Killer Elite
Former Special Ops member and hired assassin Danny Bryce finds he’s seen enough action in his days and decides to retire. Unfortunately, life doesn’t quite agree with his decision. When his friend and mentor, Hunter, gets taken prisoner after refusing to complete a mission, Bryce gets called in to finish what Hunter tried to run away from: kill three highly skilled members of the SAS who murdered the sons of a Sheikh in Oman some years ago, videotape their confession and make the deaths look like an accident. If he doesn’t manage to finish the mission, Hunter will be killed.
To make things worse, the SAS not only consists of almost paranoid trained professionals, several former agents have set up a secret society called “The Feather Men” who’s operational leader, Spike, is determined to protect his comrades. The hunt is on!
Sound and Vision:
Killer Elite comes with an outstanding image quality. Contrast is top notch, colors are vibrant and warm in desert scenes, while blueish when scenes move to a more city-oriented location. The level of detail is great and the blacks are incredibly deep. Excellent stuff!
Most of the soundstage is front-centered with dialogues coming perfectly from the center, but when the action starts to explode off the screen, the rears and subwoofer suddenly come into play and deliver a very immersive experience that draws the viewer in totally. Although maybe not full-on all the time, Killer Elite has an excellent soundtrack that supports what’s going on on the screen very nicely.
Extras:
None
Conclusion:
Jason Statham is on a role lately and we’re getting one movie after the other with him in the lead. Killer Elite is the latest of the crop and has him joined by Clive Owen and Robert De Niro to add some more weight to the cast.
It’s based on actual events and while you can wonder just how factual things really are, it luckily doesn’t tamper with the experience too much. Action scenes are typically what we’ve come to expect from Statham, and Clive Owen and De Niro seem to only be added to give the movie some bigger names on the cover. Killer Elite doesn’t surprise nor brings anything original to the genre, but it does well what it’s supposed to do.
Image and sound are excellent, action scenes are fun to watch, and the obligatory “background story” doesn’t tamper with the speed of the movie too much. Although it does tend to slow things down.
Killer Elite is a fun action flick, much in the style of the Bourne series, but little more. A typical Staham vehicle with some espionage elements added to make for an entertaining means to pass time.
6.0