What Exactly is Triple Frontier?

There is a new film brewing in Hollywood and it's a big one. In time you will hear lots about it, so consider this the preview to the hype. It's called "Triple Frontier" or "Sleeping Dogs" no one seems to confirm the title, but for now we'll go with the first option because "Sleeping Dogs" sounds like a sequel to "Marley and Me." Wait, did I say, this is a preview to the hype? Sorry, this is the start of the hype train.

Simply put "Triple Frontier" is the follow up to the Academy Award winning "The Hurt Locker." To be directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the script by by "Hurt Locker" scribe Mark Boal, focuses on the piece of land featured above.  What's so special about this little piece of land? Evil bad dudes love it. According to Wikipedia, the area, kind of a neutral zone between three countries is hard to police and therefore it's a hot bead of organized crime, and not just South American drug lords, recent reports indicate an Islamic Extremist presence as well. So basically it sounds like "The Hurt Locker" minus the sand.

The talent behind the camera is enough to get excited but the cast coming together for the project is equally impressive. Yesterday it was announced that Tom Hanks will be in the film and it remains to be seen if we will be getting noble ass kicking Tom Hanks (see left) or noble diplomatic Tom Hanks (See "Charlie Wilson's War"). Other rumors have pegged Johnny Depp as a cast member, but those aren't confirmed. I mean a Depp-Hanks team up would be thrilling.

Bigelow is a masterful director, "The Hurt Locker" is an incredibly gripping film and "Point Break" is on the list of 80's action films that are awesome because they are just great films, not great "80's" films. But I have to point out that after last year's Academy Award race vs her ex-husband James Cameron, I can't help but think in some corner of her mind she wants to go make a movie in the jungle too. Hopefully her film will be rooted in spec-ops military government espionage goodness and won't involve blue-people**

*That isn't a knock on Avatar, Avatar is still the shit.

The Hurt Locker: An Attempt to Understand The Iraq War

I have no idea what the Iraq War is like. Sure I can watch "Generation Kill" and see that there appears to be great camaraderie and a startlingly large amount of down time. I can read articles and know that it's a politically delicate situation. And I can play "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" and blow away countless terrorists on max volume from the comfort of my large ultra plushy couch, yet the actual experience of war is foreign to me. The film "The Hurt Locker" is an excellent attempt to understand the both physical and psychological aspects of the Iraq War.

Masterfully directed by Katherine Bigelow (Point Break) and starring Jeremy Renner (who already has deserved Oscar buzz for his performance) and Anthony Mackie (highly underated ), this is an extrodinary peek into the lives of a bomb defusal unit in Iraq. Whether it is a car bomb situation next to the UN or an sniper standoff in the barren desert, the film is wired with so much tension, it was hard for me to sit still. Unlike other war films like "Body of Lies" and "The Kingdom" there is no elusive mastermind to track, and the narrative feels a little weak because of it.

At first this lack of a strong narrative bothered me, but then I realized, there isn't a core narrative in this war in Iraq War. The "mastermind" Saddam was captured in 2003, and we're still going. Heroes in the war come and go with each pentagon news blast. It's a continuing cycle, and the film has a similar structure. I mentioned before the film is attempt to understand the Iraq War, I use the word "attempt" because I believe no media can do the war justice simply because the viewer/reader has not lived through the experiences.

The last shot of a bomb defusal technician walking down a street alone towards an uncertain future is a perfect visiaul metaphor for this endless path the Iraq War currently has. Sure, end dates, goals, and benchmarks may be set (and met), but as long as there still are US troops in Iraq, there is no ending, damn, maybe there hasn't even been a middle yet.