Triple Frontier (2019) - Netflix Review

Review:

*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
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The Accountant (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written October 19th, 2016*

While a bit silly, overlong and gets convoluted by the end, I still had a good time with The Accountant. It's a bit messy and all over the place, there's a few story lines that don't add up to much, but it was still a decent little genre film with decent, new and interesting ideas.

Ben Affleck was great, delivering a fairly grounded performance which may or may not be an accurate portrayal of autism (I'm not an expert), his comedy and physical work was also excellent. Anna Kendrick was pretty wasted in a thankless and underdeveloped role. J.K. Simmons was excellent.

I was happy with the pretty brutal action throughout. No bullshit shaky-cam. It was all smooth and impactful. I was surprised by just how funny the film was though, Affleck gave us some excellent laughs with his dry dead-pan humour.

I feel my biggest problem with this film could have been fixed with a shorter edit. While the main side-plot gives us some background on Affleck's character, it really had no impact on the story and could have been dropped. There's also some silly twists towards the end that came out of nowhere, creating a very tonally messy film in retrospect.

But, for the most part: Solid. Would happily see a sequel and more adventures from Affleck's character.

7/10 Dans

The Accountant is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Live by Night (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written January 13th, 2017*

"Dead by Dawn"

As an actor, Ben Affleck has made a lot of shit, that's just a fact, but where he truly shines is in his directing. Gone Baby Gone is great, The Town was even better and Argo even won best picture at the Oscars, but sadly Affleck has finally not only a disappointing film, but a straight-up bad one at that.

This prohibition gangster drama feels like 3 seasons of Boardwalk Empire crammed into one 2 hour film, it just doesn't work. There's just too much going on, which results in a frustrating mess of a film. It starts of well enough, giving us a fairly simple, but involving story. The first act sets up a story that is more or less ignored until the final few scenes. This wouldn't be a problem if the story we get wasn't so meandering and boring.

I was expecting some sort of fairly simple revenge film. It's not. Instead we spend 2 thirds of the film dealing with a variety of underdeveloped subplots. It feels sorta like they made a film out the Mafia video game series, but instead focused the story on a bunch of uninteresting side missions before resolving the main plot out of nowhere.

This takes place in a very misogynist time, but there is no reason for the female characters to be this outrageously underwritten. The two love interests are nothing, a complete waste of Sienna Miller and Zoe Saldana (Who I can't even remember if she had lines or not). Then we had Elle Fanning, who gives a decent performance with what she was given, but her character really fails to leave much of an impact.

If I have positives to say. I will admit the production design is really beautiful and the film is well shot and cinematic. Some of the action scenes are great and have some fairly graphic kills and visual flare. As an actor, Affleck is at least decent in his role. It's just a shame his character is so uninteresting and uncompelling as a lead. Which is Affleck's fault as a director and not an actor.

The pacing is also very poor. Despite being crammed with about 3 different films worth of material, you would think there would be enough happening for it be somewhat fast-paced. It is instead a complete slog. This honestly felt at least 3 hours long.


Live by Night is Ben Affleck's first truly bad film as a director. A crammed mess that wastes the potential of its setting and time period.

4/10 Dans

Live by Night is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
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Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) (Theatrical Cut) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written on March 25th, 2016*

Well, here we are, after years of waiting, so much hype, so much backlash and some mixed trailers, the movie fight of the century is here, and it's just OK? It's sure looking to be the most divisive and polarizing film of the year, which is completely well founded. Batman v Superman is entertaining, it even has moments of greatness, but is just far too packed with too much for it to be a great film.

After the events of Man of Steel, mankind is divided by the presence of Superman, many see him to be a hero and a god, others see him as a threat to humanity. Batman is one of those people who thinks he must be stopped, leading to a face off between the two.

Where do I begin with this? The biggest problem is just how stuffed with characters and plots in such a short runtime. It reeked of studio interference. So much could have been trimmed and cut, but was instead kept in because DC are desperately trying to catch up with Marvel, so they can build their own superhero universe and eventually their Justice League film.

Batman and Superman facing off

It doesn't make for great storytelling. There is so much rammed in here that it just seems to jump from scene to scene without any real sense of pace. It was entertaining, don't get me wrong, but a lot of it feels like they were going through a checklist of stuff they needed to add to hint at the wider canon. Far too much dream sequence stuff too, there was some cool visuals, but urgh, it just took away from the film.

I will say I loved the elements of trying to show the fallout of Man of Steel's events. And it even goes into the morality side of being a hero. That has always seemed to be DC's thing, looking at the more mature and adult themes of superhero ethics. Which I love and appreciate, it even made for a compelling first half before it degraded into CGI bombast.

It terms of good. Ben Affleck absolutely killed it as Bruce Wayne and Batman, everyone who complained about his casting must feel embarrassed now. I wouldn't say he was better than Bale, but there certainly is potential and I cannot wait to see what they do with his solo films. His action felt more smooth and Nolan's films and looked inspired by the 'Arkham' game series, which isn't a bad thing. Also, a Batman that killed. THANK YOU, I have been waiting to see Batman do this for so long, I know he has before in previous films, but here it is embraced, he shoots, breaks necks and blows up criminals. Loved the no half measures approach.

Then on the other hand we had Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, who was woefully miscast. He completely hams it up, playing that utter genius psycho with some kind of asperger's. He felt like something from a completely different film. Saying that, he is still the best villain of the film, the final boss of the film (yes, the one that was spoiled in the trailers) is just a generic CGI abomination that looked like utter wank.

Jesse Eisenberg hamming it up as an awful Lex Luthor

Henry Cavill is reliable as he was in Man of Steel. He's pretty wizard and a great Superman, he's good as Clark Kent too, but I find it funny that he's terrible at being a journalist, although it makes sense. I liked seeing a Superman with remorse for some of the things he was inadvertently responsible for. Again, a Superman that kills, fantastic.

The action scenes suffer from the same problems of Man of Steel, it just eventually succumbs into a bombastic CGI fest that just feels plastic and looks fake. The titular fight between the two leads is also pretty disappointing and one sided. Snyder once again delivers some gorgeous visuals that look really nice despite the dark cinematography. I did really love Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL's score, which was awesome and epic.

With not a lot of screen time, Gal Gadot left a decent impact as Wonder Woman, she showed a lot more acting chops than the Fast and Furious series managed to let her. I just got a lot more interested in her solo film.

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman

So yeah, that was Batman v Superman, a messy, but entertaining watch, it's stylish and has a bit going for it, it's just a shame that is was so packed with so much forced side plots and characters in order to build a world, as there could have been a much better and focused film underneath.

6/10 Dans

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is out now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD now in the UK
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