*Originally written March 13th, 2019*
A rare Netflix Original Film that is actually damn great. I was intrigued by this due to the cast and crew involved. I remember very little about it, but I remember liking J.C. Chandor's A Most Violent Year. My only worry about this was the fact it was a Netflix Original. They obviously have a tendency to completely waste a talented filmmakers time by releasing what seems like a low-effort, straight to video release. Just look at Dan Gilroy, who went from the masterpiece Nightcrawler to the Netflix Original Velvet Buzzsaw.
Thankfully, this wasn't the case, Triple Frontier is a gripping action thriller that slowly builds its character and plot to familiar places, but is no less engaging thanks to the strong performances from the cast, great action and compelling, no nonsense script. It's a pretty simple script, a group of ex-servicemen come together to rob a drug lord in South America for millions of dollars so they can all leave their dead-end lives behind. Things escalate and things don't go to plan as they have to fight their way out of the country with whatever money they can carry.
It's simple, but effective stuff, made better by the fact I have a huge soft-spot for heist films, but this goes above and beyond the solid, if messy, similarly budgeted heist films of recent years (Den of Thieves and Triple 9 come to mind). Thanks to J.C. Chandor's effective direction, every moment of the actually heist is a tense affair with some cold and brutal violence mixed in their too, plus some good morality plays from the characters were a welcome addition.
I did appreciate the time built towards building the characters before the actual heist takes place. Being an ensemble cast, some of the characters get sidelined a bit as the focus is mostly on Ben Affleck, Charlie Hunnam and Oscar Isaac. All three do a fantastic job, Affleck in particular as the rugged and weary soldier trying to turn his life around as he slowly gets more greedy once he sees the stakes of what he's got himself into. Hunnam is someone who has never really managed to find much success outside of Sons of Anarchy, like most TV actors going into film, thankfully, this is by far his best film role I've seen to date from him. Then Isaac is still a massively charismatic presence that I was surprised to find out pretty much leads the film and carries the most screen-time.
One of things rare and always welcome from a Netflix film is how much this actually looks like a real and cinematic film, unlike most of their other releases that look more in line with high budget TV than an actually film, mostly due to the gross, high-key lighting. Triple Frontier looks pretty gorgeous, making the most of its lush, South American setting. Watching this in 4K with Dolby Vision was a treat in itself, I wish Netflix would start releasing films physically, as I would happily own 4K copies of this, Beasts of No Nation, Apostle and Roma.
As an action film, this also works extremely well. The set-pieces are cold, brutal and pack a hell of a punch. Nothing feels gratuitous or over the top. There's no moment of bombastic heroics or Rambo like actions, it's just brutal and when people die, it's with no fanfare or sentimentality, they just drop dead and it feels cold and realistic. It was obvious from the get-go that not everyone makes it out here alive, but even knowing that, it was still a surprise to see what characters actually don't make it.
Triple Frontier is one of Netflix's best original films to date. A gorgeous, brutal heist thriller with a great cast who all have their time to shine. Netflix films are actually starting to get better, for the most part.
8/10 Dans
Triple Frontier is streaming now on Netflix worldwide
Watch the trailer below:
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