Killer Elite

Welcome to another episode Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is Killer Elite.

Directed by Gary McKendry.

Written by Matt Sherring.

Based on the book "The Feather Men" written by Ranulph Fiennes.

Review #141

MPAA Rating: R strong violence, language and some sexuality/nudity.

Runtime: 116 min

Cast

Jason Statham ...Danny

Clive Owen ...Spike

Robert De Niro ...Hunter

Dominic Purcell ...Davies

Aden Young ...Meier

Yvonne Strahovski ...Anne

Ben Mendelsohn ...Martin

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje ...Agent

Based on a true story.

That phrase should always be met with some serious pause before seeing a movie. A film that's based on a true story can be fun, entertaining, educational, emotional, horrifying, disturbing or any other adjectives you can come up with. They can also be misleading, altered and just plain bad. Killer Elite treads very softly against being a pretty good film and a misleading, altered version of the truth.

Plot


Based on a true story, Killer Elite pits two of the worlds' most elite operatives. Danny, an ex-special ops agent and Hunter, his longtime mentor against the cunning leader of a secret military society. Covering the globe from Australia to Paris, London and the Middle East, Danny and Hunter are plunged into a highly dangerous game of cat and mouse where the predators become the prey. 

From the trailer you are led to believe that all Statham does is rescue his former mentor and friend. Kind of like a spy version of Rambo III. This plot description doesn't even scratch the surface when it comes to how convoluted the story actually is. The main story arc was actually pretty interesting. Yes Danny's friend was being held hostage but not for the reasons you might think. The main problem with Killer Elite is that it in actuality it's a Rambo movie when it tries to be a Jason Bourne movie. The main subplot is very intriguing but it gets lost in a wave of nonsense.

Killer Elite tries to be dumb and smart at the same time with it's story. Meaning it tries to balance the over the top action with a slick espionage narrative. It didn't work here. It's actually too bad because the potential was there. I think if a little fat trimming of the script was done a better film would have risen to the surface. More importantly I didn't care about any of the characters. I've said this before but especially in an action film you have to care about someone otherwise the film is just 90 minutes of bullets and booms. This was another unfortunate side effect of the unbalanced script. The people felt out of place with very little development to support their existence.

It's a shame because a very talented cast was wasted here and it didn't have to be.

On the 5 star scale. Killer Elite gets 2 stars with a "Netflix It" recommendation.

That's a wrap for today. Up next is 50/50

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"