FILM REVIEW OF ''TRIPLE FRONTIER" (2019)

The premise of "Triple Frontier," (** OUT OF ****) Netflix's limited theatrical release about retired special-ops who rob a South American drug trafficker, sounded promising. "All is Lost" director J.C. Chandor and Oscar-winning "Hurt Locker" scenarist Mark Boal focus on a team of sympathetic, hard-luck, military types who should appeal to any red-blooded connoisseur of American action cinema. Furthermore, these heroes see this mission as their chance to start over. Despite their faithful military service to Uncle Sam, they received neither proper recognition nor sufficient compensation. Now, they embark on a campaign to plunder millions in blood money from a notorious narcotics honcho. Everything boils down to black and white simplicity. Our heroes are cut from the same clichés as Sylvester Stallone's far more seasoned cronies in the "The Expendables" trilogy, and they do come loaded for bear. Nevertheless, these guys behave like amateurs, compounding one mistake after another, and undermining their own best efforts. Since the good guys must be sympathetic, the villains must be repugnant. Cartel drug traffickers qualify as ideal heavies. Reviled in real life as much as on the screen, they kill without a qualm and hold nothing sacred. They deserve to die a thousand times. Our heroes should be virtuously white, while the villains should be shady as sin. Comparably, James Brolin led a group of amateurs on a similar mission in "High Risk" (1981), but everybody survived with their loot intact for a triumphant finale. "Triple Frontier" had potential, but it wastes its powerhouse cast (Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal) in a hackneyed hokum about the malevolence of greed. Like we don't know the corrosive nature of greed. Presumably, Chandor and Boal must have cut their teeth on the Humphrey Bogart classic "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948) because "Triple Frontier" contains a similar storyline. Unfortunately, this escapist oriented, testosterone-laden tale turns sour in Chandor and Boal's hands. Imagine what "The Expendables" might have been if they lost, and you may pass up watching "Triple Frontier."

Technically, "Triple Frontier" is a crime movie instead of an adventure epic. Our heroes initiate a home invasion and loot a wealthy cartel mobster's premises. Initially, they search without success for his safe, until it dawns on them the house is the safe! Meantime, since the villain lives beyond the law, he cannot blow the whistle on them without running the risk of the authorities intervening. Greed enters the picture, and our heroes take too many duffels of loot. Until the 1970s, Hollywood maintained a strict censorship policy that crooks never delight in their ill-gotten gains. This policy was part of a larger rule Hollywood struggled to enforce: Crime must not pay! When the Clint Eastwood & Jeff Bridges heist caper "Thunderbolt & Lightfoot" (1974) came out, the studios gave these criminals greater flexibility, but not without the usual life and death consequences. In "Triple Frontier," we are rooting for our heroes to haul off millions when we realize they've completely lost their minds. Poor planning sabotages their heist. Indeed, they pull off the robbery, but pulling off the getaway is something else. Stallone and his "Expendables" cohorts would have gotten clean away, but these loose cannons must pay the piper. "Triple Frontier" takes a tragic turn around its 90-minute mark, and you have to ponder whether you want to shed a tear for this band of clowns-in-camouflage. Naturally, The character with the greatest amount to lose inevitably gets it. This kind of old-fashioned morality takes the joy out of what could have been an audacious adventure epic. During the getaway section, our heroes behave like trigger-happy amateurs. They find themselves against odds even more incredible than those of the cartel. Primarily, they find themselves at the mercy of the local population. The getaway occurs in sprawling, spectacular, mountainous scenery, with Hawaii standing in splendidly for Brazil. Our heroes exfiltrate in a wobbly helicopter with their ill-gotten gains dangling beneath it in a cargo net. Foolishly, they have loaded more than the chopper can accommodate and fly over the Andes Mountains. They disintegrate into their own worst enemy.

