Last night I saw the newest Statham movie, and I have to say I was surprised. Not at all what I was expecting. In the trailer (which we talked about in June) we heard ’80s rock and got lots of punching and shooting and all around violent types of imagery. So naturally I expected your general type of Statham movie. However, we were rewarded with something even better (Well, depending on your mood), a real movie with an actual plot.

Taking place in 1980, Killer Elite revolves around the desired redemption of the disgraced Sheikh Amr. For Amr to gain said redemption and lift his exile to return home, the men who murdered his 3 sons must confess and be killed themselves. That seems straight forward enough, but where the twist comes in, and what seemed to confuse others in the audience, was just how exactly Jason Statham gets sucked into this vendetta. And as it turns out, it’s all a result of multiple betrayals, as well as his own loyalty.

From the trailer it looks like a movie full of Statham vs. Owen, but in truth they are little more than pawns, neither really knowing the real reason they are there. And that reason is something I don’t really want to give away, because I’m gonna go ahead and recommend  you see this movie, so I don’t want to ruin anything. I can say this though – the trailer is not the most accurate representation of a movie that I’ve seen.

The vague overview: De Niro takes the job from the Sheikh blindly, and then upon learning further details tries to back out. This doesn’t go over well with the powers that be, so old Bobby D is held captive. This forces his old friend (the Stath) to end his freshly begun retirement, and complete the job in exchange for De Niro’s release. Statham puts together a team and proceeds to hunt down the men responsible – all Ex-SAS officers that were under orders at the time of their crimes.

Enter Clive Owen, an ex-SAS soldier in his own right, acting out on the behalf of ‘The Feathermen’, a much older group of retired SAS. He’s looking to stop Statham, and in the background is all sorts of politicking our principles don’t know about.

Overall I found the movie quite enjoyable, though if I had to nitpick there is one thing that bugged me, which was the camera work during the fight scenes. So of Director Gary McKendry I might ask that next time – pan out. The super fast extreme closeup angles during the  action scenes make it hard to see the action. But that’s really about it. I liked the movie more than expected. DeNiro had a scene so badass the audience cheered, ‘Mr. MFWIC’ – [Mother F–ker Whats In Charge] was amusing, and Dominic Purcell‘s mustache was too awesome to criticize. I went to see a mindless action movie and instead got an action movie that actually stimulated the brain as well…

I’ll give it a 4/5 Bears. Booyah.

Also, for the Chuck fans out there, I should mention that Statham’s girl is played by Yvonne Strahovski…