Triple Threat

Michael Jai White has been around as a fantastic martial artist for quite some time now. I have since started a collection of his movies

Triple Threat is an Asian martial arts extravaganza, with all-star players drawn from multiple countries. It's Asian action cinema's equivalent of The Expendables, and it's tremendous.The Triple Threat of the title refers to the trio of Payu (Tony Jaa), Long Fei (Tiger Chen) and Jaka (Iko Uwais), formerly mercenaries all. Payu and Long Fei thought they were hired by a paramilitary organization for a humanitarian mission to take out what appears to be a group of human traffickers, while Jaka starts the movie as a bad guy without illusions about the nature of those who hired him. But he does love his wife, and when she's killed by the paramilitary in their purge of the local help, he has a change of heart, and ends up eventually joining forces with Payu and Long Fei (who were both also left for dead by their employers). These employers later get involved in a separate contract to kill a Chinese billionaire's philanthropist daughter, Xian (Celina Jade) who's pumping money into trying to clean up the poorer and more crime-ridden areas of Asia. The local crime syndicates see this as a threat, and hire the 'bad guy' mercenaries, led by Collins (Scott Adkins), to assassinate her. Through a series of events (I'll admit it: the plot is convoluted, occasionally confusing, and relies quite heavily on coincidence; the filmmakers somehow make it work though) the trio--I guess you'd call them the 'good guy' mercenaries?--ends up protecting Xian and opposing the criminals who left them for dead out in the jungle.The action is tremendous, in my opinion among the best fight scenes ever filmed, and the different martial artists all get ample opportunity to display their considerable skills. Also in on the action, on the bad guys front, are Michael Jai White (as Devereaux), Jeeja Yunin (as Mook) and Michael Bispeng (as Joey). Despite all three of the titular Triple Threat being former mercenaries, the movie makes it easy to root for them, and this movie around, the bad guys are almost all on par with the good: the heroes don't just mow them down twenty and thirty at a time.There are multiple languages spoken in the film, but English predominates, making this a good choice for those looking to try out Asian action but wary of the subtitles. Be advised, though, that this movie will make you want to explore others in the genre that Aren't in English. I think you'd find it worthwhile though: once you get used to them, subtitles are simply Not that hard to follow. For anyone interested in high octane action movies, Triple Threat is an absolute must-see.

