alexanderdavies-99382 "The Killer Elite" is a rather uneven film that contains some of the typical Peckinpah magic but the plot is the big drawback here. It seems to take a while for James Caan to catch up with Robert Duvall after what happens at the beginning. Then the plot includes unnecessary distractions that have nothing to do with anything. The action scenes compensate a lot and I do like the Kung Fu moments (though not in the league of Bruce Lee). The setting in being that of San Francisco, is a good idea. It makes from it being either New York or Los Angeles.

classicsoncall I got a laugh out of the film's opening disclaimer about how our government wouldn't resort to actually killing anyone in service to their agenda. Yeah, right. But just to make sure, the fictional agency involved with this one is called COMTEG, initials not standing for anything that I'm aware of, and it doesn't really matter anyway.Robert Duvall and James Caan could easily have been cast in each other's role here, but it appears Duvall got the short end of the script since he's not really in the picture very much at all after his character George Hansen goes rogue and takes out partner Mike Locken (Caan). Hansen should have known, and he probably did, that you never leave your target alive because of the potential repercussions. Those repercussions included Burt Young and Bo Hopkins teaming up with Locken following a relatively quick recuperation from a busted up knee and elbow.Once it was revealed that Locken's director at the agency was playing two sides, I began thinking about how a story like this could really get convoluted if even more folks in the chain of command were also so inclined. But with only Cap Collis (Arthur Hill) working both sides of the street, this story was just a little convoluted. Especially after the Japanese assassins went to work trying to take out Yuen Chung (Mako), while Miss Josephine (Sondra Blake) was fixated on calling anyone in the vicinity of Locken, Mr. Davis.Here's something that struck me. I never noticed it before, but Bo Hopkins as Miller had this uncanny resemblance to David Letterman. I liked Locken's description of him as the patron saint of manic depressives, though he managed to tick Locken off when he shot Hansen during a stand-off. But hey, the assassination game is a dirty job, and somebody had to do it.

mattbaxter72 I don't know about you, but I had certain expectations of a movie called 'The Killer Elite', starring two guys out of the Godfather and directed by the man who brought us The Wild Bunch and The Getaway. It's about spies! It's got 'killer' right there in the title! It's made in the 1970s, so you know there must be at least two car chases. Sure, this was made during the period when Peckinpah was single-handedly keeping several major pharmaceutical companies in business, but at least it couldn't be dull, right? Wrong. Oh, so very wrong. The Killer Elite is damn nearly incoherent, but that would be OK if the action sequences were any good. Or if anything, you know, happened for the first 50 minutes or so. Literally the only action during the first half of the movie is the sequence where one spy suddenly goes rogue, shoots the guy he's supposed to be protecting and his partner, and then buggers off. It's a good sequence, and one that lasts for maybe two minutes. The rest of the first half of the movie is given over to Caan and Duvall laughing uproariously at their own jokes, and the most gruelling depiction of physical therapy I've ever seen. Gruelling for the viewer as much as the guy going through it, because it seems to last approximately forever.By the time we got to the halfway mark, I was watching a poorly-defined character who I didn't care about, but who was certainly very, very horny. Other than that single trait, James Caan's playing a guy with no discernible characteristics at all. He is later joined by several other cardboard cut-outs, and we are treated to something that I thought was literally impossible, a boring car chase.Why is any of this happening? I don't know, and I really didn't care. The plot barely exists at all, everyone from the writers to the actors seem to be sleepwalking through the thing, and in a 110 minute movie you could cheerfully lose 100 minutes without getting rid of anything of importance.If schools are really serious about getting kids to avoid drugs, show them this movie and The Getaway back to back. One was made by someone before drugs took over his life. The other was made by the same guy, after narcotics had wrecked him. This is a hell of a mess of a movie. And not in a good way.

TedMichaelMor Okay, the story makes no sense, the characters lack any dimensionally, the best dialogue is ad-libs about the low quality of this excuse of a movie, the cinematography is dismal, and only editing saves a bit of the muddle,but Sam" Peckinpah directed the film. Somehow, his direction is not enough. For those who appreciate Peckinpah and his great work, this movie is a disappointment. Even a great cast cannot redeem the time the viewer wastes with this minimal effort.The proper response to the movie is the contempt that the director San Peckinpah, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Burt Young, Bo Hopkins, Arthur Hill, and even Gig Young bring to their work. Watch the great Peckinpah films. Skip this mess.