TRIPLE THREAT: An Enjoyable, If Slight, Flurry Of Martial Arts Mayhem

VOD action cinema has been enjoying a glorious renaissance as of late. Last summer, Netflix released The Night Comes for Us, a spectacularly bloody symphony of violence, one that seemed to invent a new form of bodily harm every thirty seconds. It was two hours of pure, furious carnage, with an exhilarating take-no-prisoners attitude. For genre enthusiasts, a genuine delight.

This year, we have Triple Threat, the latest in straight-to-streaming action that combines the finest talent in contemporary American and Asian action pictures. While nowhere near as gruesome as The Night Comes for Us, Triple Threat’s secret weapon arrives in the casting of Tony Jaa (Ong-Bak), Iko Uwais (The Raid), and Tiger Chen (Man of Tai Chi) as its trio of leading men. While not exactly known for their dramatic capabilities, these men do know how to put up a fight, resulting in a slick, entertaining feature that works best as a showcase for their talents.

Of course, there’s also a pesky plot to contend with, and it’s one that dampens the proceedings every time the action pauses to take a break. Should you feel the film start to lull, worry not; a hand-to-hand fight, shootout, or car chase will most definitely ensue within the next ten minutes (trust me, you could set your watch to it). And at a brisk 95 minutes of watching Jaa, Uwais, and Chen doing what they do best, nothing else really matters.

B-Team Expendables

Things kick off in the jungles of Thailand, where a covert rescue operation is underway. A team of mercenaries, led by the ruthless Devereaux (Michael Jai White, Black Dynamite), storm a clandestine MI6 black site to spring Collins (Scott Adkins, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning), a notorious terrorist, out of his holding cell. Utilizing local trackers Payu (Tony Jaa) and Fei (Tiger Chen), who are under the impression they are partaking in a “humanitarian mission,” things go awry quickly when several local villagers are killed, including the wife of Jaka (Iko Uwais).

Leaving both trackers for dead, Devereaux and his team flee with the liberated Collins, while Jaka teams up with Payu and Fei, swearing revenge on the madman. Meanwhile, Chinese industrialist Xian Xhen (Celina Jade) has just inherited a considerable fortune from her recently deceased father, with the intention of putting her funding to bring down a local crime syndicate. Not one to go down without a fight, the mobsters hire Devereaux, Collins, and their squad to assassinate Xian. After a series of targeted attacks, Payu, Fei, and Jaka reenter the fray, determined to put the criminals down at whatever the cost.

If one were to squint hard enough, Triple Threat plays like an iteration of The Expendables, with nary an A-lister in sight. That’s right: there’s no Stallone, no Schwarzenegger, and no Statham. Instead, director Jesse V. Johnson (who hails from an extensive background in stuntwork) has compiled a shortlist of B-movie and Asian action stars to do much of the heavy lifting for him. Jaa, Chen, and Uwais’ credentials have been mentioned, but White and Adkins are also accomplished martial artists in their own right, with the latter sinking his teeth into the villainous role of Collins, clearly having the time of his life.

Secondary roles are filled out by JeeJa Yanin (the star of 2008’s underrated Chocolate) and Ron Smoorenburg (the lanky superkicker best known for battling Jackie Chan on a roof in 1998’s Who Am I?), adding a healthy dosage of flavor to the mayhem. With talent like these assembled, Triple Threat has the makings of a surefire hit.

Let Us Stop This Mindless Dialogue

If only it were better. As much as I’d love to champion Triple Threat as a non-stop thrill ride, the sad reality of the matter is it’s not. Xian Xhen’s plot to battle crime through strictly bureaucratic means hampers much of the film’s momentum. Her sequences are dull, airless, and borderline frustrating to sit through, especially once we grasp the magnitude of what Payu, Fei, and Jaka are capable of.

Dialogue is also a sore spot throughout the picture. With a screenplay credited to three writers (Joey O’Bryan, Fangjin Song, and Paul Staheli), every rote action cliché makes an appearance in some form or another (“I’d hate to see you out of control”; “Less talk, more die!”), which comes off as laughably bad, something I doubt was the intended effect. Johnson may have a knack for assembling the best talent onscreen, but storytelling is not his forte. One wishes he’d stick to the action.

That’s not to say the film is devoid of action. Johnson deploys extended car chases, a multitude of gunfights, and a cornucopia of hand-to-hand combat sequences to get the blood flowing through the film. Choreography is fast, clean, and easy to follow, putting the best skills of the leading men to its advantage. With the action being the main draw of Triple Threat, Johnson and Co. do hit where it counts.

Triple Threat: Conclusion

For the grand finale of Triple Threat, our three heroes convene at a giant mansion, where they proceed to punch, kick, shoot, and stab their way through Devereaux and Collins’ men. It’s a fitting conclusion, one that pays off the few lulls in storytelling it takes to get there. Of course, Jaa, Uwais, and Chen are huge assets to the film, elevating a weak screenplay to a satisfying ending. Director Johnson certainly has an eye for action; I just wish he wasn’t afraid to jettison the plot. It really would not be missed.

What do you think? Does Triple Threat have the goods to fit in with other great recent action cinema?

Triple Threat was released in limited theaters in the U.S. on March 19, 2019, and on VOD on March 22, 2019.

https://youtu.be/-WfCgcUlBwY