This week's pick: "Triple Frontier.”
If we're being completely honest here, we totally thought this thing was gonna flop. Yeah, Netflix has been hitting it out of the park lately, and yeah, we love Oscar Isaac more than life itself, but sometimes these big-budget, star-studded action movies just...suck.
Fortunately for us (and for Ben Affleck’s future as an actor), “Triple Frontier” was surprisingly good. Now, we wouldn’t go as far as comparing it to “Outlaw King,” “Overlord” or pretty much any of the other war movies released in the past 12 months, but we will go as far as saying we were invested and intrigued for just about every minute of the movie's two-hour runtime.
If you need an exciting movie for the weekend, a good hangover watch for the morning after or just something to put on while you pretend to do your taxes (the deadline is April 15, people!), "Triple Frontier" is the movie for you.
What's it about, you ask?
Unhandled
“Triple Frontier” is about redemption.
When private military advisor Santiago “Pope” Garcia (Oscar Isaac) gets a shot at taking down the South American drug lord he’s been hunting for years, he doesn’t hesitate to move. But he can’t do it alone, and when he realizes that the payout would be beyond his wildest dreams, he decides to get his old team back together and get them in on the action.
Enter Tom “Redfly” Davis (Ben Affleck), William “Ironhead” Miller (Charlie Hunnam), his brother, Ben Miller (Garrett Hedlund) and Francisco “Catfish” Morales (Pedro Pascal). It takes some convincing, but after Garcia tells the boys just how much money they stand to make, how much glory they can restore and how they’ll each be able to turn their lives around, they give in.
It's unclear whether Garcia is in it for the money or if he truly wants to kill an evil man. What is clear is that what his team is about to do is illegal, dangerous and definitely not a special-ops operation -- it's a vigilante robbery. Something like Robin Hood on steroids with a little bit of military testosterone thrown in for good measure.
But what makes it <i>different</i>?<div><sup>And why should I care?</sup></div>
The one thing that prominently stuck out to us throughout "Triple Frontier" was the fact that we really freaking cared about the decisions these guys made and, even more so, got unreasonably frustrated when they made the wrong decision. Now, even if a movie isn't a cinematic ~~masterpiece~~ it's telling if it makes you actually feel something aside from pure entertainment.
Another thing "Triple Frontier" does really well is adhere to a clear cut narrative progression that only moves forward. Yeah, it's a tad bit predictable, but the movie takes good care to ensure each scene and action pushes the story ahead. (Future screenwriters take note: That's one thing all good movies share in common.)
Lastly, you should care because the movie sparked a bromance between the actors that is clear when you watch them interact in interviews.
It's adorable and occasionally cringy but we are here for it, and you should be too.
If you're still on the fence...
- Check out the trailer below.
- Look up the training these guys went through.
- Watch the first 15 minutes because it's on Netflix!
- Just watch it.
- Remind yourself of the fact that Oscar Isaac is in it...
- Try and guess what the twist everyone is talking about is.