Triple Frontier

A manly military relationship drama with an interesting plot, and a solid, sometimes very unpredictable script up to three quarters of the way through. When the main heist scene takes place in the middle of the film, it’s clear that the escape won’t be an easy task. Unfortunately, the last quarter sees the main characters suffering from acute lobotomies, and you just watch their decisions with your mouth open, shaking your head in disbelief at their thought process. If that was the intention of the filmmakers, then it is very over the top dark humour. Unfortunately, this Netflix feature is also a bit weaker due to the presumably smaller budget. Plus points for the beautiful locations and for Ben Affleck. (01/04/2019)

An outstanding drama for men about the importance of money. A group of soldiers go to pick up their pay and, even if most things go right, one screw-up is enough. The scenery is wonderful, a feast for the eyes. A great role for Affleck, and Chandor gets the maximum out of everybody. There’s not much action, but when there is, it’s pleasantly realistic. The most important lesson of all is that even an honorable man can turn into a swine when he’s thrown into the deep end. (18/03/2019)

From a seemingly inconspicuous genre, a dense and thematically pleasant (anti?) military ride with surprising twists, related unexpected mood changes and fast pace has emerged. By shooting something like this, Peter Berg has taken the game of whispers to a totally new level. (16/09/2019)

A boyish spectacle of the Michael Caine's Play Dirty / John Frankenheimer's The Train / Kelly's Heroes type. Clearly written characters, a clearly given situation, and a clear plan that just has to get messed up somehow – not once and not a little. The literally stellar cast pulls it together nicely and no one sticks out, the direction also sticks pleasantly to the ground and makes the action and pure adventure scenes as believable as it gets. Plus, I liked that the film managed to surprise as well. (09/04/2019)

Triple Frontier will certainly end up among the most popular and best respected genre titles of the year. It’s a proudly masculine story that perhaps doesn’t expose its characters much beyond the limits of their own morality and that at times feels too telegraphic, but one that doesn’t stumble in any scene, has very well written dialogues and pulls the viewer into the events so intensively that I would love to see it in a cinema. A very good job with great actors in a rather fresh setting and with a final scene that has the courage to leave things partially unresolved. I would like to see something like this at least every six months. (15/03/2019)