SPOILERS AHEAD. Triple Frontier Synopsis: Loyalties are tested when five friends and former special forces operatives reunite to take down a South American drug lord, unleashing a chain of unintended consequences. When a trusted informant tells private military adviser, Santiago “Pope” Garcia (Oscar Isaac), the whereabouts of Lorea, a drug lord hoarding millions of dollars in his home in Colombia, he recruits four former special ops to join him on a dangerous heist to kill Lorea and take the money for themselves. His friends consist of Tom “Redfly” Davis (Ben Affleck), Francisco “Catfish” Morales (Pedro Pascal), Ben Miller (Garrett Hedlund), and his brother, William “Ironhead” Miller (Charlie Hunnam). All five men seem to feel a bit unsatisfied with life and are all struggling financially. Clearly, the US needs to do better in caring for its veterans, but Triple Frontier doesn’t delve too deeply into that message. It’s used as justification for what Pope and the others are about to do. “You’ve been shot 5 times for your country and you can’t even afford to send your kids to college.” – Pope Being an action film about a money heist, the premise isn’t terribly complicated. Dozens of similar movies do it better than Triple Frontier. But it’s the cast that makes the otherwise throwaway movie entertaining. Yes, I will reveal my shallowness here and say I watched this movie mainly because the cast is attractive as hell. Even an extremely tired, worn-down-looking Ben Affleck had his moments. They also had plenty of chemistry as a group as well, which helped make their history with each other more believable, given that the movie doesn’t really spend much time on an actual backstory for any of them. Hedlund had some amusing moments, and I’ve always enjoyed Charlie Hunnam, though it’s still clear to me that he has trouble disguising his accent. That’s okay. I still like the sound of his voice. I truly felt like the strongest performance came from Oscar Isaac, which isn’t surprising, but I also thought Pedro Pascal did well with what he was given, which, sadly, was not enough for me. “I was the best of the best, able to shut down, control, manipulate; all basic human instincts towards one goal: The completion of my mission. But the effects of committing extreme violence on other human beings are biological and physiological. That’s the price of being a warrior.” – Ironhead Triple Frontier certainly had its tense moments, and my anxiety spiked quite a bit, mostly because I had a feeling one of them would end up dying, and I didn’t want it to be Oscar or Pedro. See? Super shallow. 😀 But yes, it was still depressing when Redfly got a bullet to the head because I felt for his family, even though they didn’t really give us much there to care about in the first place other than his teenage daughter being sullen and Redfly had a ton of bills to pay for his ex-wife. What really got me was that they stole $250 million and walked away with nothing. Yes, it was noble to leave it all to Redfly’s family, but still. All of that for nothing. The ending certainly left it open for a sequel, and if they make one, I’ll watch it as long as they keep the cast intact (more Pedro next time, please). All in all, I found Triple Frontier to be a decent time-waster. The narrative felt a bit uneven, but it was entertaining enough with a pretty cast, and that’s why I enjoyed it. Starring: Oscar Isaac, Ben Affleck, Garrett Hedlund, Charlie Hunnam, Pedro Pascal