A Random Movie: Triple Threat (2019)
A glimpse into a very different action universe
I have access to a preposterously large number of movies. I’ve decided to take a random number generator, pick a movie, watch it, and write about it. Today’s film: Triple Threat (2019).
Somewhere in the 2000s, when people like Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal were starting to lose relevance, a kind of alternate reality started to form. It was direct-to-dvd - and then direct-to-streaming - and it turned into a continuation of that decade. Actors like JCVD and Michael Jai White were still stars, but were joined by people like Scott Adsit - an Australian with plenty of physical chops and a certain furrowed brow charisma. Big ‘90s action hits got sequels - including Universal Soldier, leading to the impossibly weird Day of Reckoning - and an entire ecosystem of low-budget films that were familiar, and yet had the vibe that they weren’t real. They came from a portal where Scott Adsit was the world’s biggest star, and deposited directly into bins at Wal Mart and the darkest corners of Amazon Prime.
Adsit is in Triple Threat, as can be expected. So is Michael Jai White. They’re villains, along with UFC guy Michael Bisping and martial arts choreographer Ron Smoorenburg. The heroes are Tony Jaa - best known for Ong Bak and The Protector - Iko Uwais - best known for The Raid films - and Tiger Hu Cheng - who is best known for his work on the Matrix movies. These three guys are the triple threat. There’s also Celina Jade, but she doesn’t really get to do anything.
It’s a murderer’s row of actors who you kind of recognize. You scroll by and say “wow, Michael Jai White, wasn’t he in Highlander 3?” And as a result, you get something that’s actually pretty good.
Let’s be clear, the script is utterly incomprehensible. It starts with a raid on some kind of village, where a band of mercenaries, led by White’s Devereaux, go around killing everyone and blowing things up. Then we get a storyline about Xian (Jade) donating a bunch of money to stop some sort of ill-defined crime syndicate. That means the mercenaries - now led by Collins (Adsit), who was rescued in the earlier village raid - are now after her. But she’s protected by Payu and Hu Fei (Jaa and Chen, respectively) because they coincidentally ran into each other at the police station because Jaka (Uwais) set them up as revenge for the earlier raid. Jaka then stalks the outside of the film, helping and harming the two groups, until the end when he says he had a plan. So much of what happens is random chance that it doesn’t seem possible that there was a plan. The writers certainly didn’t have one.
When we’re introduced to Jaka he’s bleeding. I couldn’t tell you why.
But who needs a good script when you’ve got good action? This isn’t a film with very many effects - which is good, because it wouldn’t have the budget for great ones. Instead, we’ve got all the effects that we need with that cast. There’s a reason why the cast is stacked with martial artists, these boys can move. Does it matter that the story doesn’t make sense when you’ve got a bunch of fellows who know how to make a fight scene look good? When you’ve got a group that can punch with the best of them and just enough of an effects budget for a bunch of squibs and an explosion? People talk about practical effects vs. CGI, and here we have a movie that’s really just what you see on the screen. The special effects are the sheer physicality of the cast. You get excited at every fight scene because you don’t quite know how the different matchups will wind up. Some guys are big, some guys are small, some guys are in-between, but all of them can move and when they fight, they mean it. That makes for a film where it’s just exciting when a villain and a hero are in the same room - you know a fight could break out, and you know it’s going to be slick and well-choreographed. Hell, half the cast are fight coordinators, they couldn’t help but make something cool.
Some people might lament that Hollywood doesn’t make movies like this anymore, but I’m not sure they ever did. This kind of martial arts heavy, fight-centric filmmaking was generally the domain of other countries. There’s a reason why the three heroes of the movie are Asian - well, beyond the fact that the majority of the financing came from China. Their stars came up in that system, where martial arts are the priority. There’s a reason that Smoorenburg’s big debut was in a Jackie Chan movie. Going back further, there’s a reason why Jean Claude Van Damme went to Hong Kong directors when he wanted to keep his career fresh. Hollywood has always been interested in fight-heavy films, but it has never really made it a priority, and the majority of stars who are primarily known for their physical skills still find their stars rising in Asia first.
Director Jesse V. Johnson hasn’t done anything anyone has heard of - though Avengement is a funny name for a movie and Green Street Hooligans 2 is something I wasn’t aware anyone wanted to exist. But he’s got a set full of fight coordinators and a camera, it’s impossible to make something that isn’t worth watching. He knows what he’s got, and it’s not hard to get the most out of it.
I like the alternate universe where these movies are made. It’s not like the script is any worse than, I don’t know, Ant Man: Quantumania. But unlike Ant Man, this has fight scenes worth watching and some good explosions. It’s fun just to watch these guys move, even if the script doesn’t work the ebb and flow of their fights does. Even when my attention would flag because of the story, I was immediately snapped back to attention when the punches and kicks started to fly. It would be a more interesting world if things like this were regular features at the multiplex.