Killer Elite is a tough guy movie with some decent action and violence, but disappointing once everything comes to an end. The premise seems interesting and is supposedly based on a true story, but the story comes off as jumbled and pointless on the big screen. Directing his first feature film, Gary McKendry seems to not be able to handle the material and has a hard time presenting it to the audience. The movie he has created lacks any form of emotion or depth. Also, it doesn’t help when you are able to put an impressive cast together and still manage to do nothing with them.
The movie is mainly a showcase for Jason Statham. He plays Danny, a retired British Special Air Service (SAS) soldier brought out of retirement by a suspecting agent to kill three killer assassins in order to free his mentor Hunter (Robert De Niro). He has been captured and imprisoned, and being used as bait in order to get Danny back in to action. If he accepts and completes his mission, Danny and Hunter can walk away as free men. But it is never that easy. While Danny tries to complete his “hit list,” he is being chased down by Spike (Clive Owen), another ex-SAS agent who wants to find Danny and take him out before he causes anymore damage. It is a cat-and-mouse game that becomes uncontrollable.
The previews and posters may have all three big names on them, but Killer Elite is all Statham with a little bit of Owen and DeNiro. And even when DeNiro is in a scene, he is just barely acting. Owen’s performance has more of an impact, but his minutes on-screen are limited. Thus, leaving all of us watching Statham run around and kick some ass like we have come to know and expect. There is no mistake that he is fun to watch and he might make you have a good time while watching this movie. However, he never seems to challenge himself and maybe he and his fans don’t think he should or has to, but his roles in movies like these are becoming less interesting and more standard issue.
Killer Elite could have been an awesome thriller. If the cast was used right and the script would have had more substance, this movie could have really been impressive. Unfortunately, that is just a fantasy. The reality is the movie does not know what to do with what it has in its possession. It gets chaotic and messy which causes the acting veterans to get swallowed up by it. Statham is the real star and delivers the goods when it comes to the action parts so you do have that to look forward to. As for the rest of the movie, it has its ups and downs, but mostly downs.
“Nature Boy” Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of Brandon’s Box Office In Your Mouth. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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