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Triple 9: Average Guy Movie Review

Anyone who has seen Shawn Ryan's The Shield will have an idea of what to expect with Triple 9. Cops who do their job but are also out to take care of themselves. If you're looking for a nice movie, don't bother with this, it's a gritty view of crime, police work and life in Atlanta, but if you want an interesting movie grounded in reality with great characters you should definitely watch Triple 9.



The plot revolves around a heist crew made up of two ex-special forces operators (Ejiofor and Reedus), two cops (Mackie and Collins Jr) and an ex-cop (Paul) who work for the head of the Russian mob (Winslet). They are forced to take on a high risk job and in order to delay and diminish any Police response, plan to murder a cop (radio code for such an incident is 999 - urgent assistance), the cop they pick is Mackie's partner played by Casey Affleck. To complicate matters for the crew, Ejiofor has a child with Winslet's sister (Gadot), Winslet uses this to her advantage throughout. Woody Harrelson is the Detective investigating the crew's last job and Affleck's uncle. Fans of The Wire should watch out for Michael Kenneth William's (Omar Little) appearance as Harrelson's informant.



If you were to combine The Shield with Michael Mann's Heat, Triple 9 would probably be the result. It's got a realistic feel and throughout the movie you have no idea how it will end, but you know it won't be clean, there's not going to be a totally happy ending and people are going to die! There are great performances all round but I feel Kate Winslet's stands out, she is one cold bitch, if she has her claws in you you're screwed and you know it. 



Triple 9 definitely shows the nastier side of Atlanta. The tourism board won't consider using it to draw in visitors to the city, where they filmed you don't want tourists going! It also depicts the futility cops feel and the cynical outlook they develop in trying to make a difference. Woody Harrelson covers this brilliantly when talking to Affleck:
Detective Sergeant Jeffrey Allen (Harrelson): How’s your job going?
Chris Allen (Affleck): You know, spend my time trying to make a difference. I know how that sounds.
[Allen laughs]

Detective Sergeant Jeffrey Allen (Harrelson): You’re gonna make a difference. You ain’t gonna make a fucking difference. Forget about that. Your job: out-monster the monster then get home at the end of the night. 
The above is courtesy of www.moviequotesandmore.com
My only complaint about the movie is that the pace was steady up until the last fifteen minutes where it suddenly rushed to fit everything in. I don't know if the Producers were afraid to let the run time go over two hours but I think there should have been a bit more build up to the ending scene. That's not to say the ending isn't good, because it's great, the movie just seemed to jump to it instead of building to it that's all. Other than that, as long you don't mind a movie that revolves around the dark and gritty side of life, Triple 9 is a very entertaining two hours.


One of the major inspirations for starting this blog was Cinema Sins, created by Jeremy Scott and Chris Atkinson. Check out their YouTube channel, the link to their website is at the bottom of this page. Triple 9 begins with a shot of Atlanta and the words "Atlanta, Georgia, USA", as a tribute to Jeremy, Chris and Cinema Sins: "in case you confused it for Atlanta, Georgia, Switzerland".


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