Review: Triple Threat

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

PLOT: A rogue mercenary (Iko Uwais), whose wife is murdered in a commando raid, swears vengeance on the two men (Tony Jaa & Tiger Chen) that he thinks are responsible. Little does he know, these two soldiers of fortune were similarly betrayed by the real culprits, two terrorists for hire (Scott Adkins & Michael Jai White) who’ve recently been hired to abduct a heiress (Celina Jade) who’s using her fortune to wipe out the Southeast Asian underworld.

REVIEW: TRIPLE THREAT is something of an event for martial arts movie fans, in that it not only pairs the titular triple threat team of Tony Jaa (ONG BAK), Tiger Chen (MAN OF TAI CHI) and Iko Uwais (THE RAID), but also adds-on Scott Adkins, Michael Jai White and even CHOCOLATE’s Jeeja Yanin. In fact, the movie is so jam-packed with talent that it’s getting a limited Fathom engagement March 19th in select theatres, pretty rare for a VOD flick nowadays.

TRIPLE THREAT comes from B-action maven Jesse V. Johnson, with this being only one of four movies he’s got coming out this year. A frequent collaborator of Scott Adkins, and an accomplished stuntman with credits as far back as the original TOTAL RECALL, the guy clearly has an appreciation for quality action.

Granted, TRIPLE THREAT is modest as far as action movies go. It’s much more of a direct-to-video style movie than a legit theatrical one, but taken on those terms it’s a lot of fun. Johnson’s caught the zeitgeist somewhat by pairing three incredibly well-respected martial artists in a North American-style release that should play well for their fans in Asia, given that they aren’t regulated to second banana status to a Western hero. Here, the westerners are the baddies, and they get to play the same type of heroic role they’d ace in an actioner shot in their main markets.

It’s actually fitting that they would team up in an English-language movie, with all three coming from different parts of Asia and having different native tongues. They communicate with each other in semi-stilted English (all of them speak it well enough, with Uwais in particular having made large strides since MILE 22 only a year ago). It gives the film a refreshing urgency, as there’s no bullshit exposition between the guys – they communicate directly, giving us more time for the movie’s real selling point, the action.

Truth be told, TRIPLE THREAT is something of a mixed bag as far as this goes, as Johnson’s so eager to split the action up in a way to satisfy each person’s market that it gives the film a bit of a disjointed feel. In particular, the ending, which pairs up our three heroes in various configurations agains White and Adkins, suffers. However, there’s one absolutely electrifying action scene about forty minutes into the film. Here, Adkins & White, along with the rest of their crew (including Yanin) infiltrate a police station to murder our heroine, Celina Jade’s philanthropist heiress. Lucky for her, Jaa, Uwais and Chen all happen to be “guests” at the same time, leading to an all-out bad guy massacre, with Uwais in particular finishing off one of the baddies in what has to be one of the goriest deaths I’ve ever seen in an R-rated movie. This whole sequence is absolutely priceless, and on its own merits an instant recommendation for action fans. It’s too bad that the rest of the film can’t quite live up to it, as most of the budget must have been blown there.

Nevertheless, I had a good time with TRIPLE THREAT. These three guys can each carry a film on their own, and teaming them up is a no-brainer that could easily sustain a franchise should this do well enough. It’s relatively modest and doesn’t push the envelope in terms of action, but it’s a more than decent programmer done with some real flair, and a big cut above most VOD action fare.

Triple Threat

AVERAGE

6

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