You
could call it the Expendables of action
movies, except the original Expendables were
action movies to begin with. Those were big budget films, featuring big name
stars, who were arguably on the downswing of their careers. This is the
opposite: a scrappy production, featuring some of Asia’s best martial arts
stars, alongside some direct-to-DVD-ish fan favorites, all of whom are in their
absolute peak screen-fighting condition. Forget boring stuff like plot and
focus on the martial arts when Jesse V. Johnson’s Triple Threat releases today on DVD.
Once
Collins’ crew of mercenary terrorists break him out of a MI6 black site in the
jungles of Southeast Asia, he can get down to the business of killing Chinese
heiress Tian Xiao Xian. She has a lofty plan to fight crime in Maha Jaya, a
fictional country that looks suspiciously like Thailand, with massive grants
for education and social welfare. Frankly, the country’s crime syndicates would
actually be delighted with such a scheme, because they would find a way to
divert and appropriate funds from her program until it was nothing but dry bones,
but fine, we will play along with the Macguffin.
Collins’
right-hand man Devereaux breaks him out, but he leaves three incredibly
disappointed witnesses for dead. Payu and Long Fei were Indonesian guides, hired
to guide them to the jungle prison, under the false pretext of a humanitarian
rescue. Naturally, they quickly became loose ends. Jaka was a contractor hired
by the British, whose wife died during the raid. Despite a rocky introduction,
the two brothers will team up with Jaka to protect the heiress and get some
payback. Admittedly, Jaka isn’t all that concerned about Tian, but Payu and
Long Fei are more heroically inclined.
Presumably,
the triple team refers to Jaka, Payu, and Long Fei, played by Iko Uwais, Tony
Jaa, and Tiger Chen, respectively (all of whom are in fine form.) They are more
than fairly matched by Collins and his band of marauders, featuring the brawn
and chops of Scott Adkins (as Collins), Michael Jai White (as Devereaux), JeeJa
Yanin (as Mook), and Michael Bisping (as Joey). Add in Celina Jade portraying
the helpless heiress and nutty cameo from Michael Wong and you have yourself a
movie.
Seriously,
do not even worry about the story. Johnson is a pro at staging credible,
visually legible fight scenes, having previously directed Adkins in a number of
films, including The Debt Collector,
Accident Man, and Savage Dog. He
knows how to deliver what fans what and he has the ensemble to work with.
In
fact, this is some of the best work Uwais and Jaa have done over the course of
their last few films or so. Adkins is one of the few action stars who plays
heroes and villains with roughly equal regularity, probably because he really
looks like he is enjoying himself, strutting and sneering through the picture
as Collins. Of course, White is all kinds of hardnosed as Devereaux. As an
added bonus, Jennifer Qi Jun Yang shows promising action potential as Liang,
Tian’s embassy-assigned body guard. Unfortunately, Yanin is given short shrift as
Mook.
You
really can’t go too far wrong with this cast, especially when Johnson has them
do what they do best. Everyone is at the top of their games, except maybe the
screenwriters, but they hardly matter. Highly recommended for martial arts fans,
Triple Threat releases today (5/14) on
DVD and BluRay.
