Despite scathing reviews (24% approval on Rotten Tomatoes) we went to see the film Killer Elite yesterday.
Starring Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro, it was nowhere near as bad as the reviewers made it out to be. (Actually, Roger Ebert was almost the only major critic who liked it.)
No need to rush to a movie theater to see this - feel free to wait for DVD or cable - but if you are in the mood for a mindless, action thriller it was pretty good. Some nice twists in the plot, some good action scenes, some clever set ups and lots of good location shots.
Don’t know about that, but at the end of the film it says it was adapted from a 1991 book called “The Feather Men”, and is supposedly based off a true story.
Yeah, I want to see it, but it will likely end up being a renter for me. I haven’t been hitting the theaters lately. I keep rooting for Jason Statham to come up with some really good action films. He has one or two good films, but he has some real stinkers too.
Not great but enjoyable for what it tried to be, an action adventure about the cynical lives of mercenaries. Good acting by De Niro and Clive Owen. Statham was not as good, but still fun to watch.
Rental/DVD Bump. I picked this out of Redbox over the weekend and checked it out.
I haven’t seen the reviews, but I did sorta remember this thread and seeing it mentioned that it was critically panned.
I also don’t see why. It was a nice, cynical, retro, international action thriller set in the early 80’s. Kind of in the vein of Dogs of War or Wild Geese.
ETA: see Ronin, too.
It’s not “great film” by any means, but I think it accomplished what it set out to do very nicely.
Definitely worth checking out. Some of the fight scenes are brutal.
I bought this several months ago without knowing anything about it. I was just in the mood for an action flick, and seeing Owens & DeNiro in the cast sealed the deal (despite Statham’s presence).
The love story was pretty poorly done, but the rest of the movie was great. Plenty of twists in the story, decent acting from Statham (not quite LS&2SB or Snatch quality, but still decent) and great fight/chase choreography.
I give it an 8/10. I’ve already watched it twice.
ETA: I agree with ExTank that is was a terrific example of a retro political action thriller, and that it was fairly cynical. I liked that. I thought The Green Zone was another recent good example of this genre (another film I picked up without knowing anything about it, and liked more than I initially thought I would).
Upthread the only term was used that I would use to describe it: “Nice.” Not kickbutt, not crap. Can’t even remember too much. Beats…hmmm…well it beats some stuff. Pleasant time killer. If I never saw it, it wouldn’t be a loss. Nice, tho.