Killer Elite

Directed by Gary McKendry

(R)

*

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

“Loaded with careening car chases and rooftop runs, glass-shattering shoot-outs and exploding fireballs, Killer Elite offers more than enough to keep action junkies happy,” said Steven Rea in The Philadelphia Inquirer. But if you’re a movie­goer who expects “a good line of dialogue or two” with your screen mayhem, “look elsewhere.” Jason Statham stars as an ex–Navy SEAL who’s trying to free his kidnapped mentor (Robert De Niro) while being pursued by a rogue agent (Clive Owen). Statham and Owen do fine work, but there are probably better uses for them than to “throw them into a blur of grappling, grunting head-bashing,” said Stephanie Zacharek in Movieline.com. De Niro fares somewhat better in his roughly 15 minutes on screen, unleashing “his crazy twinkle” to good effect. But “warmed-over clichés, flat dialogue, and a sour outlook” doom the actors’ efforts, said Rafer Guzmán in Newsday. Despite the cast’s talent, you never feel anything for the characters they’re playing. Apparently, “even a mindless action flick needs to have a heart.”