Triple Frontier Is An Alistair MacLean All Boys Fear Factor

Triple Frontier(Netflix)

Starring  Ben Affleck,Oscar Isaac ,Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, Pedro Pascal Directed  by  J C Chandor

Rating: **(2 stars)

 So boys, it’s time for some high-octane highvoltage  action.  You know,  the kind of adventure stories that  AlistairMacLean  wrote?  They are back in vogue,And  why not? When we have a bunch of  highly charismatic  superstars swooping down on some  highly  panoramic terrain.All for a  cause.

Self-gratification.

 The  plot in this I-me-myself  film is wafer-thin, almost anorexic. The  morals  are  that of an alley-cat binging on full-cream  milk. In  true high-adventure style we have Oscar Isaac collecting together some  really troubled  soldier-friends ,all with a troubled past(so  forgive them, Oh Lord)   for a heist that would make them  millionaires many times over.

Isaac is  a magnetic actor  and I recently saw him playing a  bereaved  husband in the grossly underrated  Life Itself. He easily steals the show from  the other superstars  in  this Netflix showoff vehicle  where  Ben Affleck takes  a backseat  and  drops out  of the plot midway.Which is all for the best. This  is one of  the worst films Affleck has  done in recent times  with his character suffering from a grossly underwritten arc and no sense  of  anchored  loyalty  or commitment  beyond the one staring at his  nose.

 The  logic for  men  of honour turning so  dishonourable is simple. Enough for  the  country.  How about  doing something  for ourselves? From this highly dubious motive for machismo the rapidfire  narration sprints to the most  ridiculous  situations and  dialogues until we reach a point when they  stare atone another searching for  a moral  compass  for their avarice.

At one  point one of  the heroes wonders how many people they’ve killed so far. And  believe it or not,  his  colleague has kept count ! This is film that throws around violent statistics and  ill-gotten money with infuriating impunity.

One  of the heroes throws  a fat wad  of  notes to a young rustic boy soldiering at an age when he should be partying.

“Take this, and  get out before it is too late,” our hero warns  the  boy.

I wish someone made me the same offer. I’d be out of this  preposterous action drama in a  jiffy. Triple Frontier has some  brilliant action scenes shot in locations that scream a cinematic seductiveness.  The window- dressing cannot hide the  basic repugnance  of  a plot that tells us  greed  is  a great incentive  for adrenaline .And that killing  people for money  is  a good way to harness hormonal anxiety.

If you want  spend two hours wondering what some of  American cinema  biggest and most appealing stars are doing  running around  a terrain that has no place for them, then go right ahead. If however the thought  of BenAffleck playing  a wreck of a soldier who  needs money for his daughter’s education sounds too corny for comfort then find a film that doesn’t glorify greed and violence .