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Released by: Well Go USA
Released on: May 14th, 2019.
Directed by: Jesse V. Johnson
Cast: Michael Jai White, Scott Adkins, Iko Uwais, Tony Jaa, Michael Bisping, Celina Jade
Year: 2019
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Triple Threat - Movie Review:
Xian (Celina Jade) is a Chinese heiress who uses her power and influence to help bring down a local crime syndicate. Maybe not so surprisingly, a contract is put out on her life. From there, a team of fugitive mercenaries led by Payu (Tony Jaa) and Long Fei (Tiger Chen) are tasked with protecting her from the inevitable army of assassins - Collins (Scott Adkins), Devereux (Michael Jai White) and Joey (Michael Bisping) - how aim to collect the reward being offered for her killing.
As the conflict builds, an Indonesian man named Jaka (Iko Uwais), for reasons of his own, aims to do his part to ensure the assassins fail in their mission.
Triple Threat is a decent B-grade action film that benefits from a really solid cast and some impressively choreographed fight scenes but which falls short in the acting and storytelling department. If you can look past a bit of sluggish pacing in the middle stretch and don't mind the fact that quite a few of the Asian actors are speaking awkwardly in English and, hence, sounding a little out of their element you can have some fun with this.
That said, at least Tony Jaa and Tiger Chen and Iko Uwais are likeable here. They make for a nice trio of good guys, and while it is obvious that their dialogue isn't being delivered here as it would have been in their native languages, all three of them deliver the goods in the action scenes. The work from Tony Jaa, best known for the three Ong-Bag films, as impressive as always, he might not have the most range as an actor but he handles the fight scenes well. Tiger Chen, who did stunt work in the two Matrix sequels and in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, does a nice job of kicking a sufficient amount of ass and Iko Uwais, who was positively fantastic in the two Raid movies, is a blast to watch here even if it seems like he gets taken out easier than you might want him to (not just because he's a likeable actor but because his character is the most interesting one in the film).
Scott Adkins, one of the reigning kings of DTV action films these days (and rightly so), is really solid as the main villain, spinkicking his way through the film with plenty of style. Michael Jai White, of Black Dynamite and Spawn, is a bit more wooden than he could have been and Michael Bisping, no better. But Adkins is good enough to carry the 'bad guys' of the movie, it's surprising he isn't a bigger star than he is.
While it's great to see Jeeja Yanin, who kicked an unbelievable amount of ass in Chocolate (and to a lesser extent, Raging Phoenix), show up in this picture she isn't given nearly enough to do and her considerable skillset is essentially wasted on a cameo.
Triple Threat - Blu-ray Review:
Triple Threat arrives on region free Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 2.35.1 widescreen on a 25GB disc. Shot digitally, there's obviously no print damage to note here. The transfer shows nice fine detail throughout and has good depth to it as well. Texture is fine and color reproduction looks good, though it has been tweaked a little bit here and there for stylistic intent. No problems with compression artifacts or edge enhancement - this looks really good.
The English language audio track, which is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio format with optional subtitles available in English and Spanish, is a strong one. There's plenty of impressive channel separation throughout the track, especially during the action scenes, while balance and clarity remain solid throughout. The score sounds nice, the effects have some good kick to them and dialogue is clean.
The main extras on the disc are a handful of cast interviews that run ten combined minutes. Here we hear from Scott Adkins, Michael Jai White, Michael Bisping, Celina Jade, Iko Uwais, Tiger Chen and Tony Jaa about how great the cast was, how much everyone enjoyed working together, what it was like on set and more. It's very EPK style but there's some interesting input here.
Aside from that, we get a trailer and teaser for the feature, trailers for a few other Well Go USA titles, menus and chapter selection. As this is a combo pack release, we also get a DVD version of the movie and this release also comes packaged with a slipcover.
Triple Threat - The Final Word:
The direction could have been tighter, the acting could have been better and the storytelling could have been more interesting but if you've got an affinity for lower budget, straight to video action movies Triple Threat is worth checking out because the action scenes are strong enough to carry it. Well Go USA's Blu-ray looks and sounds very good and while it's light on extras, the interviews are interesting.
Click on the images below for full sized Triple Threat Blu-ray screen caps!
