Killer Elite

I don't recall seeing a movie like this in a good, long time. It's a macho-action-thriller that didn't have an A-list budget, but probably didn't really need it, either. You used to see more of this back in the 70s and 80s; these days this kind of movie usually has a much bigger budget, with the requisite special effects and massive action sequences such a budget buys. Here, though, it's a little different.

Good action, intriguing setup (definitely no good-guy/bad-guy here; nobody is completely innocent by any stretch), and pretty good characters. And a story that's somewhat better than you usually find in this particular kind of film.

Don't know that Jason Statham's a great actor, exactly, but he's definitely a presence and he's got others to do the acting around him, and he performs in a several action scenes that come right up to the edge without getting silly. And I liked the basic plausibility in most of the scenes.

I'm a guy, and Killer Elite is a pretty decent "guy" movie. You could do worse.

Killer Elite starts with the Jason Statham super-assassin fare, some random Mexican or South American dude is getting whacked and Jason Statham as Danny here kills car-fulls of them. But, then it manages to enormously over-complicate things the way only a British movie can do. There is the secret society called the feather-men (because their touch is sooo soooft), some oil sheik who hires Danny by kidnapping his mentor and a whole slew of characters and sub-characters that inhabit the Killer Elite world that all manage to be a little inconsistent with the rules of the movie.

Jason Statham, DiNiro and Clive Owen star, one gets the feeling they aren't in the movie but are sort of doing their thing floating above it. Statham has to be the super-man, the assassin who can kill a whole army if he wants to, DiNiro has to have his intricate monologues and dialogs, and Clive Owen has to be a badass. It does claim to be inspired by a true story but it's hard to weed out the "it could happen" true part and the chaff that all the big actors drag into the movie. We have the hokey "it's easy to kill but the hard part is living with it" kind of assassin introspection and on the other hand it hints at blood for oil military campaigns and political web but they distinctly form two separate layers in the movie.

As an action movie, it's full of it's shares of shootouts, grisly deaths, car chases and burly men punch-ups. It does that weird thing where goons are shot in the leg or punched in the head rather than killed. I suppose if you don't really care how the plot stupidly unravels itself, it's a decent action movie. But, as a plot, it's over-complicated and borderline nonsensical.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Set in 1980, Killer Elite is based on a true story, revolving around SAS agent Danny (Jason Statham) who owes everything to his friend and mentor Hunter (Robert De Niro.) So when he is taken hostage in Oman, Danny is forced to co-operate with the kidnappers demands: that the three soldiers responsible for the death of his son are hunted down around the globe and killed. But even when he goes through with the mission, he finds, as well as having to contend with the relentless Agent Spike (Clive Owen) that not everything is as it seems.

Holding true to it's claim of being a story spinning all round the globe, Killer Elite literally dashes with hyperactive energy from the deserts of the Middle East to the Australian outback, to European cities like Paris and London, all the while holding it's accolade of being a true story. But then fact is often stranger than fiction, and the exploits of Britain's elite special forces could no doubt throw up even stranger tales.

This is a slick, stylish enough film, that carries off it's various action sequences and tense moments with the requisite style and aplomb, even if it doesn't generate the amount of suspense it could have and the whole thing does feel a tad disjointed and sporadic.

Performances wise, Statham is simply the reliable sturdy action hero, while De Niro in support commandeers another generic performance and Owen as the adversary can resort back to his old wooden ways. Not a lot to write home about on that front, then, but thankfully it's not a film driven by this aspect and so the more superficial stuff that carries it through.

It's a messy, chaotic, sketchy and unbelievable (even for something based on a true story) film, but entertaining and enthralling enough to be well worth a watch. ***

Stirring as well as non-stop action movie , being allegedly based on facts , though the SAS even went on the record to disown both writer Fiennes and his book . After a brilliantly exciting opening in a thrilling terrorist action executed by Danny (Jason Statham) his mentor named Hunter (Robert De Niro , he is the only American born actor in this film) is taken captive by a disgraced Arab sheik, then the killer-for-hire is forced into action . His assignment : kill three members of Britain's elite Special Air Service responsible for the death of his sons . As it concentrates on the painful vendetta proceeded by an Arab oil magnate , as he kidnaps Hunter and coerces to Danny his search for revenge . Covering the globe from Australia to Paris, London and the Middle East, Danny helped by Davies (Dominic Purcell), and Meier (Aden Young) pull off his relentless mission to free their colleague who is being held captive .

