{"id":1831,"date":"2011-09-22T18:46:24","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T01:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=1831"},"modified":"2011-09-22T18:46:24","modified_gmt":"2011-09-23T01:46:24","slug":"review-killer-elite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=1831","title":{"rendered":"Review: KILLER ELITE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Not to be confused with the 1975 Sam Peckinpah film called \u201cThe Killer Elite,\u201d \u201cKiller Elite (2011)\u201d is another Jason Statham actioner punched up by A-list supporting performances.<\/p>\n

The convoluted storyline involves a group of assassins going after British Special Air Service (SAS) for alleged wrongdoing they participated in against a Middle Eastern sheik. Of course, the politics of it all are confusing and a bit foreign to American audiences. But Statham\u2019s character is, you guessed it, an assassin whose partner is played by Robert De Niro. When De Niro\u2019s character is kidnapped by the aforementioned sheik, Statham\u2019s super assassin is forced out of retirement to pull one last series of hits in order to free De Niro from custody. The killings attract the attention of a shadowy club of ex-British SAS who employ Clive Owen\u2019s character to combat Statham\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

Based on a 1991 book by Ranulph Fiennes titled \u201cThe Feather Men,\u201d the story supposedly has some basis in fact. But the movie is right out of the Hollywood playbook. Working only as a b-movie, \u201cKiller Elite\u201d has little more going for it than Statham and Owen clashing in a couple well-choreographed fight scenes and De Niro dusting off his boxing skills to duke it out in a subway sequence.<\/p>\n

First time director Gary McKendry adopts a gritty visual style and puts together a solid direct-to-dvd offering that wouldn\u2019t have likely seen a theatrical release but for its impressive cast. But instead of just jumping head-long into an action fest, McKendry tries to develop both character and story which has the effect of slowing things down to a drag at times\u2014\u201cKiller Elite\u201d feels longer than it is. The political posturing comes off hollow and the action merely an awkward wrapper. <\/p>\n

\u201cKiller Elite\u201d probably should have been serialized on BBC television, and as a movie it isn\u2019t worth an investment of the prime ticket price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Statham kills people, again…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1835,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions\/1835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}