Triple Threat (2019) - A Review

 

Look at the cast of this movie!

Triple Threat is an American/Chinese/Thai/French action movie released in 2019. It stars Tony Jaa, Tiger Chen, Iko Uwais, Scott Adkins, Michael Jai White, Jeeja Yanin, Celina Jade, Michael Bisping, and Michael Wong. The movie was directed by Jesse V. Johnson, with action/fight choreography by Johnson as well.

In Triple Threat, Payu (played by Tony Jaa) and Long Fei (played by Tiger Chen), both ex-Special Forces, help a mercenary group free prisoners in a Thailand village on a humanitarian mission. Or so they think. This group, led by Devereaux (played by Michael Jai White), includes Mook (played by Jeeja Yanin), Joey (played by Michael Bisping), Steiner (played by Ron Smoorenburg), and Dom (played by Dominique Vandenburg), are not good people. In actuality, they are there to free their leader, Collins (played by Scott Adkins) only. A lot of innocent people die in this mission, including Jaka's (played by Iko Uwais) wife. Jaka fights back, but is defeated early on.

After Collins is free, the mercenary crew rig the prison to explode, leaving Payu and Long Fei for dead. Time passes, and Jaka is on a quest for revenge. He encounters Payu and Long Fei in an underground fighting tournament. All three of them decide to team up to find the mercenary group and seek revenge on them. When it seems they are all on the same page, Jaka seemingly betrays them the next day! The mercenary group are on another mission. A mysterious crime boss wants wealthy philanthropist Tian Xiao Xian (played by Celina Jade) dead. The mercenary crew find out from Jaka that Payu and Long Fei are still alive, and immediately search for them to eliminate them. From there, a violent game of cat and mouse commences, with Payu, Long Fei, and Xiao Xian constantly on the run with Jaka pulling the strings.

The cast of Triple Threat is amazing, but they are let down by the story. The story is a bit lackluster, I must say. The heroes aren't really given much of a personality. Iko Uwais as Jaka wants revenge for the death of his wife, but is not trustworthy throughout the movie. Thankfully Tiger Chen and, especially Tony Jaa are likable, so you root for them to overcome the odds. Only Collins and Deveraux have personalities on the villain side. Collins is just a raging a-hole, and Deveraux is a cocky jerk (with good taste in bootleg movies). Michael Jai White is amazing as Deveraux. He can talk some mean crap!

The fight scenes are good, but they are not amazing. When you see all these amazing martial artists in a movie together, you expect to see some incredible fights. As I said, the fights are good. They could have done so much more! I have read that they only had thirteen days to shoot (either the whole movie or just the fight scenes), so I can forgive the lack of amazing fights. Iko Uwais has a nice short fight with Tony Jaa, and then with Tiger Chen. Tony Jaa's fight with Ron Smoorenburg (the kicker from Who Am I) was pretty cool. Iko Uwais vs. Michael Jai White was good too, but it was kind of ruined by the constant inter-cutting with another fight scene. The final fight is pretty good, too. Wish it could've went longer. Jeeja Yanin was totally underutilized in this, though! I wanted to see more of her in this setting. 

So, should you see this? I would say yes, if you want to see all these martial arts superstars in a movie together. The plot is basic, yet kind of convoluted. It visually looks good, too. There is a lot of gunplay in this, if you like that kind of action. I just hope all these actors come together in a movie again, and the story and fighting action live up to their talents. I don't hate this movie, I'm just disappointed in it.

The Blu-Ray I watched for this review.

Back of the slip case.

Blu-Ray disc. No cool artwork or designs, unfortunately.

Reviewed by David Williams