Killer Elite

"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

I'm not sure what it was about Killer Elite that disappointed me, but it just didn't seem to live up to its potential. It might have been that the movie relied on Jason Statham to act, instead of just do action. He plays a retired hit man who gets pulled out of retirement to save a friend's life. But it just doesn't work, he's unconvincing. The retirement isn't convincing and neither is his reluctance to return to work. He was much better in the Mechanic which dealt with similar issues.

Overall the movie doesn't hold together very well. There is too much that they are trying to accomplish, but not enough gets developed. For instance, the romance between Danny (Statham) and Anne (Yvonne Strahovski) just seems to be cut in to the movie in a few places. The Feathermen (the group about whom the book the movie draws from is written) appear in a few scenes, yet they're role is barely explored. They are spliced in just enough to give Spike (Clive Owen) a support system.

It's not a terrible movie, but it could have been much more. I think it would make a better mini-series, so that the different parts could be explored properly. If not, eliminate the things that aren't given justice.

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.

Based on a true story, Killer Elite sees a hired assassin called back into duty when his mentor is held hostage by a powerful sheik who wants revenge on the SAS men who killed his sons. Danny takes the job in order to get Hunter released – a job that involves getting the men to confess on camera before killing them in such a way that it looks like an accident and cannot be traced back. However the targets are a paranoid bunch and once a few questions are asked and one of the men dies, the secretive group behind the deaths put former soldier Spike onto the case, pitting the two trained killers against each other.

This film feels like a missed opportunity and more must have been hoped for it – not least by the relatively big name stars that were involved. This is a tale of murky secrets, covert actions overseas, trained killers and the influence of money and power – it should be much more interesting that it is here, but the decision appears to have been taken to make it as a straight generic thriller. This isn't really a problem in terms of some of the action because there are "good bits" in here, the problem comes from the fact that the material actually doesn't lend itself to this approach as much as you would have liked. So, for example, this sort of generic thriller really suits simple characters, simple plots and thumping action scenes but instead Killer Elite hands us with two groups, neither of whom are particularly "likeable", so the genre approach tells the viewer to root for the good guy – but the plot gives us no clue as to who this is. I have no issue with murky and unlikeable characters, the problem is that the delivery of the film doesn't do anything with it and tries to force it all into a mould that it doesn't fit.

Fortunately the more dramatic sequences are still pretty good (not great, but good) and they come up reasonably often to allow the film to temporarily be the film it wants to be. Not often enough though, and all of them are damaged by the fact that the rest of the film around them isn't working as well – and there is a lot of "other film", too much in fact and it runs a good twenty minutes longer than it can cope with. Much like with the recent film Blitz, Statham does his thing well – whether it suits the film or not. He delivers what you expect him to and again maybe he is part of the reason the film is pushed to be something it is not. Owen appears to be more in touch with what the material should be and also does well with the mano-a-mano stuff that the film asks of him, but it is hard to watch him delivering on a complexity that the finished film had no interest in. De Niro is a solid presence because of who he is, but he is really phoning this in. Akinnuoye-Agbaje only has a small role but, as a fan of Oz who knows how good he can be, it is always good to see him in things.

There is a good story in Killer Elite but unfortunately all but the bullet points is lost in a telling that is trying to make more of a standard thriller and doesn't seem able or willing to do anything with the murky aspects of plot or characters. The end result is a so-so thriller with a so-so plot and performances that mostly don't really work. I wonder at what point in the production they started making it something it wasn't, but regardless when it happened, it did seem to happen and it is a shame because the story deserved to be told better than it was here.

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. ***