With more than a nod to the classic (and far, far superior) Michael Mann movie Heat and some leaning towards Antoine Fuquas, Training Day, Triple 9 is a tale of criminals and corrupt cops teaming up to commit a series of heists in order to steal items for the Russian mafia.

In a tangled mess of relationships, Michael Atwood (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is the leader of the gang and is being strung along by Irina Vlaslov (Kate Winslet) the wife of a Russian mafia boss who was recently convicted of a crime, into committing heists since she has control over his child whose mother Elena (Gal Gadot) is Irina’s sister.

After the latest crime she withholds payment until after the next heist which causes trouble within the gang but when one of them is executed to show that Irina is not playing about they reluctantly accept the job however the required information is stored in a government facility so the gang decided that the only way they can get this done is to invoke a Triple 9 situation (officer down) which will get every cop in the city to respond and will buy them the time they need. Luckily one of the cops in the gang, Marcus Belmont (Anthony Mackie) has found the perfect candidate in his new partner Chris Allen (Casey Affleck)

There are some pluses in the movie with a lot of dark settings bringing a great feel of being deep in the underbelly of Atlanta to the screen and some of the action scenes are excellent. However this is negated by the very large plot holes we are expected to ignore in order to accept the gangs situation, for example Chris’ uncle Jeffrey Allen (Woody Harrelson) is leading the investigation into the gangs heists and they still pick Chris as the victim of the Triple 9? Also, the getaway driver Russell Welchs (Norman Reedus) brother Gabe (Aaron Paul) is a drug addict and an obvious liability to the gang, surely there are better options? These are just two that I can mention without spoiling the movie but there are more.

It’s this lack of believability which takes away from what has the potential to be a very good movie as the acting talent is excellent and, while the performances are not superb this is more down to the script than any fault in the actors as the action sequences are the films strongest point and it is when the dialogue becomes the focal point that the movie starts to lag. It’s still a good thriller which is very enjoyable but it could have been so much better.

DJ Speaks Rating: 6 Out Of 10