Norman Reedus is a made man having spent the last decade playing Daryl Dixon on The Walking Dead, making him one of the most popular and highest-paid actors on television. However, the 51 year-old’s big screen career has never reached those same heights, and his rare forays into the world of feature film generally come in projects that fly under the radar.
One of his most high profile cinematic roles in recent years was as part of the impressive ensemble brought together for John Hillcoat’s Triple 9, although the heist thriller ended up bombing at the box office after earning just over $25 million on a $20 million budget. This came as a huge surprise given that star-studded entries in the crime genre usually tend to play pretty well with audiences and Reedus was joined by Casey Affleck, Chiwitel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Gal Gadot, Woody Harrelson and Kate Winslet, which is a stacked cast to say the least.
The story follows a gang of armed thieves making their getaway after staging a bank robbery in broad daylight, but things start to unravel when their ruthless boss demands that they pull off another job almost immediately, matters which aren’t helped by one of the crew being a corrupt cop stuck with a straight arrow partner, who they end up trying to use as a pawn in their scheme.
All the ingredients were there for a distinctive and unique entry into a genre that often feels oversaturated, but Triple 9 doesn’t quite live up to the sum of its parts. That being said, it’s still a very enjoyable effort that fans of pulpy thrillers will get a kick out of, especially now that it’s been added to the Netflix library.