"Triple Frontier" gets off to a promising start as Chandor and Boal introduce the heroes and their particular predicament that has prompted them to commit a crime. The chief protagonist is Santiago 'Pope' Garcia (Oscar Isaac of "A Most Violent Year"), and he is a private military contractor who coordinates drug busts with the local authorities. Pope has a confidential informant, Yovanna (Adria Arjona of "Pacific Rim: Uprising"), and she knows the whereabouts of the local drug trafficker. She also knows that he has concealed millions in his walls. She provides Pope with everything he needs to know about this despicably murderous narco. Pope enlists four of his old service buddies and outlines a scenario that each of them could tote off duffels stuffed with multi-millions in cash. Eventually, Pope consults Tom 'Redfly' Davis (Ben Affleck of "The Town") and asks him to draft a combat plan. Reluctantly, Davis designs a scheme with a timetable. Pope persuades a pilot, Francisco 'Catfish' Morales (Pedro Pascal of "The Equalizer 2"), to fly them across the Andes to a ship on the coast. After Davis agrees to accompany them, William 'Ironhead' Miller (Charlie Hunnam of "King Arthur") signs on, and his little brother, MMA fighter Ben Miller (Garrett Hedlund of "TRON: Legacy"), joins them. Afterward, everything goes sideways. Greed overrides good sense, and one of the five takes a fatal bullet in the head. "Triple Frontier" never recovers from the tragic death of this character. In part, he brought it on himself. At this point, our heroes whine like knuckle-heads who bit off more than they could chew and are choking on their own greed. The performances are uniformly robust, but the filmmakers have given each actor little to work with to make their respective characters memorable, for example, like "The Magnificent Seven." If you're hoping for thrills and chills, "Triple Frontier" provides few.

FILM REVIEW OF "PAIN & GAIN" (2013)

“Pain and Gain” (*** OUT OF ****) represents a drastic change for blockbuster director Michael Bay.  Typically, Bay makes spectacular, over-the-top, plot-driven extravaganzas, with traditional heroes and villains.  During his eighteen years in Hollywood, Bay has earned a reputation as a lucrative hack with the “Transformers” trilogy, “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor,” “The Island,” and “The Rock.”   What this character-driven melodrama lacks in mind-blowing spectacle and traditional heroes, "Pain & Gain" compensates for with a story so weird you have to wonder.  Indeed, this gritty, class-conscious, blue-collar, crime thriller unreels like a bizarre comedy of errors.  Mentally challenged, mesomorphic, murderers prey on cretinous victims begging for the worst, and the authorities wind up doing a double-take.  “Captain America: The First Avenger” co-scribes Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely along with Bay have adapted a series of “Miami New Times” articles that Florida-based columnist Pete Collins penned about the notorious Sun Gym gang.  Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson, and Anthony Mackie are cast as three, sadistic, steroid-shooting, bodybuilders who rival the Three Stooges in idiocy.  This wholly unsavory threesome inflicts pain, i.e., violence, death, and dismemberment, on their unfortunate victims to gain their share of the American Dream.  Accurately enough, Bay has described “Pain & Gain” as a synthesis of “Fargo” and “Pulp Fiction.”  “It's a dark comedy,” Bay explains, “and it's mostly true."  Bay shoots the works literally to give this minor movie about a bunch of nobodies a stunning, larger-than-life quality.  Most of what this trio does is pretty appalling, but it is so appalling you have to fight the urge of laugh.  Law and order rules Miami, but the authorities were indifferent to the depredations of the Sun Gym gang.  The Miami Police allowed their own prejudices toward Colombians to blind them to the threat that the bodybuilders posed.  The first victim of the Sun Gym gang spent time in Colombia, but he never smuggled narcotics.  Bay deserves credit for getting back to the basics with this hilarious but abrasive police procedural that is reminiscent of his “Bad Boys” movies.  Bay tells this wacky tale from two perspectives, alternating between Ed Harris’ retired private eye and Mark Wahlberg’s bossy bodybuilder.

