Review of Killer Elite (2011) by André T — 19 Mar 2012

This is a surprisingly solid, entertaining, and well done action film. You'd think I wouldn't have been a been wary of this film given it's cast and subject matter, but I was. Maybe my growing cynicism is to blame.

Anyways, the plot concerns a retired hit man named Danny Bryce who is thrown back into the game after his mentor Hunter is captured due to failing to complete a job. In order to complete the job and save Hunter, Danny has to kill several men for a terminally ill shiek who wants to see that the men who killed three of his sons are likewise killed. To succeed, Danny has to get taped confessions from the targets, make their deaths look like accidents, and do it all before the sheik dies. To complicate matters, all the targets are either curent or former members of the SAS, or British special forces. These men are being looked after by a secret society who likes to protect their own. When the killings start, the society sends out their chief enforcer Spike Logan to figure out what the heck is going on.

Sound complicated yet? Yes, the plot is rather muddled and all over the place, and sometimes I had no idea what was going on, but I had a good time watching this and managed to actually keep a lot of it in place and figured out. It's supposedly based on true events, though that claim is highly contested.

What I do know is that this is a sharp, well made action thriller that will please a lot of people. Yeah, it's a "Jason Statham" action movie, but unlike some of his other films, the action here is more restrained, far less ridiculous, and somewhat more realistic. It's also a period piece, so we get to see Europe and other parts of the globe circa the early 80s, and from design perspective, this is awesome. Keeping in line with contemporary style trends though, the film is shot through a cool blue filter, diverting away from the yellows, browns, etc of 70s and 80s action pictures.

The film is slick, and occasionally the editing is a bit frenzied (as is also the norm nowadays), but the story is intriguing, the action scenes and stunts are well done, and, most surprising of all, there's some actually pretty good performances here. Statham is his usual action badass self, but there's touchs of the erformance he gave in The Bank Job as well. It's great seeing Robert De Niro back into bad ass mode, as it's been a very long time since we've gotten to see him do something awesome again. Clive Owen rocks a mean stache as the enforcer Spike Logan, but for me, the real delight here was Dominic Purcell as Davies- an associate of Danny and Hunter's who helps see that the mission is completed. He rocks some awesome chops and brings some needed comedy to the proceedings, and probably has the most fun role of the film.

All in all, if you want well done action mixed with a great sense of style, and some decent performances with a good, but could have been better story, then this is the film for you.