Cindy Prascik's Review of Triple Frontier

Thanks to the Death Plague currently decimating my office, this week I was able to catch the Netflix original film Triple Frontier.

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailer.

Having various degrees of success readjusting to civilian life, a suspiciously-handsome group of ex-Special Forces soldiers plans to steal a drug lord's ill-gotten gains.

Triple Frontier is just the sort of picture that still gets me out to the cinema: a big, shoot-em-up actioner with testosterone to spare, kinda like the Expendables, only with smaller people who take themselves a little more seriously.

Given my dwindling tolerance for the movie-going public, it's my good fortune that Netflix gave me the opportunity to catch this in the comfort (and quiet) of my own home.

While they aren't all exactly A-List, the aforementioned smaller people--Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Pedro Pascal, and Garrett Hedlund--have a fair bit of big-screen cred among them. Each has his moment(s) to shine, and none is better or worse than exactly what the material requires. Triple Frontier is certainly action packed, yet at times I was surprised how slow it seemed. It's good that there's more going on than just gunfights and explosions (she says, grudgingly), but somehow the bits that *aren't* gunfights and explosions don't quite earn their keep. Part of the problem is that the trailer sells a heist film, but the actual heist is a relatively small part of the story; the majority of the film's runtime is burned on what follows. Effects and action/fight choreography are solid, but even the movie's most meaningful dialogue is awkward and stilted. Despite any other failings, the film boasts a groovy soundtrack and does a good job of sustaining tension right up to a predictable finish.

Triple Frontier clocks in at 125 minutes and is rated R for "violence and language throughout." It may not be the best movie of the year, but Triple Frontier holds its own.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, Triple Frontier gets seven.

Fangirl points: You guys...CHARLIE HUNNAM! Until next time...