The humdrum high-tech, low-plot action vehicle these days needs more and more oomph to rise above the brazen yet boring rabble….More solid, realistic characters? Largely absent here. More tortuously disgusting set pieces? Getting warm! An all-star cast stooping beneath their usual stature to add what they can to the mess? Bingo!
Clive Owen could probably still fascinate as an actor if he opted to do a Nike ad. Robert DeNirio, so off and on, gives a few hints he’s still got an interesting role left in him even if this isn’t the one…And of course Killer Elite starsJason Stratham–now resembling a franchise cliche as the tough guy to end all tough guys.
Stratham and DeNiro are professional assassins; Owen a retired British soldier who’s the maverick in a secret society of former SAS officers. They clash when Stratham is brought out of retirement to save a kidnapped DeNiro. Just for fun there’s an Arab sheik around and it’s he who will cough up DeNiro if Stratham jumps through some serious hoops. Turns out Stratham must assassinate three former SAS guys, make them all look like accidents, yet somehow still get a videotaped confession from them that they killed the shiek’s sons…
Piece of cake for Stratham and two equally demented pals. From there things get cloudy with a chance of mothballs as every Bourne effect you can think of is hurled our way and plot twists, barely revealed, run ragged in every direction. Bereft of ideas elsewhere, Killer Elite also sees fit to poach the title of a fairly decent Sam Peckinpah film with which it shares absolutely no characteristics.
3.5 poaches out of 10
