Triple Threat is like an Avengers for martial-arts masters, except the explosions are real
Film Features Recommends
Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases, premieres, current events, or occasionally just our own inscrutable whims. This week: We look back on highlights of the DTV action craze—some of the coolest, wildest, and most entertaining action movies to skip theaters entirely.
Triple Threat (2019)
A stunt coordinator turned prolific director of DTV action, Jesse V. Johnson wastes no time setting Triple Threat in motion, with less than five minutes passing between studio logos and the first shot fired in a jungle-raid opening set piece. The title promises, and delivers, a showcase for three performers: Indonesian Silat fighter Iko Uwais (The Raid), Muay Thai master Tony Jaa (Ong-bak), and Chinese martial artist Tiger Chen, a choreographer who’s only recently made the leap to performing onscreen himself. The plot doesn’t bear much consideration, with those three versus evil Western forces (led by Johnson’s regular collaborator Scott Adkins) trying to kill a humanitarian-minded princess (Celina Jade). “Maha Jaya,” i.e. Thailand, is the setting, where plentiful bursts of gunfire are deployed with musical and soothing regularity. In between all the shooting, Johnson captures a number of martial arts face-offs with increasingly rare and graceful coherence.
The opening jungle raid climaxes with a very large fireball explosion, shown multiple times from different angles for maximal value. That gasoline-fueled trope, so integral to ’80s and ’90s action films, is now an anomaly that’s been displaced by the faker-looking, weightless CG explosions favored by modern superhero films. In a time-honored B-movie paradox, Triple Threat’s comparative modesty of resources increases its tangible satisfactions: Everything you see has been generated through grunt work rather than outsourced for computer rendering. A similar throwback, the Thailand location calls to mind a long tradition of American ’80s fare filmed there and in the Philippines in which winning the Vietnam War is the clear and unsavory subtext, pitting white protagonists against Asian antagonists. But Triple Threat avoids the reactionary, instead tapping into an older and deeply satisfying tradition of watching Asian characters work off colonial wrongs by beating the tar out of western villains. (Compare and contrast, for example, with the 2013 Adkins vehicle Ninja: Shadow Of A Tear, a similarly skillful DTV action workout, but also one in which he’s tortured by Burmese authorities in scenes that unpleasantly lean into Hanoi Hilton connotations.)
Forced to primarily communicate with each other in halting English, the central trio are a pleasure to watch. Jaa has often radiated an unexpected sweetness in between ass-beatings, and he’s the highlight, presence-wise, of a trio otherwise equally balanced in their skills. There is some modest downtime between the first and third acts, but any mild tediousness is offset by the unexpected pleasure of Jaa grinning as he makes a (very delicious-looking) dinner for his fellow fighters and the princess. It’s a moment of charismatic warmth before the modest super-group gets back to executing a precise mission with endearing confidence. As Jaa puts it during the final confrontation, well-staged on an atmospherically lit set that’s been built to be torn apart, one wall-destroying face-off at a time: “Less talk, just die.”
Availability: Triple Threat is currently streaming on Netflix, and is available for rental on Google Play, YouTube, Microsoft, Fandango, Redbox, and VUDU.
22 Comments
Anything with Iko, I’m in, yeah. Bloody loved Merantau and The Raid.
Michael Jai White didn’t even rate a mention? That’s cold, man.
I’d like to take the credit, but dig, mama, there’s no “i” in “revolutio…”, in “team.”
Don’t do Black Dynamite like that, man!
Shit, I came down here just to say that!
This is how you do a movie. Adkins, White (Spawn!), Chen, Jade (Arrow!) Uwais, Jaa are the best (and IRL) martial artists in cinema now.
Speaking of Spawn, that’s one movie they could remake to improve.
I dunno, the Spawn character is from the super-edgy 90’s. I was surprised when he was added to Mortal Kombat 11 and I’m actually surprised the comic is still running given how basic and dated the character is.
Triple Threat is currently streaming on NetflixWell, that’s tonight sorted then.
