For this series of reviews I have gone to Netflix for their original films on 5 occasions before today. On four out of the five occasions I have either been disappointed or just felt that the film I had seen was not good. Not a great record as you can see. But there is nothing in the cinema at the minute, or at least nothing I want to watch or haven't already seen, so back to Netflix I went with the hope that Triple Frontier (2019) would join Flavors of Youth (2018) as an enjoyable Netflix original movie. It definitely had the cast to impress, but it is a genre which isn't exactly up there as one of my favourites. I am glad to report that, despite not being anything special, I did enjoy Triple Frontier and now out of the 6 Netflix films I have reviewed I can say I enjoyed 2 of them. The gap is being closed. The film tells the story of 4 former Special Unit Soldiers who are given a proposition by another of their former colleagues, Santiago 'Pope' Garcia (Oscar Isaac). His proposition is to take out a drug lord, Lorea (Reynaldo Gallegos), and steal his fortune in the process. One of these men, Tom 'Redfly' Davis (Ben Affleck), is unsure about the mission but is convinced by the sheer temptation of the amount of money that they will come home with if they pull it off. However, the simple plan goes array during the execution and this leads to a series of problems for the five men which makes their attempts to get home with their haul that more difficult.
This is a film where the cast is strong enough to lift this film above its merits. I think it would still be a perfectly fine flick if the cast wasn't as strong, but the casting of Charlie Hunnam, as William 'Ironhead' Miller, Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac really does give this film a boost. Although I haven't seen much of Hunnam's work outside of Green Street (2005) I have heard very good things about him, and although he isn't amazing in this film he is good. He portrays emotion well, has the intensity when needed and looks the part of a special ops soldier. Oscar Isaac is his usual fantastic self. I really like him as an actor anyway so I always knew that I was going to enjoy him in this role and he didn't disappoint. He played the character smart and thoughtful, and was able to convey a genuine moral code within the character which was clear and easy to see. The MVP of the film goes to Affleck though. This is not his best performance of his career but it is a very good one and he gives the most complex and compelling performance of the cast. I think he is helped by the writing, which is much more complex and in depth for his character then for the majority of others. He is given more back story and much more of an emotional ark to work with and he is able to do really well with it and he was the character who kept my attention most. The other two actors who made up the group, Garret Hedlund as Ben Miller and Pedro Pascal as Francisco 'Catfish' Morales, are also both good but almost get lost in the shuffle. They do not put in bad performances, but their characters are given less focus then the other three, probably due to the name recognition of the other actors, and so they never have a big spotlight to really shine, but they still put in good performances.
Narratively this film kind of surprised me. Granted, I knew nothing about this film coming into it but I was expecting a more military focused narrative. The film is instead much more of a heist film, which was a pleasant surprise. This led to some twists and turns I was not expecting and also gave the film a layer of tension and excitement that came as a surprise. From a technical standpoint, however, there is very little to be surprised about here. The film, for the most part, sticks to genre conventions of action films, especially military focused action films. Grand establishing shots, lots of military jargon, close quarter action scenes with plenty of close ups and a score which involves copious amounts of bass drums. Very standard genre stuff and much more of what I was expecting going into this film. This is not a negative about the film because tropes become tropes for a reason. But in this case these tropes belong to a genre that does not peak my interest much at all. Although military films can be great, on the whole it is just a style of film that is not really for me, but I can definitely see why there is an audience for them and why there is an audience for Triple Frontier. It is visceral with good action set pieces and a sense of camaraderie that is prevalent in films of this type. But I still enjoyed it despite my apathy towards the genre, which is quite possible down to the fantastic soundtrack. A film which has Metallica, Fleetwood Mac and Bob Dylan was always going to go down well with me.
Triple Frontier has the distinction of joining my short list of positively reviewed Netflix original films. Despite it belonging to a genre that I don't really have much liking for it is still entertaining and I had a good time with it. It does follow the tropes of the genre pretty strictly from a technical standpoint, but it does a good job in following them and the heist aspect of the narrative does give it a bit of a standout aspect from other films of this type. It is lifted up by the casting, with all five of the actors doing really good jobs, with Affleck stealing the show for the most part. When it comes to whether I recommend it or not it is a little tough say. Although I enjoyed it, I know perfectly well this film is definitely not for everyone and so giving it a proper recommendation seems wrong. So what I'll do is this, if you read this review and think you might enjoy the film give it a watch, if you read this review and thought it sounded like crap give it a miss. That just about covers all my bases.