{"id":1311,"date":"2011-09-22T19:00:35","date_gmt":"2011-09-22T19:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/?p=1311"},"modified":"2011-09-22T19:07:48","modified_gmt":"2011-09-22T19:07:48","slug":"killer-elite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/action\/killer-elite\/","title":{"rendered":"Killer Elite **"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The promise of a thriller with a sexy, all-star cast of Jason Statham<\/a>, Clive Owen<\/a> and Robert De Niro<\/a> is enough to whet the appetite for a trip to the cinema. Debut writer-director Gary McKendry<\/a>\u2019s adaptation of Ranulph Fiennes<\/a>\u2019 novel, The Feather Men<\/em>, should be the action man\u2019s version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy<\/em><\/a> this week. The big names are all present in Killer Elite<\/em><\/a>, as are the dramatic stunts and action sequences, but all within an overly complex, erratic thriller framework that has moments of viable tension, but others of dramatic silliness.<\/p>\n

When Danny\u2019s (Statham) mentor Hunter (De Niro) is taken captive by a Sheik in Oman, the retired member of Britain’s Elite SAS is forced into action to free him by taking the lives of three assassins. But Danny\u2019s mission is not to run smoothly, especially with an equally skilled killer, Spike (Owen), on his tail.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that Statham, Owen and De Niro perform as expected in roles we have seen them in before, and you can happily get your fill watching them do what they do best in a testosterone-fuelled explosion of bullet-riddled mayhem that is pure old-school. Witnessing Statham meeting Owen head to head \u2013\u00a0once while tied to a chair \u2013 is what action sequences are made for, and there is a nice Paris Metro chase scene involving De Niro, too. Indeed, to add to the thrills and claret spills, Dominic Purcell<\/a> as ‘gun for hire’ playboy Davies also raunchily captures the chauvinistic and on-the-edge nature of a trained killer for hire in the decadent 80s. The film\u2019s mix is a gritty one of extreme violence with smatterings of ironic humour.<\/p>\n

However, even with the reassuring \u2018based on a true story\u2019 line at the start and the rather topical element of a corrupt Arab leader settling personal grudges, McKendry\u2019s stab at the genre is left more than unintentionally comical at times, mainly due to some poor script writing \u2013 one example being Spike\u2019s meetings with a bunch of old secret service men that roll out every clich\u00e9d line in the thriller handbook. Another is the Indiana Jones<\/em>-styled desert chase scenes and others involving the Sheik in his lair.<\/p>\n

McKendry\u2019s plot is riddled with holes and often lacks explanation while it jumps around so much that the only thing you can engage with are the set-pieces of daring action. Even some of these are borderline gratuitous, rather than adding to the tension created when killers come after killers. The whole affair smacks of film-making inexperience, which is a shame considering the wealth of the source material and talent.<\/p>\n

At the very least, McKendry allows us to revel in and be entertained by his star cast \u2013 the only advantage of this woefully under-developed exploitation action-thriller. The tragic thing is thinking just how much better it could have been in more experienced hands.<\/p>\n

2\/5 stars<\/strong><\/p>\n

By @FilmGazer<\/p>\n

Follow on Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

**WATCH THE TRAILER HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The promise of a thriller with a sexy, all-star cast of Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro is enough to whet the appetite for a trip to the cinema. Debut writer-director Gary McKendry\u2019s adaptation of Ranulph Fiennes\u2019 novel, The Feather Men, should be the action man\u2019s version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy this … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Killer Elite **”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10,6],"tags":[1479,1482,1480,634,1478,1481,341,1485,1486,1484,1483],"class_list":["post-1311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action","category-drama","category-thriller","tag-clive-owen","tag-dominic-purcell","tag-gary-mckendry","tag-jason-statham","tag-killer-elite","tag-ranulph-fiennes","tag-robert-de-niro","tag-soldier","tag-spy","tag-tailor","tag-tinker"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1319,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311\/revisions\/1319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}