Triple 9 (2016)

Directed by John Hillcoat. Starring Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Woody Harrelson, Clifton Collins Jr., Aaron Paul, Kate Winslet, Norman Reedus, Teresa Palmer. [R]

John Hillcoat’s Atlanta-set action-heist picture is a shallow, disorganized disappointment, far more interested in developing tough, gritty atmosphere than telling a compelling story. I initially thought there were too many characters in play to keep track of during the frantic cross-cutting, but there really aren’t—the problem is they’re so indistinctly developed, only facial recognition can separate the unwashed masses (does no one shower in the ATL?). Plot is thin, too, as it vaguely follows the preparations taken by a criminal crew made up of professional scumbags with military backgrounds and dirty detectives pulling double duty as they plot to steal an informational Macguffin on a Russian mafioso (Kate Winslet plays the boss’ wife in perhaps the most nothing-role of her career); Casey Affleck and Woody Harrelson play honest cops who are…sort of investigating, but we don’t see much police work onscreen. Title refers to the police code for an officer needing emergency assistance, which the bad guys plan to exploit in order to pull off the job, but even that aspect doesn’t play out with much clarity. Did the brief scenes/shots necessary to hold everything together get clipped so the movie could clock in under two hours? Even if the missing complex layers and character details were restored, it wouldn’t approach the greatness of Michael Mann’s Heat, but this thing sure could have used that sort of running time to give us a reason to care about anything that happens. Michael K. Williams has a walk-on as a transvestite hooker, and Gal Gadot can be spotted a couple of times before unceremoniously vanishing from the story (since she was billed in the hard-to-read opening credits, I assume most of her role was also cut).

39/100