Triple Frontier

This is one of those movies that I see the trailers for, I think to myself, "boy that looks like a movie I'll enjoy" and then it sits in my Netflix queue for close to a year and I only watch it when I have literally nothing better to do.

Now Netflix films sometimes can be hit or miss. Because they have the budget for about a million of these a year, they only really have to put out half a dozen or so that appeal to a broad audience or come to critical acclaim. The other films they put out are more niche films or might appeal to a smaller audience. It happens to a similar extent to TV shows. Sometimes shows are meant to be niche and they turn into bigger cultural phenomenas, but I imagine Netflix finds it more profitable to turn out only a couple really good movies that are targeted to be amazing, while the others are just making films because they're Netflix and they can.  While this movie is on the higher end of quality films, you can kind of tell that this is one of those films that they just threw to JC Chandor, a relatively new director, gave him 115 million (probably on the higher side of things) and an EP credit to Catherine Bigalo, and said, go nuts. And oh boy, did our buddy JC go nuts.

Triple Frontier follows the story of five former Delta Force soldiers brought together to carry out a very risky heist of a cartel crime lord's money. Oscar Isaac plays Santiago, a guy working with the Colombian police to combat drug crime and he gets information from a source about the inner workings of a crime lord. He believes that he can get a team of his former military buddies together to rob the drug lord and come away rich. So the movie is half a heist movie and half a military action film and I actually really dig the cross over.

The team consists of Tom (played by Ben Affleck), the seeming planner of the group, Francisco (played by Pedro Pascale) the pilot of the group, and Will and Ben (played by Charlie Hunnam and Garrett Hedlund respectively). I didn't give a job to Will and Ben because I'm not totally sure what their job was beside just being apart of the team. Usually in these heist/military films, everyone has a particular job that makes them essential, and its a small thing, but I never got the indication that those guys had a particular job. Now I imagine that they needed to fill out the team so it wasn't just three guys fighting their way through a small cartel army, but it is something I only thought of after I was done with the film. But more importantly, the film is more focused on Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac as the main characters so the other three are kind of there for the ride for the most part.

I think one of the most entertaining elements of the film is Ben Affleck's character. Honestly his character starts off kind of milk toast as the beginning as the former commando struggling to acclimate to a normal life, but then they start describing him as the plan master and it gets really entertaining when his plans and his almost greed starts to ramp up to be a vital flaw in his character. This movie is by no means Shakespearean, but I do love it when you see characters with these flaws get fleshed out. You see the wheels turning when he's calculating plans and pushing everyone forward, and that's where the movie starts to get really fun. I have to wonder if Ben Affleck just isn't an appealing figure to some people, but I am convinced that people really underestimate his acting because he brings it in this film.

Oscar Isaac is really interesting too because there is that same level of ambition and greed driving him throughout the film that makes him an interesting character. The movie paints these guys as very cautious about who they are willing to kill and who they're not and it does give some nuance to a movie that could have just been commando the movie.

The problem is I'm not sure they really flesh that out as well as they could. There is some talk about the path of "the warrior" and the moral dilemma of taking another person's life, but that dilemma is not always adhered to, especially as things start to spin out of control for these guys. While Oscar Isaac is one of the two really interesting characters in this film, I don't think he's as consistent as Ben Affleck's character, but at the same time, its Oscar Isaac, he nails whatever he does even if the script is not always consistent.

On the topic of things getting out of control for these guys, it is a lot of fun watching these guys have this plan that seems very straight forward, but as conflict goes, things go wrong and there is some suspense on whether or not they're going to get through this.

The rest of the team is fine. I am really starting to love all of Pedro Pascale's work and Charlie Hunnam and Garrett Hedlund are fine, they're just not focused on as much as Isaac and Affleck.

I will say that the movie does a really good job of slowing turning up the tension and keeping you invested in these guys from the beginning to the end. They're able to make these character that could easily just be considered the same very distinct and interesting and that paired with the rising of tension and conflict, makes the film intriguing all the way to the end. And further more, these guys never feel like super soldiers. They seem to find themselves in relatively realistic circumstances and at no point does it feel like these guys couldn't have a rambo moment and mow down a whole army. A lot of the film is them avoiding conflict and I really enjoyed that nuanced approach.

Something I will note is that it kind of feels like the end was rushed. It was good, but a little rushed. After a certain point, the film wraps up very quickly and it didn't feel like all the movie could do to finish it. It doesn't ruin the whole movie by any means, it just felt rushed.

Overall, I'd recommend Triple Frontier if you're looking for a fun time. The movie is not ridiculous like other action movies, but it's also not something you need to take too seriously. It's a good mixture of both with a pretty good cast and a fun premise.

I get the feeling that Netflix was wanting this movie to be a more critically acclaimed and watched film than it ended up being and were maybe disappointed with the viewership, but I think its definitely worth checking out if you want a fun gritty heist thriller.

But those are my thoughts on Triple Frontier. What did you think? Is Ben Affleck underrated? Is Oscar Isaac rated exactly how he should be, amazing? (Leading question) Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

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