When you have Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Tiger Chen, Michael Jai White, Michael Bisping, and Scott Adkins all in the same movie, you’re almost guaranteed some physicality, some martial arts, and a lot of the fun the usually goes with it. That’s what I was hoping for when I saw they were all starring in Triple Threat. On the surface, it has the potential to be at least watchable due to the action. And if done as well as possible, it may be able to exceed those expectations.
After a band of mercenaries are pushed out of their usual lives, they come together to take on a vicious group of professional assassins. One of their primary goals is to stop the team of killers from taking out a billionaire’s daughter who intends on bringing down a major crime syndicate. In the process, not only can the mercs save the lives of the innocent and bring justice, but they also find themselves with a chance at vengeance against those behind their current circumstance.
Triple Threat is a movie that predictably relies on action. When you see the names of the people who were cast, you pretty much figure that will be the case, and you’re probably watching it for that very purpose. So depending on where you stand, you could be happy to hear that there isn’t much outside of that. Most of the action is good and tends to take up a significant amount of time whenever it is presented to us.
Whenever Triple Threat chooses to step away from the choreographed fisticuffs, it runs into a little bit of trouble, so focusing on its strongest feature as much as possible was a smart idea. Unfortunately, this isn’t the rare case where there’s almost non-stop action in a movie. Unless it’s The Raid: Redemption (also starring Iko Uwais), action movies usually slow down in order for us to catch our breath, learn at least a little about the players involved or further the story.
In Triple Threat, it’s mostly used to further the story and let us in on the history of certain characters. I understand why it’s included, but it may just get in the way for some of us hardcore fans looking for various forms of violence and all the bloodshed that comes along with it. During these scenes, things lag a bit since the characters aren’t really developed all that much. When these scenes take over, I found myself hoping to get back to the action as soon as possible.
In terms of action, people who are interested in this will likely be satisfied with what they get. This movie is more “old school” when it comes to this stuff and people such as myself will be thankful for that. One reason this works is
You can probably figure out what’s going to happen when the sides do come face-to-face, but that doesn’t matter all that much since the guys on each side clearly know what they’re doing and showcase it as well as you could hope. There’s a moment when we are introduced to some nameless villains to add to the body count as well as the action, but for the most part, we’re dealing with the main bad guys throughout. They don’t have a lot of depth either, but they do quite well with what they’re asked to do.
Triple Threat is a movie that’s easy to recommend for fans simply looking for an action movie with some quality fights, shootouts and chase scenes. If you’re hoping for more than that, you might have to look elsewhere. And while I fully understand that perspective and don’t mind the added depth that we sometimes get in some modern-day action flicks, there’s always room for stuff like this in my library of films to watch.
Director: Jesse V. Johnson
Cast:
Tony Jaa
Iko Uwais
Tiger Chen
Celina Jade
Scott Adkins
Michael Bisping
Michael Jai White
Jeeja Yanin
Film Length: 96 minutes
Release Dates:
March 19, 2019 (One Night Only Wide Release)
March 22, 2019 (VOD/DVD & Select Theaters)
Distributor: Well Go USA Entertainment
- Score - 6.5/106.5/10