The Expendables (2010) brought our favorite action stars together on one screen. And like The Expendables (2010), this movie was a precious experience but the cast was far better than the content.When a wealthy heiress Xiao Xian (Celina Jade; Wolf Warrior 2, Skin Trade, Arrow, The Man with the Iron Fists) is marked for death, a team of mercenaries band together to combat the assassins out to kill her. The bad guy assassins include Deveraux (Michael Jai White; Skin Trade, Blood and Bone, Undisputed 2, Accident Man), Mook (JeeJa Yanin; The Protector 2, The Kick, Raging Phoenix, Chocolate), Collins (Scott Adkins; Boyka: Undisputed IV, Doctor Strange, Ninja: Shadow of a Tear, The Expendables 2, Universal Solder: Day of Reckoning, El Gringo, Assassination Games, Hard Target 2) and Joey (Michael Bisping; Den of Thieves, xXx: Return of Xander Cage).Our good guys who unite to combat the team of double-crossing mercenary assassins are Payu (Tony Jaa; Paradox: Sha Po Lang 3, Ong-Bak, The Protector, Skin Trade, Kill Zone 2, Furious 7), Long Fei (Tiger Hu Chen; Man of Tai Chi, John Wick: Chapter 3) and Jaka (Iko Uwais; The Night Comes for Us, The Raid: Redemption, Merantau, Beyond Skyline).At this point I feel the need to pause. If the cast alone hasn’t excited you about this movie, then you definitely shouldn’t watch it. Not simply because it’s an all-star martial arts cast. But because the cast felt under-utilized.The writing is… not good. Hahaha. Not sure what you expected. But I was not expecting numerous attempts (written in for Michael Jai White) to capture Schwarzeneggerian one-liners and Clint Eastwood-ish veteran-to-rookie comments. And like a Schwarzenegger-era action movie, there is no shortage of exaggerated characters, cigars at times when no one would be smoking cigars, and impressive pyrotechnics. Like a fiery pinata convention—set-destroying gunfights, blood-spewing exit wounds and dusty explosions abound.Director Jesse V. Johnson (The Debt Collector, Accident Man, The Fifth Commandment) is no stranger to gritty crime films, martial arts movies or the regular use of stunt-fighter extraordinaire Scott Adkins. With a sunt-heavy resume himself, Johnson delivers exciting combat.The action in this movie is brutal, but not to such sensationalized degree as The Night Comes for Us (2018)—in which the camera fawned over every grueling moment at the most visceral angles. Still, though, this is brutal. Even if brutality is not the focus of the shot, I will admonish that, at one point, a bad guy explodes on-screen into a gloriously gooey mess. One abruptly quick throat-cut early in the movie had me shocked and scrambling for the remote to hit rewind.Our first real martial arts exchange is between Tony Jaa and Iko Iwais. It was very brief, but with it I found great comfort in the action photography, the (perhaps complete) lack of wirework and unchoppy editing. When we later find our mercenaries in a local Asian fighting arena making some quick cash, we get a better taste of the action-style of this film, which is highly practical and makes no superheroes of its martial artists. At times you may miss the Tasmanian Devil-like whirlwinds of somersaults, corkscrew flairs, 20-foot leaps, aerial cartwheels and jump spin 720 hook kicks. But this movie makes these men appear a more credibly outstanding. So you’ll be very entertained. You just won’t be screaming at the screen like you were when you watched The Night Comes for Us (2018), The Raid: Redemption (2011) , The Raid 2 (2014) or Kill Zone 2 (2015).That said, there are not as many hand-to-hand fights as you were probably expecting, and they are also much shorter than you probably wanted. We do see Iwais fight Jaa, Chen, Yanin, and Jai White; and then Adkins vs Jaa, Chen/Iwais vs Jai White, and Jaa/Iwais vs Adkins. They’re all “very good” fights. But none of them spectacular. You’ll gasp and say “awesome”, but you won’t lose your mind and get up out of your seat like watching a half-court shot as the clock runs out.This wasn’t epic… but it was very good. I recommend it, but I won’t scream for you to buy it as I would for The Night Comes for Us (2018), The Raid: Redemption (2011) or Kill Zone 2 (2015).

I've been a fan of Iko Uwais since "Merantau" and "The Raid" franchise so any martial arts movie with him in it I got to watch it. I like Michael Jai White (Blood and Bone) Jeeja Yanin (Chocolate) as well. I'm a little embarrassed to say this was the first martial arts film I've watched of Tony Jaa (Ong Bak). Now Tiger Chen let me talk about him a quick second. He was amazing to watch in this movie, I wasn't really aware of him before, but I'm a fan now. Of course I can't forget about Scott Adkins (the guy they should have cast to play Batman), but we'll see what Robert Pattinson does with the role. Anyway Scott is more amazing than I thought I enjoyed watching him fight and the other guys in his crew were pretty good too. This was martial arts movie heaven and the people who didn't like the film clearly are not true martial arts movie fans and don't understand how special this is. It's not a Marvel movie so they didn't have $200,000,000.00 (two hundred million dollars) to dump into making this movie so don't go in watching it expecting that.

It stars Scott Adkins, Michael Jai White, Tony Jaa, AND Iko Uwais! For that reason, I had to have it in my collection of B-grade martial arts action. Unfortunately, the effects, editing, writing, and story felt very rushed / choppy.I did enjoy the film, but it was less than I had hoped for. I likely won't watch it a second time (unlike other films starring those actors which are worthy of repeat-enjoyment.)It wasn't bad... it was just "okay".3/5.