Entertaining enough, Triple Frontier is a decent action movie with an exotic setting. In development for almost ten years, it went through several changes, mostly relating to its ensemble cast. The end result is perfect for exactly one viewing. The famous fire and forget line comes to mind. Although, I’m sure you’ll bump into it over the coming years and decades. The story has a distinct Narcos television show vibe although it’s visually much more similar to ZeroZeroZero. And they’ve even got none other than Javi also known as Pedro Pascal! I won’t bother you with the rest of the cast. Mostly because there’s not much to say about their standard-issue performances. Although I must say that Oscar Isaac is turning into a real action hero and Adria Arjona should have gotten a bigger role.
Triple Frontier follows a group of ex-military guys who decide to rob one of the biggest Cartel bosses. Spoiled by movies like Lone Survivor and 13 Hours, I was expecting something similar here. However, after quite an intriguing beginning, the pacing slows down and the movie starts tripping over its melodramatic story. This is a shame because it was screaming for a neo-noir coating. And for a team of professionals, they sure were quite amateurish when it came to the actual mission. The entire thing reminds me of MacGruber, a masterpiece making fun of exactly this type of movie. Be sure to check it out if you’re looking for something to unwind after this one. And by the way, Triple Frontier is the tripoint where the borders of Brazil, Peru, and Colombia meet.
Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia, working as a military consultant in Colombia, just found out something very important. The location of Lorea, an infamous drug lord he was looking for years. Because Lorea doesn’t trust banks, he keeps all his money with him at all times. There are not a lot of people who could rob and kill this bad guy. However, it turns out the Pope just happens to know a couple of them. They’re all ex-military, now bored with regular, civilian life. And this mission sounds too good to pass up.
With a runtime of just over two hours, Triple Frontier becomes a bit tedious and dull towards the end. There was a moment during the heist when you could feel the entire movie just turn. It involves Tom ‘Redfly’ Davis played by Ben Affleck and see if you can spot it. Otherwise, the action was nice and juicy, as it is expected from production this big. It has a video game vibe to it like you’re playing GTA. Or, in this case, the Just Cause franchise seems like a more appropriate comparison. Finally, I guess I’m being too hard on this formulaic action flick that never aspired to achieve greatness. After all, certain twists make it a notch above your standard-issue military/heist movie. And it did hold my attention even after a couple of beers.
If you’re looking for similar movies, I recommend you check out Den of Thieves, The Losers, The A-Team and Free Fire. And as bonus I have to mention Extraction starring Chris Hemsworth and 6 Underground with Ryan Reynolds.
Director: J.C. Chandor
Writers: Mark Boal, J.C. Chandor
Cast: Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, Pedro Pascal, Adria Arjona, Jeovanny Rodriguez, Reynaldo Gallegos
Fun Facts: After Tom Hardy and Channing Tatum left the project over creative changes in the rewritten script, a month later, Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac took over the respective roles. Moreover, the same goes for Johnny Depp and Tom Hanks who dropped out in 2010.
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1488606/
