Triple Frontier  ★★★

‘SOLID’ is an oft-used word in film criticism.

It means this film delivers exactly what it says on the cover, no more and no less; it’s a predictable and dependable watch.

The 2019 action/thriller Triple Frontier is a good example. The cover features a bunch of military types on a deadly mission with a cast including Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac that suggests a notch above.

Look a little further and you find it’s directed by J.C. Chandor (Margin Call, All Is Lost, A Most Violent Year), and written by Mark Boal who was also responsible for scripting Detroit, The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty.

With that pedigree it should probably be better than ‘solid’, but the film-makers didn’t seem to have any aspirations past knocking out an action movie with a little more character-building than usual.

At the start of the film we meet Isaac’s character, Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia, who is working as a private adviser in Columbia with the military battling the drug trade.

Pope realises the authorities are fighting a losing battle but one of his informants, Yovanna, is willing to help him take down a local drug lord in exchange for getting her and her brother out of the country.

Pope knows such a mission will either struggle to be formally sanctioned or the drug lord will be tipped off while it is being planned, so he decides to go it alone with the help of fellow former soldiers played by Affleck, Charlie Hunnam and Pedro Pascal.

Affleck’s character is the most interesting. He is a soul-less family man, sleep-walking through a job as a real estate salesman but initially isn’t willing to risk everything just to renew a thirst for adrenaline. But Pope has the lure of tens of millions of dollars held in the drug lord’s fortress home which he also intends to steal.

The team comes together and loaded with firepower they mount an assault with the help of Yovanna (played well by Adria Arjona) but complications arise and they are forced on the run through the Andes mountains with a death squad in pursuit.

The action, particularly the initial assault on the drug lord’s property, is very well staged; the pursuit through the mountains is exciting; and there are a couple of interesting character moments.

But apart from Affleck’s and Isaac’s characters, there is little to the others who just seem purely interested in money and excitement from the outset and no significant theme other than the familiar commentary on ex-soldiers neglected by society and finding it hard to re-adapt.

Like I said, just a solid couple of hours’ entertainment.