Oof, I had to shut it down. Look, I’m a fan of action, but as fandom we’ve gotta raise standards sometimes. I like the cast, didn’t expect much, and am still disappointed.Its got a staginess that can sort of be a charming throwback to older action films, but it’s frequently shoddy even given it’s resources…in the opening raid of the random jungle camp there’s a gap in the spiky perimeter that the team enters by. Not it looks like they broke in, not it looks like a natural gap, but we have a shot that needs it to be open so here it is. That’s not running out of money, that’s not caring.I could probably overlook the Cobra/GIjoe style bad gunplay and the low-budget non-excesses—after a midday city gunfight, since no extras were engaged to act characters run through the streets and are basically ignored by the bystanders with something more like the reaction of watching filming without permits—but the film shooting is bad too. Towards the end of this clip you’ll see a bad guy walk away from a building, the shot ends with his back, the cop (with the building behind her) shoots, he’s shot in the front, he falls forward with the cop behind him.The martial arts sequences are fun—it is an allstar cast and I was happiest to see Jeeja Yanin from Chocolate in it—and their talent carries a lot of it through, but basic filmmaking falters here a lot and while I didn’t find the non-action tedious (though stiffness of a non-native language aside, I thought Celina Jade was bad throughout), it does mean that my continued viewing wasn’t guaranteed by the bite of another action scene.Obviously people have different tolerances, but the plot and writing does bear some consideration for me, it’s quality so frequently jarring. (Another nugget, when the escaped woman borrows a phone to call her bodyguard, her bodyguard can tell from the new phone number to address her directly…) Mostly I find it weird to dismiss the plot and to compliment it’s focus on the Asian actors. I don’t disagree with the latter, but it’s not just the poor dialogue and the storytelling mistakes that I noticed, but that this movie still attempts to render the setting a hellhole ruled by criminals (except it looks quite nice!) and posits a Chinese-billionaire heiress to the rescue. We can recognize propaganda when it isn’t American, right? I can’t imagine the last fight changing my mind, and I suppose there’s only half an hour to go, but the execution of everything but martial arts sequences is generally bad enough that I don’t think I’m going to try.
This is a spot on critique although I liked the film slightly more than you ( the charisma and chemistry of the leads and co-stars was a big factor there) and made it all the way through. The set pieces at the end are not bad. But overall the film was a disappointment that squanders its talent and production value.
“and posits a Chinese-billionaire heiress to the rescue. We can recognize propaganda when it isn’t American, right?”This is very fair but I viewed it on the level of an 80s American flick — yes it is stupid propaganda but dem’s the breaks as a plot device. I guess it probably plays different to folks who are over there, though.
It’s a pretty common thing now—for marketing and funding reasons—that China is often one of the good guys. It’s not so much a throwback as just the center of influence moving in the world (see Wolf Warrior, etc.). I don’t think my response is really a close reading, but for my part, it was the review that inspired my comment.
I really wanted to like this film, and I have love for many DTV films (including those by this director -Jesse V. Johnson) — with cheesy, bad, or poorly executed elements. But Triple Threat wastes great action talents and production resources on a mediocre effort. It features some of the best, most charismatic cinematic martial artists currently in the business — who know their way around a fight scene —and that alone makes it passable. But I expected so much more out of a movie with this roster of action stars and a highly competent DTV director.
This is one of the greatest casts ever assembled and I wanted this movie to be great but it was just average. It just feels like such a waste like if the Dream Team in 92 won close games in OT.
This is such a weirdly specific analogy but it works very well. White in particular is not used up to his potential. Is he the Clyde Drexler?
Hmmm… I sort’a kind’a almost enjoyed it. but I got the impression if I watched too much of this stuff it would rot my brain to the point where I’d be in danger of becoming a Trump voter.
Looks good.
nice
Holy shit that cast !
One thing tho, Tiger chen was in the second matrix, and was the main char in Man of Tai Chi with keanu as a bad guy in 2013. 7 years ain’t that recent ^^
In any case, those 3 are amazing and I can’t wait to watch it tonight !
*Checks netflix*
Motherfucking fuckass fuckers and their shit differences between offerings in different countries !! Grrr
I enjoyed the movie as a sort of 80’s throwback, and _some_ of the fights were great. But not all of them, and as a showcase for this incredible cast, that’s disappointing. There was also a plethora of (bad, confusing) gunplay for a movie with so many accomplished fighters.The biggest issue, however, was the actual plot. Yes, it’s an action movie and who needs plot? But this was so dumb I worried about the screenwriter’s health, as well as the intellect of anyone who read the script and said ‘yeah, sure, makes sense.’ Definitely dropped a few IQ points myself by the end.
Like others, I felt the material wasn’t quite up to the same level as the amazing cast. I still enjoyed the movie, and the climax is absolutely superb, but I was hoping for a bit more considering everyone involved. As others have noted, director Jesse V. Johnson, the current DTV king, has better movies out there.
But I’m really pleased the reviewer mentioned the scene of Tony Jaa enthusiastically cooking, which outside of the action scenes is a highlight.
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