Wahlberg has a field day as the real-life person Daniel Lugo who rhapsodized about fitness.  The actor looks like somebody qualified to be a personal trainer.  He saunters around confidently with muscles bulging, and he isn’t shy about them.  Initially, Lupo served time for swindling senior citizens out of their savings.  Now, he has gotten his life back on track, enough so to convince gym manager John Mese (Rob Corddry of “Hot Tub Time Machine”) to hire him.  Daniel promises Mese that membership will triple under his tenure.  Surprisingly, Lupo lives up to his claims.  Indeed, Daniel can do no wrong, until he decides to take Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie of “Gangster Squad”) and Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson of “The Tooth Fairy”) under his wings as personal trainers, too.  He learns Doyle has done time for cocaine, but the massively built Doyle has forsaken liquor and found Jesus.  When Adrian isn’t pumping iron at the gym, he has a lowly job at a market.  More often than not, Adrian cannot pay his rent on time.  Poor Adrian stabs steroid shots into his body, but he suffers from erectile dysfunction.  He meets a sweet nurse at a doctor’s office, Robin Peck (Rebel Wilson of “Pitch Perfect”), who assures him that his condition will improve.  These guys are pals for life.  Essentially, Daniel behaves like Moe, the Alpha male of the Three Stooges, while Adrian and Paul are respectively Larry and Curley.

One of Daniel’s clients is Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub of “Galaxy Quest”); a wealthy but conceited business man who owns a Schlotzsky's Deli and rarely has a kind word for anybody.  Everybody detests Victor.  Daniel feels nothing but contempt for Victor.  Nevertheless, he envies Victor’s success.  Daniel convinces Adrian and a reluctant Doyle to help him abduct and torture Kershaw.  Daniel believes Victor will capitulate under pressure and sign away everything just to survive the ordeal.  Eventually, Victor capitulates.  Daniel and his cronies get Victor to sign all the papers, and Daniel convinces a notary public to validate the documents.  Incredibly, they cannot kill Victor.  It’s not that they lack the courage. Daniel and his cronies are too inept.  They try to kill him, but Victor defies Daniel’s best laid plans.  Eventually, after playing hiding-go-seek around Miami from the Sun Gym Gang, Victor convinces a private eye to investigate his strange case.  While Ed DuBois (Ed Harris of “The Rock”) is investigating the gang, Daniel and his cronies are living high, wide, and handsome.  Basically, they got away with everything Victor owned, but they didn’t put him on ice.  Unfortunately, Daniel’s accomplices need more cash like the money they extorted from Victor.  In the end, their greed sinks them when they try to pull the same stunt on a porn entrepreneur and everything goes wrong.

The revelation in “Pain and Gain” is Dwayne Johnson’s performance as a born-again, low-life coke snorter.  You’ve never seen the Rock like he is in “Pain & Gain.”  Coming on the heels of his earlier opus “Snitch,” Johnson has broadened the range of roles for his gallery of characters.  Aside from Johnson, who resembles the Rock of Gibraltar, Wahlberg and Mackie have bulked up considerably.  A brawny, bossy Wahlberg never misses a chance to flex his muscles and behave like a tyrant.  Wahlberg hasn’t done anything like “Pain and Gain.”  This muscular authenticity on the part of the stars provides “Pain & Gain” with a wealth of creditability.  Of course, Bay and company have tampered with the crime, but their alterations don’t devastate the outlandish source material.  In real life, the man that Dwayne Johnson plays neither robbed an armored truck nor got his big toe shot off by a sharp-shooting cop.  Meantime, Tony Shalhoub, Rebel Wilson, and Ed Harris round out a uniformly excellent cast, and Rebel steals every scene she has with anybody, even when it’s the heavily armed Miami Dade SWAT team.  Altogether, despite its irreverent comedy, “Pain & Gain” may turn off Bay’s target audience with its excessive length, R-rating, and unsavory characters.