Triple Threat - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Triple Threat

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
The idea of ensemble action movies has really become a thing lately. The Expendables franchise took off and restarted much of the love for this type of genre, but more and more films have begone to imitate that style. Triple Threat is the latest in the lower budget ensemble action casts, and it’s pure candy for fans of martial arts action. The film is literally jam PACKED with martial arts action stars and stunt men who have worked in the industry for decades. In fact, there’s barely a speaking character in the film who ISN’T a martial artist, including big names like Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais (The Raid, The Raid 2: Redemption), Scott Adkins (the semi protege of Van Damme), Celina Jade (Shado, the love interest/sensei’s daughter on the island in Arrow that both Oliver and Deathstroke loved), Jeeja Yanin (Chocolate, Raging Phoenix), Tiger Chen (protege of famed action choreographer Yuen Wo Ping, and the teacher of Keanu Reeves for his martial arts scenes in The Matrix trilogy), Michael Jai White, Michael Bisping (stunts), Ron Smoorenburg (the long legged kicker from the end fight of Jackie Chan’s Who Am I?) and many MANY less known stunt men and action stars. It’s mind boggling and a film that I’ve been looking forward to for a VERY long time (well, at least since I saw the trailers a few months back), being that I’m a life long martial artist and cut my teeth on many of these guys during my late teens and early 20s.

The film starts out with a huge bang, as we’re introduced to Deveraux (Michael Jai White) and his team of hired mercenaries on a humanitarian mission. Well, an ASSUMED humanitarian mission as the minute they get to their destination the team ends up slaughtering the group of Indonesian bodyguards and freeing a terrorist, who just so happens to be their leader, named Collins (Scott Adkins). The only survivor is a man named Jaka (Iko Uwais), who watches his friends and wife slaughtered and makes it his mission to personally kill all the men involved in the mission. Hunting down and finding two of them, Jaka finds himself in a conundrum. It seems that not all the assassins were actually assassins. Chinese Merc Long Fei (Tiger Chen) and Payu (Tony Jaa) had no knowledge of the merc’s true intentions, and were actually left for dead with the prisoners back at the Indonesian base. Teaming up the trio look to take down the group that betrayed them all and end this once and for all.

Their chance comes when the Collins and his mercs are called in to assassinate a philanthropist billionaire named Xian (Celina Jade) who is trying to help the nation of Thailand get rid of the crime syndicates. Collins men show up to take care of business, just as Jaka, Payu and Long Fei form their alliance. However, things get a little bit dicey when Jaka plays things closer to the vest the two mercs would like. Using them as bait Jaka manipulates both Collins and his crew as well as the two betrayed mercs in an effort to take out the criminals one by one. Xian is thrust into the lap of Long Fei and Payu when she takes refuge in the same police station that the two are at, and suddenly it’s a game of cat ands mouse, with no one know who’s the real cat, and who is going to be a mouse in this triple pronged tale of revenge and bloodthirsty martial arts.

Triple Threat really feels like a much older movie. Some of the cinematography and editing is still modern, but the tonal feel of the movie lends itself towards those Hong Kong action flicks from the 90s. Part of that could stem from Director Jesse V. Johnson who is a former action stuntman turned director. He grew up and thrived in that time period, so his pulling us back to the old 90s Cynthia Rothrock and Benny the Jet Uriquidez days is kind of expected. The film has a FANTASTIC opening 40 minutes, with not stop bullets, kicking, punching, and explosions. I was gleefully watching the mayhem and bad one liners (what’s a cheesy action movie without bad one liners?) and then the film comes to a screetching halt in the second act. After Payu, Long Fei and Xian escape from the police station, the movie just loses its momentum and turns into a talky borefest for about 30 minutes. Then, when I had thought the movie had completely lost it’s momentum, the film kicks back into high gear with a massive mano e mano face off end battle that redeems the movie oncre.

Seeing this many martial artists in one place is fantastic, I must admit. The varying styles displayed on screen is staggering, ranging form Tai Chi, Thai Kickboxing, Silat, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, MMA, and Wushu all in one film. Most of the choreography is excellent, with some great action sequences that don’t just cut and jitter all over the place like so many modern films (all stemming from Paul Greengrasses popularity in The Bourne Identity) ascribe to. My only complaint was UFC champion Michael Bisping’s fight with Tiger Chen looked rather weak due to Bisping looking sluggish and rather cramped. I’m not sure if he’s slowing down in his age or what not, but Bisping’s choreograph looked clunky and forced, especially when paired up with the Tai Chi and Wushu of a legend like Tiger Chen. The film may not be the greatest action movie since sliced bread, but it’s not meant to be either. It’s an ensemble martial arts films that is meant to be enjoyed on a lizard brain like level. Punch, kick, smash, explosions, rinse and repeat.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Information on what Jessie V. Johnson used to film Triple Threat is near nonexistent, but guessing from the budget and the fact that the master is labeled as a digital source, I can only assume it was using some form of digital cameras. Well Go USA’s 2.39:1 framed image is quite pleasing to the eye, changing up color gradings throughout the film as the locals change. Indoors seem to be golden saturated, while outdoors are much more natural and sometimes have that blue/gray look that is so prevalent in Asian films. Fine details range from very good to astounding, with faces and clothing looking intimately detailed, while the background shots tend to be a bit murkier and softer (inside during the final battle I noticed some crush and banding that made some of the background details pretty murky). The ever present banding is still present for this Well Go USA release, but it’s fairly minimalistic in nature and not overly often in appearance either. Overall this is a very solid looking release, but doesn’t do anything to truly excel either.






Audio:

' The 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix is really the highlight of the whole disc, as it is a loud, aggressive, and bass filled track that just beats away at you without mercy. Even though it’s listed as an “English” track, it’s part English, part Thai, and part Chinese with burnt in subtitles for the foreign languages. The mix is a great blend of action, wild use of surrounds with the score and battles, and softer dialog centric scenes as well. Gunshots ring out with depth and power, while fists land with massive weight. The track is one of those “grab them by the jaws and never let go mixes” and while the dialog is never imbalanced, it’s not one to listen to if you want to relax. The LFE hits and hits hard, adding itself to the music, the surrounding car chases, gunfire, and the massive explosions that shake the listening position with some seriously powerful 20 hz stuff.



Extras:

• Teaser Trailer
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score:
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Triple Threat isn’t an award winning action film, but it wasn’t meant to be either. I still feel that this hearkens back to the feel of the 90s Hong Kong budget action films (stuff that Cynthia Rothrick would be) and the movie is just to have fun with instead of pick apart. If you’re a fan of martial arts and classic martial artists, this is the lower budget Expendables of that genre, and is a blast to watch. The middle act is a bit of a downer, but the ending makes up for that slow down still leaves me recommending it with a solid thumbs up for action fans.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Tony Jaa, Tiger Hu Chen, Iko Uwais, Scott Adkins, Celina Jade, Michael Jai White, JeeJa Yanin, Ron Smoorenburg, Dominiquie Vandenberg, Daniel Whyte
Directed by: Jesse V. Johnson
Written by: Joey O'Bryan, Fangjin Song, Paul Staheli
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, English
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 96 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: May 14th, 2019

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will look for this on amazon prime/netflix.