The Killer Elite (test screening review)

I was invited to a ‘test screening’ of ‘The Killer Elite’ back in March. This is such a long, long time ago in history. It was put on by the Nielson Company (the people who also do the television ratings). I was told that the screening was a ‘major action film’, but they gave no indication as to the title of the movie or who was in it. There was a paper to sign before the screening that ‘UNDER PENELTY OF DEATH’, the test screener could not reveal anything about the movie, or the title or who was in it or anything. Well maybe it was not the death penalty, but they did seem pretty adamant about not saying anything.

There was also a double-sided sheet of paper afterwards with a huge array of questions. Rate this star in this role. Did the music fit in this part? Was the plot understandable? Did the action sequences move quickly enough? Did you have enough butter flavoring on your popcorn? Ya know, the important questions…

So ‘The Killer Elite’ is based on a book called ‘The Feather Men’. This is a term for a group of super elite British SAS (Special Air Services). This group can carry out dirty work such as assassinations without disturbing a feather. The movie is about the ‘Feather Men’ who are retired and keep some ties with the spy world and other underground groups.

Danny (Jason Statham) and his partner Hunter (Robert DeNiro) are with the CIA. They are various missions where Hunter is teaching Danny the tricks of the trade. Hunter gets kidnapped and Danny comes out of semi-retirement to save him. There is an Arab sheik who has his sons killed by the SAS. Danny must track down the SAS members and kill each of them who were responsible for the three deaths.. Hunter tells Danny not to do it, because it will be a suicide mission. Also, the deaths must look like accidents and each SAS guy must tape a ‘confession’ before they are killed.

Danny has some contacts from his CIA days, so he gets a’crackin’ on his business. He and his team track down one of the SAS guys and eliminate him. It is made to look like (almost) an accident. When the second SAS guy gets taken out, the ‘Feather Men’ know that something is afoot. They send Spike (Clive Owen with the word’s worst mustache) in to investigate what has been happening to his fellow SAS.

There is a bit of cat and mouse played back and forth between Danny and Spike. Then at one point, they meet and there is a standoff with a mad chase and a fight that ends only when Danny leas out of a window still bound to a chair. There is more action then plot in this movie, but it movie at a decent clip. Danny goes back and forth between England and Australia, with some stops in Oman and other side trips here and there.

From the other review that I have read on this movie, they have done some editing on the sequence and of the placement of some of the screens. The version that I saw began in Australia, where Danny had ‘retired’. It seems that the final release goes back to an earlier time, when Danny and Hunter were on a mission to Mexico. They were there to do something to a drug lord or whatever. It was just to show that Hunter and Danny worked together and were close. In the ‘test screening’ version, it was not as clear.

This is another Jason Statham ‘major action movie’. Yes it has Robert DeNiro, bt he plays a very subdued part (being kidnapped and all). Clive Owen is good and he can play a very tough and brutal bad guy who may or may not be all bad. Statham’s role is dressed up with a (somewhat) love interest, but it is not as convincing as the rough and tumble action work that he does.

One other very interesting aspect to the movie, or I should say the book on which the movie is based. The author of the book is Sir Randulph Fiennes, who is an ex-SAS agent. He is also related to his third-cousins, Ralph and Joseph Fiennes.