie, plus I love heist movies.
With many heist movies come suspenseful moments and Triple Frontier is filed with them. My heart was pounding in many scenes and the typical race against the clock moments kept me on the edge of my seat. The movie does a good job setting up the initial plot and allowing for the consequences to fall into place. The special force operatives get greedy once they find the money and once it is in their possession, everything goes downhill for them. This is much more of a heist film rather than an action film and it kept my attention throughout. Everything that could go wrong for our main characters did go wrong and it just provided them with one setback after another. The reason for getting the group together, led by Oscar Isaac’s Santiago, feels similar to other movies in the same genre. It is all about money and the four characters being recruited knew it was illegal but still went through with it.
The film is shot great with many moments capturing the landscape of South America. J.C Chandor utilizes the environment to further the plot which I found impressive. This film looks a lot like Sicario with many scenes putting you into the action. Triple Frontier isn’t filled with an intense soundtrack. Often times the film feels silent when the team is in danger, which amplifies the suspense and makes it feel authentic.
For a group of people with a specific skill set that allowed for them to travel to South America and steal over $250 million in cash, they were a bit too loosey-goosey with their money while poor decisions were made throughout the film that followed with consequences the group had to handle. On one hand I think it is a good depiction of greed, but on the on the other hand I had a hard time believing that the main characters would be so easy going with their money and not take care of it to the best of their ability.
Many ensemble films like this run into a specific problem and that is the characters. I believe that the acting is great and I enjoyed seeing these actors all together in one film but I had hard time finding something I loved about each one. Santiago gathered everyone together and each one had a reason for joining him. They all felt the same and no one stood out. I wasn’t able to describe the characters after I watched the movie and that didn’t allow for me to root for anyone throughout the film. I would say that Oscar Isaac got the most screen time followed by Ben Affleck, but even those two didn’t have that one huge scene to make them memorable characters. I do think that Affleck gave the best performance in the movie as he was the greediest and was constantly yelling at people about bringing the money home.
There was a lot to appreciate about Triple Frontier but deep down the plot and characters felt generic and underused. The initial plot that was set up in the beginning didn’t have a pay off at the end that was worthy for the film. There was enough suspense and character interactions that kept my attention, but I have seen a movie like this before. I was overall impressed with the work going into the film and the cast involved, but moments could have been stronger especially with the talent involved.
Triple Frontier has a run time of 2 hours 5 minutes and is rated R for violence and language throughout.
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