TRIPLE FRONTIER **

A disappointment but only slightly. "Triple Frontier" is directed by J.C. Chandor who co-wrote the screenplay with Mark Boal and Kathryn Bigelow is one of the Executive Producers. It's an action picture, a Colombian drugs movie and a heist movie. There are fine set=pieces and it looks terrific; the mostly Colombian locations are beautifully photographed. The problem is for a Chandor/Boal picture there isn't much depth.

This is a buddy movie in which the good guys cum bad guys are played by Ben Affleck, (who never really learned to act in a fairly long career), Oscar Isaac, (who needs better material than this if he is to make an impression), Charlie Hunnam, (who's actually not too bad here), and Garrett Hedlund and Pedro Pascal, who are both cast in very one-dimensional roles. It is, in other words, formulaic even if the formula isn't a bad one but it's no "Sicario" and it's certainly no "Salvador". It's brainless and it's exciting and we've seen it all before, ("Three Kings" had a not dissimilar plot and was a much better film). Chandor and Boal can, and have, done better.