Triple 9

Aussie director John Hillcoat is no stranger to making brutally violent films. Triple 9 is no exception to this rule, showing the brutal lengths that people will go to when their backs are against the wall. While it is an enjoyable heist movie, it can at times seem a bit predictable and some of the character motivations aren't even evident.

In Atlanta, a small crew of criminals led by Michael Atwood (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are made to pull a heist on a bank by Russian mobster Irina Vlaslov (Kate Winslet). Among the crew are two corrupt cops, Marcus Belmont (Anthony Mackie) and Franco Rodriguez (Clifton Collins Jr), as well as brothers Russell (Norman Reedus) and Gabe (Aaron Paul). Despite the fact that they pulled off the heist without a hitch, the crew are forced to pull another with even higher stakes. To help avoid police attention, they come up with a scheme to murder a police officer, which they know the cops will have a higher priority to get to. They decide upon Chris (Casey Affleck), Marcus' new partner. Meanwhile, Chris' uncle Jeffrey (Woody Harrelson) is investigating the crew.

Triple 9 ends up being a very generic heist movie. It does have some surprises, but it turns out to be very predictable. As you watch it, you can pick out who will turn on who and which characters will end up dying. I suppose that that is one thing where John Hillcoat makes a tiny bit of a difference. Life in this movie is cheap, people die when you think for sure that they are the main character. Maybe that stems from packing the movie with so many big name actors. I felt as though they were all important because of the star power that they brought to the movie. Turns out, they aren't.

Another problem that arises from stacking a movie like this with stars is that no one stands out in any way. Actors like Teresa Palmer, Gal Gadot, Norman Reedus and Michael K. Williams were only cast so that their names could be put on the poster so that people would go see the film. Casey Affleck, who ends up becoming the main character only appears after twenty minutes into the action. Clifton Collins Jr. is the only actor to give a truly good performance as the surprising second villain only due to the fact that he has no star power and has to work to be noticed. Kate Winslet is also good, but only when you compare how different her role here compared to Rose in Titanic is.

All in all Triple 9 is a movie that you're going to watch for the action over the story. It has surprisingly little heart. If anything you're not going to ever want to go to Atlanta.

Transcendence

Sometimes there is a concept for a film that is full of potential. The idea of the technological singularity is one such concept. The singularity is a point in which artificial intelligence surpasses that of humans. Transcendence starts on that path but then gets confusing and not even great acting from actors playing minor parts can help this lacklustre story.

I think that has to do with first time director Wally Pfister. Despite not knowing his name, I'm sure that the majority of you reading this are familiar with his work. Pfister has worked for many years as Christopher Nolan as his cinematographer on the recent Batman films among others. As a result of this work, Transcendence is a good looking film. He has been able to take his own visual style and enforce it as a director.

It can't be the actors that drag this film down either. Surely? Johnny Depp playing a straight Johnny Depp character. Rebecca Hall undecided about whether or not what is happening is the right thing. The best performances come from Paul Bettany and Kate Mara.

But even someone who has been on enough sets with a director like Nolan must have learned enough lessons about being a director. So it must be the story. This is the first script that has been produced for writer Jack Paglan. As I said, the initial concept is promising. The idea of a man uploading his consciousness to a computer, where he will cause the technological singularity is cool, but once the story became about creating human-robot hybrids I was lost.

The film is bookended by some interesting scenes where the world is devoid of technology. I feel like this would be a more interesting place to set the film with flashbacks showing us what caused it.

Verdict: A beautiful looking film that has a complete mess of a story. I think everyone in the cinema with me felt confused about what had happened.