Killer Elite: Critic Reviews

The filmmakers claim their 'Killer Elite' is based on a true story. My bet is everything else about it is phony.

It's an uneven mix, though it still delivers in fits and starts.

The plot is over-complicated, the screenplay limp and some of the subsidiary acting is hardly up to the mark.

The movie's not stupid. And that makes it more than bearable and often a little fun.

Filled with action but not terribly engaging and certainly not surprising, this is a mediocre action film at best. (Parental Movie Review also available)

Killer Elite has enough good scenes to satisfy action fans, as well as those looking for a bit more depth, but as a cohesive whole, it's rather mixed.

Though the film tries to achieve Bourne-style grit and depth, it lacks the intelligence and flair that made the Matt Damon franchise so compelling.

There is so much testosterone in this movie, women walk into the theater looking like Taylor Swift, but they walk out looking like Chaz Bono.

Have fun, action junkies.

Despite the presence of some notable acting talent, this not-Elite work turns out to be just another dumb Jason Statham film.

The permanently scowling Statham borders on caricature, while the talents of De Niro and Owen are completely wasted.

The only remotely surprising thing about the new thriller Killer Elite is just how resoundingly unsurprising the entire enterprise is and as it plods on and on.

Killer Elite is a throwback to an era when action movies still had balls, when muscular bravado easily overcame banal screenwriting and corny narrative earnestness.

"Killer Elite" sticks to the ribs when it sticks to simple skullduggery and Stathamian standards of busting heads. Whenever it strives for warrior poetry, it's more like a Nantucket-esque limerick scribbled in a London pub's bathroom.

The picture entertains, at times legitimately and at others in a cheesy, '80s action sort of way

Ask yourself: Would The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor be better with scissor kicks? Are The Conversation and Marathon Man a few dislocated bones short of greatness? Even if you answered yes, you should lower your expectations.

Mercenaries target ex-SAS agents who committed Middle East atrocities in a confusing, unsatisfying action thriller.

Its visual and narrative emptiness is almost beyond comprehension, but there seems to be an audience for such brainless actioners out there.

much of Killer Elite is flummoxed by its own make-up

[It] purports to be based on actual events, chronicling the sinister machinations of a shadowy military organization. But this clumsy action movie feels too generic to be real.

grunt grunt grunt *glower* [insert mockney swearing] bash crash punch kick [insert closeup of unshaven stubble]

Killer Elite has plenty of killing, but the only thing elite about it is the cast.

Look closer at Killer Elite, and you'll see an inky portrait of a world that has lost all moral compass. That's stronger stuff than most action thrillers give you.

Isn't a terribly convincing movie, and while it's difficult to take lightly, it's best to approach the picture as a brainless creation out to quicken pulses. Accepting any of this as serious business is only going to lead to a headache.

A mess from the bottom up.