When the likes of Clive Owen, Jason Statham, and the great Robert De Niro are all cast in the same film, a promise is inherently made. All can almost always be counted on to raise the level of any project they undertake, even if the material isn't the strongest. Owen in particular is an actor who has shot to meteoric levels of critical success. Statham has found himself a comfortable niche with his macho good looks and bare knuckled charm in movies like The Transporter and The Mechanic. De Niro is...De Niro, he's earned the right to make whatever movie he wants without argument. A movie like Killer Elite fits each of these three actors in different ways, but their presence promises this won't just be just another throwaway shoot 'em up. Unfortunately, the tedious action and cliche script will leave the viewer a victim of one broken vow after another.
If one thing can be said about Jason Statham, it's that he's consistent. The guy has such a tough, rugged exterior that if he smiled his face would crack. Here he predictably plays a hit man, Danny Bryce, the typical contract killer we've seen far too often. He's tired of killing people for money, and goes to live a quiet life of isolation where he can be hit on the hot, clueless neighbor chick(Yvonne Strahovski). He's quickly pulled back into the game when his friend and mentor, Hunter(De Niro), is kidnapped by some random Arab royal family. Unable to let his buddy rot in a cave somewhere, Danny turns up and tries to bust him free, a plot which fails hysterically. With nowhere else to go, Danny agrees to take on one last job for Hunter's freedom. All he has to do is kill the men responsible for the deaths of the Sheik's sons, killed in some mysterious shadow war.
His targets are members of an elite squad of British soldiers, so it's not supposed to be easy. As the men are picked off one by one, it starts to get under the skin of The Feather Men, a secretive group of old fogeys who sit around in backrooms smoking cigars and probably planning the end of the world. Enter Spike(Clive Owen and his terrible Pablo Escobar mustache), their attack dog sent out to put Danny down hard.
Expecting a showdown between Owen and Statham? It's there, albeit only for about thirty seconds, and it involves Statham pulling some Transporter-like shenanigans to keep things interesting. To be honest, director Gary McKendry would have been better served structuring the film like another installment of that silly, energetic action franchise. Killer Elite suffers from a serious lack of mojo, which should never be the case given the talent involved. Statham isn't the problem, he can do this type of role in his sleep. De Niro isn't on screen nearly enough, and when he is appears to have just walked off the set of Righteous Kill. The major problem is Owen, who is simply too cerebral of an actor for this type of film. We've seen him do action before, but even a film like Shoot 'em Up was smart enough not to try and hide it's wacky intentions.
Killer Elite is based on a novel by Ranulph Fiennes(not Ralph Fiennes!!), which claims to be based on a true story. That's been put up for some serious dispute, and it's clear why. Real life takes the occasional unexpected turn, and is never so by-the-book.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment