Blu-Ray Review – Killer Elite

Now we all know I have a little soft spot for the British Bad Boy done good, Jason Statham,  but how does his latest film stand up? Check our Blu-Ray Review of Killer Elite

I want to make this very clear from the outset of this review, this film is not a remake of the Sam Peckinpah flick of the same name. This film is based on actual events that occurred around 1980-81 and involves a small group of former SAS soldiers and the activities of a Omani oil baron. Adapted from Sir Ranulph Fiennes supposedly true account of shady secret societies and dodgy deals made by both the British and Omani government at the time, The Feather Men.

Jason Statham plays Danny, a hit man who decides to call it a day after a hit in Mexico goes wrong. He tell’s his partner and mentor, Hunter played by De Niro that enough is enough, to which Hunter replies

‘Maybe Killing isn’t finished with you’

Twelve months pass and Danny is now settled in Australia trying to rebuild his old family home and getting on quite nicely with neighbour Anne. Things are looking quite settled for the once élite hitman. But Danny get’s a call announcing that HUNTER is now in trouble. He is being held captive by a Omani Sheik who wants Danny to do one last job and restore honor to his family name. Danny has to film confessions from the killers of his three sons before killing them and making it look like an accident. All of this flags up an alert with the super secret society, The Feather Men, and they send one of their own to try to stop Danny from killing the former SAS Soldiers.

Killer Elite isn’t actually a bad film, it is a lot better and more intelligent than most of the mercenary/gun for hire action flicks out there. Unfortunately with the amount of car chases, gun fights and explosions and skips from country to country it is ultimately very hard to keep up with what is going on with the story, also it is probably a good 15 mins longer that it really needed to be. Statham plays his usual character, hard as hell and a total bad-ass. I don’t care what you say about the guy, he is closest thing we have to a proper old school action star. Clive Owen is pretty good as well as the crazy madman with a bad case of OCD, special kudos should be given to his mustache too. Robert De Niro is really starting to show his age now, which is a shame. I love him as an actor but I did find it hard to believe he could actually do some of the stuff he did in the film.

For a début feature I think McKendry did a pretty stand up job. He certainly can set up a good action sequence, but he is let down a bit by his sluggish approach to story telling. With a snappier edit and a shorter running time this could have been quite a good film indeed.

We are promised the creme-de-la-creme of British conspiracies and espionage, but unfortunately we are left with a very average affair that breaks no new ground. The story is definitely an interesting one, but it isn’t told in a very interesting way here, which is a shame.

FRC Rating 

[starreview tpl=16 size='30']

KILLER ELITE IS RELEASED NATIONALLY ON BLU-RAY AND DVD IN UK ON 16TH JANUARY 2011

Have you seen this film? Are you interested in SAS stories? What about Statham? Comment below..