Triple 9

Since The Proposition was unleashed on audiences back in 2005, Aussie filmmaker John Hillcoat has made a name for himself as an uncompromising and ambitious auteur, bringing together A-list casts for bleak and uneasy thrillers. His latest Hollywood effort – following The Road and Lawless – dives into the grubby underground of Atlanta, where corrupt cops, ruthless bank robbers and Russian mobsters are often one and the same. A nice world this ain't. There's an unrelenting grimness to this noir-ish street saga that generates the desired mood, and the high level of dread permeating throughout proceedings maintains tension despite a predictably death-happy final act. Yet Hillcoat struggles to fully wrangle Matt Cook's twisty-turny screenplay; what could've been an intriguing web of lies, double-crosses and daring crimes becomes a less believable concoction of coincidences, plot contrivances and dubious character choices. Taking a leaflet out of Michael Mann's book of realistic action, the handful of set pieces are executed with flair, precision and unwavering violence, with an extended gun fight at the halfway point harking back to Mann's own Heat (albeit without topping it). Unfortunately the film is also let down by its vast array of players. Other than Casey Affleck's honest but worn-down cop, everyone else is evil and unpleasant to varying degrees – and rarely more than a caricature – making it hard to care about their fates. Hillcoat's menacing tone and visual ferocity ensure a certain level of interest and entertainment, but narrative and character weaknesses stop Triple 9 from being essential viewing.

It's not a masterpiece, but it absolutely stands out in the landscape of the last few years productions. Triple 9 is gritty, hyperrealistic, dramatic, and cursed. No millennial fancies. Great acting, good direction. Solid. Surely worth a watch.

Triple 9, set in the gun-ridden streets of Atlanta, is surprisingly well executed and at times impressive to look at. But it does leave a rather unpleasant after-taste: like last year's Liam Neeson vehicle "Run All Night", virtually no one in the film has a redeeming feature which makes it difficult to empathise or root for anyone.

The excellent Chiwetel Ejiofor ("Twelve Years a Slave") plays Michael Atwood, the leader of a gang doing a bank job for the Russian mafia led by Irina Vlaslov (Kate WInslet). The gang stay one step ahead of the local cops by plotting patrol car movements on a GIS map: that's pretty easy for them since they are all crooked cops and ex-military. Atwood's character is intimately linked to Vlaslov's, as he has a son with her sister Elena (Gal Gadot). But the mafia is not easy to please and Atwood is strong-armed into doing a second, more challenging job that requires a significant police diversion. This diversion is the root of the "999" of the title: the call sign for "officer down".

Investigating the robbery and the subsequent chain of events is flawed cop Jeffrey Allen (Woody Harrelson), who is also trying to help his nephew Chris (Casey Affleck) aclimitise to the city's gang culture following a transfer from a much cushier neighbourhood. The strands of the story intertwine to violent and bloody ends as Atwood fights to protect his family and escape the ever-tightening grip of the mafia and the closing net of Harrelson's dogged detective.

All the performances here a generally excellent. Ejiofor is an actor who perfects the look of being totally hacked off, and here he has plenty of opportunities to exercise that. His closest colleague Belmont (Anthony Mackie, Falcon from the "Avengers" films) is also extremely watchable. Elsewhere, the shapely Miss Gadot is a little too one-dimensionally drawn for my taste, but the other members of the gang and Harrelson and Affleck as the two 'good guy' cops are nicely portrayed. The most surprising turn though is that of Winslet who revels in her evil Russian bitch persona, a role diverging from her usual norm and which is great to watch.

The story and screenplay by newcomer Matt Cook is sufficiently dense to require attention in following it – it reminded me in places of "LA Confidential" – and like that film contains enough twists and turns to keep up the interest. Character development though is limited, so when the twists do happen its an "oh" rather than an "OH!". The screenplay is let down by a bit of a damp squib of an ending and one that doesn't bear close scrutiny – if you've seen the film, the hero is SURELY in more imminent peril in the two minutes preceding the denouement?? But the journey to get to the ending is satisfying enough.

Cinematography (Nicolas Karakatsanis, "The Drop") and film editing (Dylan Tichenor, "There Will be Blood") are also worthy of note, particularly with the impressive opening titles which straight away tell you this is not just A.N.other cop 'B' movie.The robbery scenes and one involving a police raid on an apartment building are both well edited and exciting.

So, in summary, a good solid job by director John Hillcoat ("The Road") that is worthy of your rental dollar. Just make sure you have some TV/movie 'sorbet' to cleanse the palate after watching.

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A great cast and so-so writing leaves you wanting more at the end. But there are some thrilling scenes to keep you entertained.

I'll make this short and sweet.

I really wanted to like this movie. With its insanely talented cast, this should have been way better than it actually was. It is well acted, and the cast did the best they could with the material given to them.

However, it all gets lost in what tries to be a convoluted plot. This wants to be a really good heist movie (with very well executed action scenes, granted), but in reality it is just a sub-par, predictable action movie filled with your run of the mill, dirty cop dialogue filling the scenes trying to move the plot forward. Rent it for a rainy evening, but don't expect anything you haven't already seen.