‘TRIPLE THREAT’ TRIPLY DISAPPOINTING
The idea of slamming Asian action stars Iko Uwais (“The Raid”), Tony Jaa (“Ong Bak”) and Tiger Chen (“The Matrix” sequels) into one movie is a martial-arts fan’s fever dream in which life is nothing but a concussive whirlwind of knockout punches, roundhouse kicks and a million painful ways for bad guys to die.
Unfortunately, “Triple Threat” does not deliver on its kinetic casting promise. Instead, it’s a by-the-numbers, awkwardly acted thriller spiced with the occasional fight to liven things up.
Payu (Jaa) and Long Fei (Chen) are mercenaries in a fictional South Asian country who’ve been hoodwinked into working for a vicious gang headed by Collins (Scott Adkins, “Doctor Strange”) with Devereaux (Michael Jai White, “Arrow”) as his major muscle.
Collins and crew want to kill the daughter of a billionaire Chinese philanthropist (Celina Jade, “Arrow”) who’s just trying to use her family’s money to make life better in the small country. When Payu and Fei realize the error of their ways, they team with former foe and all-around good guy Jaka (Uwais) to take down the evildoers. So far, so good.
But “Triple Threat,” directed by stuntman turned director Jesse V. Johnson, rarely ignites. One of the stumbling blocks is that the film is largely in English, a language in which Indonesian Uwais, Thai Jaa and Chinese Chen don’t seem to be particularly comfortable. It brings to mind Chinese action star Jet Li’s misguided bid for crossover success in the 2000 film “Romeo Must Die.”
That wouldn’t matter as much
if the action scenes were creatively explosive, but they are generally underwhelming, though the mixed-martial-arts match between Jaka and Fei sparks with a visceral intensity. The scenes have little of the combination of fluidity, style and cleverness that makes the best in the genre such impressive displays of combat choreography.
This continues the curious trajectory of Uwais’ career since starring in the electric “Raid” movies in 2011 and 2014. He got to show off a brutal charisma in two
Timo Tjahjanto films (“The Night Comes for Us,” “Headshot”) but his appearances in “Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens” and the dismal Mark Wahlberg vehicle “Mile 22” had little to recommend them.
Maybe it’s time to dust off the script for the long promised but now junked third “Raid” film?