A film starring Jason Statham called Killer Elite really should just be senseless violence, which is actually one of my three favorite genres – along with dance movies and Christmas-themed romantic dramas. That’s actually true.
Another reason for my confusion about what this film actually was is the appearance of Dominic Purcell in a major role. In case you’re unsure who that is, he was the big, stupid guy in Prison Break. These two titans of thespianism aside, there’s actually a strong cast that includes Clive Owen, Bobby de Niro, and Ben Mendelsohn – again, you might not be aware of the name, but you’ll know who he is as he’s been in every major movie released over the last seven or eight years.
He’s this guy
This guy
This guy
This guy
This guy
This guy
This guy
I’ll stop.
On the whole, Killer Elite is a decent movie and definitely not the shit I was expecting… apart from a couple of great lines. One was delivered by an upper-class English guy saying:
You can call me mfwic … motherfucker what’s in charge.
I’m not sure how that reads, but hearing it made me so very proud to be English. There was also this exchange between Statham and his assassin company agent:
Statham: I’m done with killing.
Agent: Yeah? Well, maybe killing ain’t done with you.
Change “killing” to “boxing” or even “pain”, and that’s straight out of a Rocky movie.
There was one more thing about Killer Elite that got me thinking about movie shit: every time Statham got on a plane, he had memories of his girlfriend? wife? dead wife? Let’s go with romantic partner. Anyway, I couldn’t help wondering why stories like this haven’t been made from the other other perspective.
Imagine if there was a romantic drama featuring honest country gal Meg (Rachel Leigh Cook?) – she’s a hopeless romantic, but she’s been hurt before and is wary of making another mistake – and mysterious new arrival in town Greg (Statham, obviously) – he says he’s looking for a peaceful life and a new start, but what’s he running from?
It’s death. He’s running from death… and possibly the evil assassins he crossed when he refused to shoot that child in the face on his last job.
At first, their romance goes well. Greg helps Meg on her farm – he’s surprisingly good at butchering meat to get it ready for market, and he even woke up early one morning to fix a tractor that hadn’t run in years. Meg starts to feel like she can open up to him, but she also wonders whether she’ll ever be able to break down his barriers and get him to talk about his past.
There’ll be lots of scenes of them laughing and joking, but they’ll all end with him getting quiet and just staring off into the distance until she decides to give up and walk away. She’ll also lie awake at night sometimes wondering why he won’t tell her about the cuts, bruises, burns, deep gashes, and broken ribs he gets whenever he goes away on business.
I don’t know why that movie hasn’t been made. It would be amazing. As for Killer Elite… yeah, it’s decent. ☆☆☆
hooked on shit movies 