Killer Elite (2011–116 mins) Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro

I am a HUGE fan of all three of these action giants in this spy triller. I have been saying for a while now that Statham is an actor who is really coming into his own as a vehicle for action movies as long as they don’t go to martial artsy with him. Owen has that silent but funny way about him which works well in fast action romps (Yes “Shoot em up” is a guilty pleasure movie which I loved). And of course De Niro is De Niro so nuff said there. So naturally I wanted to see what this pure action romp had in store for me. It’s got more of an Indy feel to it which is ok for these types of movies, and it also is “based” on a true story so I knew it would also be bogged down with some confusing “history” points it was trying to make (or rather it’s own version of said history which those “based on” movies tend to do). All in all it’s a mindless action film which you can’t try to overly dissect or understand b/c it will make your head spin. So rather just sit back, watch chases and people being killed left and right, and enjoy it a bit more.

In a nutshell, Statham is a retired British spec-ops officer who has to come to the aid of his former mentor (De Niro). In order to do so, he is blackmailed into doing some deeds for some unsavory characters. But trying to stop him from doing said deeds, is another secret society spec-ops guy in Owen. So the whole movie is spent trying to figure out who is doing what and why and wondering who is going to bite the dust next. We rarely know who we REALLY want to root for cept for the fact that we know Statham and Owen are the stars and we think Owen is just a tad more of a jerk the Statham so he must be on the perceived ” bad” side of it all. Honestly don’t try and go too much further into it or like I mentioned above it will make your head hurt and you won’t enjoy it as much.

As much as I make fun of the confusion of it all, it’s still a good pizza and beer guy flick. Don’t go into it expecting a whole lot of De Niro, you just won’t get as much as you think you might. But for the other two, they are both excellent and you get what you expect out of them both.

Verdict–> It’s a good guy pizza and beer movie but not much more. Don’t bother trying to show this to women who don’t enjoy testosterone action flicks b/c they will be sleeping in 3 mins. Not a movie you are going to buy and watch over and over either, but for a rental for chases and fighting it’s worth the couple of bucks.

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