Starring Kate Winslet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, & Casey Affleck and Woody Harrelson
What happens when you add together the Russian mafia, a slew of corrupt cops and a man whose most precious commodity is his son’s well-being?? You get one action-packed thrill ride of a film! ~ THIS IS TRIPLE 9
Attempting the biggest heist of his career, while working for his sister-in-law Irina Vlaslov (Kate Winslet), and her Russian mob ~ Michael Atwood (Chiwetel Ejiofor), is relying on his team of BAD BOYS ~ Marcus Belmont (Anthony Mackie), Gabe Welch (Aaron Paul), Russell Welch (Norman Reedus), and Jorge Rodriquez (Clifton Collins Jr.) ~ to pull this off, and so they each make a load of dough when it’s over…
With the job completed, and everyone ready for “pay day”, it seems that Ivina has just one more little job that she needs done…before anyone gets paid or before Michael can be with his son…
Puffing away his afternoons – but hot on the trail to find out who these dudes are that are messing up his town – Sergeant Detective Jeffrey Allen (Woody Harrelson) finds that his nephew, and fellow cop Chris Allen (Casey Affleck), may just be play an integral part of the next job these boys have planned…
Knowing that the only way to get his son back ~ and end all this craziness FOR EVERYONE~ Michael agrees to Jorge’s suggestion of causing a TRIPLE 9 ~ Police code for “officer down, making sure to keep all of the police occupied with one of their own expiring, as Michael and his crew finish the task at hand…
I give TRIPLE 9 a rating between: MUST SEE ON THE BIG SCREEN and WAIT AND CATCH THIS ONE OF DVD ~ With a star studded cast ~ including Kate Winslet doing yet another accent, plus Ejiofor, Harrelson, Mackie, Paul, and Affleck back on the screen, you know going in that this one is going to be better than average. Add a twisting and turning ending to the storyline, that proves just when you think you know the score, you don’t ~ ANYONE REMEMBER THE DEPARTED 😉 ~ and you have one action packed thriller that is going to keep you on the edge of your seat throughout most of it’s 115 minutes. SO why the IN BETWEEN rating? At times, TRIPLE 9 seemed to drag on for me…we have the premise of where we are going ~ so lets MOVE IT ALONG, SHALL WE!!! I also felt that the people portraying some of these characters had so much more to bring to this film, but, for some reason, chose to hold back…Maybe a Directing issue??? Not really sure… But, as far as action packed films go – ITS GOOD – and you get to see another fabulous performance by CASEY AFFLECK ~ two awesome characters to play in back-to-back films isn’t so bad…and HARRELSON gives us what we love to see from him too ~ a quirky, kick-ass character to LOVE. And, rest assured that the GRAPHIC VIOLENCE you expect going in is most definitely there… I just wish they could have sped up the storyline a bit, expediting all the drama and intrigue that you eventually get to. If you love action packed, graphically violent films, loaded with lots of STARS ~ then this is definitely the film for you to CATCH ON THE BIG SCREEN at a theater near you this weekend. If you aren’t as intrigued by bad cops, Russian Mafia and guts and gore galore as the next guy – then this film might just be perfect for you to catch when it breaks on DVD in a few months too ~ you can’t go wrong, regardless which avenue you choose…
Kathy Kaiser
MATINEE CHAT with Kathy Kaiser 