This moving picture contains thrills , unstoppable action , betrayal , fighting , car pursuits and lots of deaths , as it has a great body count : 21 . There are echoes here of many other action movies and behind the deceits , plot twists and manipulation is essentially a simple yarn . This is a thrilling picture in which our main starring , Jason Statham , is plunged into a highly dangerous game of vendetta and deception - where things are not always what they appear to be . The film is built around the internal secret services and SAS which sidelines in dirty work that ever the CIA won't touch . The flick contemplates the old themes of trust , friendship , vengeance , treason , cold violence and humiliation . The set pieces such as car chases , impressive as well as violent fights and a roof chases including bounds and leaps are all magnificent , as are so many secondary scenes . Interesting screenplay by Matt Sherring plenty of twists and turns , being inspired by the book "The Feather Men" written by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, this was an English adventurer, polar explorer and former SAS man is the author of The Feather Men, the novel from which this film is adapted . Although he has often claimed the novel was a true story, the families of the real dead SAS men named in the novel who died on SAS exercises and the SAS themselves publicly attacked it as sick exploitation and complete fiction . As mentioned above, all the families and the British special forces denied they had been consulted or involved in any way with the book .

The main cast is pretty good such as Jason Statham , Clive Owen , Yvonne Strahovski and Robert De Niro . Though the main starring results to be Jason Statham who from Transporter (2002) he already had a background in martial arts which enabled him to perform his own fight sequences , he followed in several similar roles as a two-fisted hunk in Charles Bronson ink such as War , Crank , The mechanic , Safe , Parker , Blitz , Hummingbird , Homefront , Wild card among others . Support cast is frankly well such as Dominic Purcell, Ben Mendelsohn, Anden Young , Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje , Nick Tate , Bille Brown, Stewart Morritt, and Grant Bowler . Atmospheric and appropriate musical score by Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek . Colorful and adequate cinematography by Simon Duggan . The motion picture was professionally directed by Gary McKendry , though has ups and downs . Rating : 6 . Acceptable and passable . Not very good , but enough to be going on with .

"Killer Elite", not to be confused for the Sam Peckinpah film of the same name, is basically Jason Statham being Jason Statham kicking ass, but this time he's facing off against Clive Owen and a bunch of other, more sophisticated bad guys. But since Robert De Niro showed him the tricks of the trade, it just couldn't get any more macho than it already is.

This movie is not just the typical shoot-em-up action fest. There is an actual espionage plot going underway, and though the screenplay isn't exactly original, the story unfolds in an engaging and intriguing way that I became concerned of the story for once and not just awaiting every action scene. The characters are fleshed out more often than most shoot-em-up movies of late. There's some beams of intelligence in certain scenes, though it's clearly not on the same level of the Jason Bourne movies. It tries hard though, and I have to give it credit for that. Was it really based on a true story? The film certainly doesn't say so, as it presents the somewhat complex tale as the usual Jason Statham ass-kicking fest. No comment there.

Judging from his previous movies I'd say "Killer Elite" is better than Statham's previous outings "The Mechanic" and the dreadful "Blitz". Statham is still great at being badass and here he is no exception, although he actually gets hurt in this film a couple of times. Clive Owen is the best and most convincing actor in the film almost giving Statham a run for his money. De Niro is low-key here but I suspect it's just a warm-up for his next big project with Scorsese. Yvonne Strahovski is just emotional fodder for Statham's character and her moments with him are somewhat clichéd but still, not cheesy, although knowing her role from TV's "Chuck", she deserves better. Dominic Purcell is also quite funny as one of Statham's assassin friends. The rest of the cast was not bad.

Production wise, the settings all look gritty and downbeat and someone's bound to get beaten up or shot pretty good in one of these sets. The music by Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek is alright but by-the-numbers. Simon Duggan's cinematography is good too - until the fight scenes. We do not want excessive shaky camera during ALL of the fight scenes, Mr. Duggan. The epic fight scene between Statham and Owen was almost ruined because of this.

If there were some things that would make the film better, they would be - better dialogue at parts, more Owen, and much more De Niro. As it stands, "Killer Elite" is a pretty good, solid and tough action film, and will definitely score a home run with Statham fans.

I eagerly await Statham's "Safe" because I feel that film is going to be genuinely very good.

Overall rating: 69/100