TRIPLE 9 (B)

Hard boiled and hand-wrung, this grippingly urban, triple-cross crime caper reeks of deep deception and dead-of-summer, downtown Atlanta sweat.  It’s an electrically intriguing, tension-fueled grit-and-grime bonanza of wrong-doers doing wrong and do-gooders trying to make everything all right…  In that regard, however, it’s a strain to latch on to a single sliver of white knight-like hope as this film takes merriment in sticking the pig, gutting the pig and then showcasing the cinematically seedy underbelly of corruption.  TRIPLE 9 may exclusively gloom with a dark cloud of moral bankruptcy – and its multi-plotted story makes it occasionally difficult to seamlessly connect al the dots, but the casting is superb and they’re all in place to ensure that this movie is anything but dull.  Reminiscently preening with the familiar cops-versus-robbers vibe of director Michael Mann’s metropolitan masterpiece, HEAT (among a half dozen other like-minded films), this flick remains a satisfyingly pulse-pounding, potboiler puzzle of depravity, death and deceit.

Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Aaron Paul, Anthony Mackie, Norman Reedus and Kate Winslet
Directed by: John Hillcoat (Lawless, The Road and The Proposition)
Rated: R
Running time: 1hr. 55min.
Story: A crew of dirty cops is blackmailed by the Russian mob to execute a virtually impossible heist and the only way to pull it off is to manufacture a 999, police code for “officer down.” Their plan is turned upside down when the unsuspecting rookie they set up to die foils the attack, triggering a breakneck action-packed finale tangled with double-crosses, greed and revenge.
Watch the trailer: www.triple9movie.com