Killer Elite (2011)

I didn't remember a lot of this movie.  That's the only reason I re-watched it on the server.  I have to say, I enjoyed it a bit more the second time around than the first.  I guess because my expectations were drastically lowered.  I know this is based on a true story, but I would really like to see the origin movie for Hunter and Danny's friendship.  I think that would be super-entertaining.  Originally posted 9/26/11.    The trailer for this movie is seriously misleading.  It makes you think that Clive Owen is the one who kidnaps Robert De Niro.  Not the case.

After a job in Mexico goes horribly awry, Danny Bryce (Jason Statham) retires from the life of killing people for money to live in Middle-of-Nowhere Australia.  His retirement is interrupted when he learns that his mentor/friend Hunter (De Niro) is being held for ransom in Oman.  A dying sheik (Rodney Afif) is offering a $6M payout on the SAS members responsible for killing his first three sons.  Hunter took the money and ran, hence his incarceration.  Now Danny must step in and locate these men, videotape a confession, and kill them with the help of his team (Dominic Purcell and Aden Young).  Thing is, the British powers-that-be really don't want their involvement in the Omani civil war to be big news so they get ex-SAS soldier Spike (Clive Owen) to hunt the hunters, as it were.

Call me an insulated American but I didn't even know Oman had a civil war, much less that the British sent in some special ops guys all hush-hush.  Now I'm interested so I'll probably end up getting the source book, The Feathermen by Ranulph Fiennes.  We'll see how much stranger truth is from fiction.

As an action movie, this is strictly middle-of-the-road.  No real surprises, no stand-out moments, but a solid film.  It dragged a bit, especially with the requisite love interest scenes.  Seriously, what is the point of having a smokin' hot chick like Yvonne Strahovski in your film if you're going to make her a wet blanket with terrible fashion sense?
  Why would you hide that?

Anyway, it was nice to hear her real accent for once but other than that, her character served no purpose.

Dominic Purcell really surprised me.  I would have laid money that he couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag but he did a pretty good job.

I won't be owning this one but it would be a decent rental for a rainy day.