Triple 9
Open Road Films (II) | Release Date: February 26, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
20
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 25, 2016
Just about every scene features an Oscar winner or an Oscar nominee or an Emmy winner and/or a first-rate character actor — and just about every scene is a bloody mix of taut thriller and utterly implausible noir plot point. This is a sordid but slick and gutsy mess that comes across like a cover-band version of a Michael Mann movie. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonFeb 17, 2016
There may be little here we haven’t seen before – glassy reflections of Michael Mann’s Heat pop up everywhere you look – but it’s all carried off with brashness and momentum by a director who genuinely seems to be having a blast. Read full review
80
Total FilmJamie GrahamFeb 17, 2016
This is the anti-Heat: no sheen, no shimmer, no obsessing over highly grandiose themes and precise compositions; just grime and desperation. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim GriersonFeb 17, 2016
The shifting loyalties and treacherous power plays that go on in Triple 9 are engaging, but Hillcoat especially shines in a series of three taut life-or-death sequences — one at the start of the film, one near the middle, and one at the end — that articulate more about who these characters are than anything they say. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 27, 2016
Triple Nine turns out to be a thoroughly entertaining (although violent) thriller. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 25, 2016
Triple 9 is terrific melodrama, but it’s melodrama all the same, and shameless. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonFeb 25, 2016
It’s Affleck, as a cop whose skills are criminally underestimated, who makes the biggest impression. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 25, 2016
Triple 9 is no "Reservoir Dogs," but it is a twisty, terrific ride. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshFeb 25, 2016
With a stacked cast and skillful filmmaking, Triple 9 proves to be a satisfying crooked-cop heist thriller, imbued with complicated topical issues that last long after the adrenaline rush. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghFeb 25, 2016
It’s a compelling journey into the deep, if a meandering one, guided by a moral compass that operates by a different magnetic field than our own, and often leads astray. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin ChangFeb 17, 2016
Well suited to Hillcoat’s gifts for low-boil suspense and brutal eruptions of violence in close, male-dominated quarters, the film has grit and atmosphere to burn but also a certain narrative sketchiness, as though unable to reconcile its sharp sociological portraiture with the pleasures of a more robustly plotted crime yarn. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Feb 24, 2016
As a game of cops and robbers, Triple 9 was probably more fun to play than it is to watch. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisFeb 24, 2016
In Triple 9 and so many other films today, the twists and turns of the contemporary thriller have become a Gordian knot that audiences are not invited to untangle. You may rightfully ask: Where’s the fun in that? Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaFeb 26, 2016
Most parties concerned maintain their grim countenances, their characters struggling to find the sweet spot between honor and greed, between doing the right thing and doing the absolute worst. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 23, 2016
A clever ticking clock mystery, it tries your patience even if it is giving some of the best character actors in the movies plenty of screen time to chew the scenery, try on accents and make jokes in even the bloodiest, darkest moments. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinFeb 25, 2016
Given the movie’s bloody stew of greed and sadism, its unbalanced frames and ear-scraping soundscape, its moral tidiness can bring a smile to your otherwise appalled face. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinFeb 20, 2016
It's an accomplished disappointment: the zealous cast, surplus of attitude and sinewy set pieces never quite compensate for the thinly sketched characters, unfocused plot and general gnawing sense of potential not being met. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerFeb 17, 2016
The interesting world of the film doesn’t get the story it deserves. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnFeb 25, 2016
Expert craftsmanship can't rescue Triple 9 from the constant feeling of a pulpy remix. Read full review
50
ConsequenceAllison ShoemakerMar 2, 2016
It’s great when a film leaves you wanting more, but not when you weren’t given much to begin with. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 26, 2016
It's not a ridiculous degree of complexity per se, but screenwriter Matt Cook mistakes solemnity for gravity, and a high body count for dramatic urgency. The cast is terrific, unfortunately. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerFeb 25, 2016
Though compelling in the acting and cinematography, Triple 9’s plot is by the numbers and about nothing. Read full review
50
New York PostLou LumenickFeb 25, 2016
In the end, this relentlessly nihilistic crime-caper thriller adds up to less than the sum of its impressive parts. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayFeb 25, 2016
Triple 9 feels more like a collection of good scenes than a novel, propulsive whole. Viewers are apt to be entertained by the film’s visceral pulp pleasures, but left apathetic when it comes to its instantly forgettable genre cliches. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJake ColeFeb 24, 2016
It arrives prepackaged with suggested comparisons to Michael Mann's Heat that it never earns because of its dreary literal-mindedness. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenFeb 24, 2016
[Hillcoat’s] an expert in creating and sustaining gut-twisting tension. Good qualities all, but used here in the service of a story that is truly unappetizing. Read full review
50
ScreenCrushMatt SingerFeb 23, 2016
This sort of ultra-dark crime picture is commonly described as “hard boiled,” but that adjective feels insufficient for Triple 9, which burns away any sense of hope until only misery and suffering remain. Read full review
50
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonFeb 17, 2016
As well-handled as the set pieces are, the connective tissue doesn’t pull you along, and then collapses completely in a messy, unsatisfying final act. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFeb 17, 2016
Individual scenes are charged with energy, tense confrontations are numerous, and Hillcoat and Cook's intentions were undoubtedly partly to tease and taunt viewers with uncertainly about where they, and the characters, stand, to figure out who's got the power and who doesn't. If it was possible to give a damn about any of them, it would help. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyFeb 24, 2016
The most impressive thing about Triple 9 is that it somehow manages to be both predictable and incoherent at the same time. Well, that and the fact that it manages to make half a dozen good actors look really lost. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisFeb 25, 2016
Mr. Hillcoat wears his nihilism easily and persuasively (his films include “The Road”), so his weird bids at mordant comedy feel as forced as they are ill-considered. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Feb 24, 2016
When the story does wrap up, it's all too little, too late, and far too long. Which given everything stuffed into it, just leaves the super-sized Triple 9 triply disappointing. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlFeb 23, 2016
The story isn't complex, but its telling is tangled, often willfully so. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawFeb 20, 2016
The story is clotted and overloaded, lacking the necessary clean tautness and suspense. And Kate Winslet's turn as a hatchet-faced Russian mob matriarch is a bit on the ridiculous side. Read full review
40
CineVueJamie NeishFeb 17, 2016
Triple 9 becomes a victim of its own inane script. All the usual cop tropes are there - and that's part of the problem. Rarely does screenwriter Matt Cook throw anything at the page that hasn't been done better elsewhere. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 25, 2016
There’s a reason the movie has been pushed off the back of the truck into late February. It’s damaged goods. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoFeb 25, 2016
There are movies about ugly, vile people, and there are ugly, vile movies. Triple 9 is the latter. Read full review
33
The Film StageMichael SnydelFeb 26, 2016
Triple 9 isn’t trying to be something of grand social value. It wants to be pulp, and maybe it’s unfair to criticize it for issues of racism and sexism, but its clockwork, convoluted plot isn’t clever, and it’s certainly not very memorable. Read full review
33
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallFeb 25, 2016
John Hillcoat's Triple 9 is doubly disappointing, wasting talent and our time with underworld cliches previously covered in other movies that ultimately didn't matter. This cynical slice of lowlife will join them soon enough. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 26, 2016
The brightest touch in the whole tale is a transvestite hooker’s little papillon, decked out in a DayGlo pink vest, but even the pooch seems glum, pricked-up ears notwithstanding. Read full review
30
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeFeb 17, 2016
A howlingly inane movie that somehow managed to collect an impressively A-list cast on its way toward becoming a cop movie that’s not just dumb, it’s disastrous. Read full review
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