Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Brooklynn There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

a_chinn Lesser Sam Peckinpah film is still solid entertainment, even if it's nowhere close to his artful masterpieces of "The Wild Bunch," "Straw Dogs," or "Ride the High Country." James Caan plays an off-the-books CIA/black ops type who's double crossed by his partner, Robert Duvall, and left crippled. Caan goes through arduous physical therapy and learns martial arts and how to fight with his new cane in order to enact his revenge on Duvall and the organization that's abandoned him. Although this film does have it's defenders, "The Killer Elite" is pure surface level entertainment. When Peckinpah was asked how he prepared for this film, he said he watched a bunch of Bruce Lee movies, which is a pretty good indication he wasn't focused on his usual themes of men-out-of-time, masculinity, and violence. However, Sam Peckinpah knows his way around an action sequence better than most and he delivers a number of exiting shootouts. The martial arts sequences are admittedly not as good as his shootouts, but Peckinpah's use of slow potion and montage during those scenes is interesting none-the-less. The shootouts though are, as you would expect, a knockout! Overall, this story isn't all that clever or interesting, but thanks to the talents of the director, the action here was more than enough to hold my interest. FUN FACT! Monte Hellman is credited as casting the film.

addictedtofilm Still, better than so many other pretentious attempts.Peckinpah still made one more masterpiece after this film (Iron Cross) and one more eclectic trash (Osterman Weekend).Killer Elite is full of moral preaching before SPOILER the last showdown on the ship. Bo Hopkins (as Jerome Miller) and James Caan (as Mike Locken) exchange bursts of criticism of CIA, and they can't hide that they were being bored. But Peckinpah was tired. Plot wasn't plausible enough. Even self-parodying of the great scene from Wild Bunch (rifles on the roof) only reveals boredom and lack of new ideas.The best moments in the film we owe to Bo Hopkins (pity SPOILER OF AN ANOTHER FILM he had to die in so early stage of "Wild Bunch"!), and the highlight of the film is hilarious dialog on the bridge between Mike Locken (James Caan) and Jerome Miller (Bo Hopkins), when a policeman stops their car, full of explosives and weapons. They are waiting the clumsy police officer who might search the vehicle, and James Caan asks Bo Hopkins what he's got in the car. "Bombs, detonators, shotguns, ammunition...", answers Bo Hopkins. James Caan then asks: "Is there in this car that can't mutilate, murder or blow people in explosion?" Bo Hopkins answers with an insane smile: "Everything is lethal" Even editing of the final showdown is slower then usual for Peckinpah.A glimpse of a talent we can see in the scene of disabled Mike Locken, when he tries Chinese tai chi exercises and the subsequent rejection of his former CIA superiors. Nice touch of 1970's, anyways.

Bill Slocum The problem with "The Killer Elite" is that just by seeking this film out, and investing time to watch it, you are putting more effort into the experience than many of its principals did, particularly director Sam Peckinpah.The already volatile Peckinpah was heading into rough weather with this film. According to at least one biographer, this was where he became acquainted with cocaine. Add to that his binge drinking, and it's no wonder things fell apart.It's a shame, because the concept behind the film is a good one, and the first ten minutes promise much. Mike Locken (James Caan) and George Hansen (Robert Duvall) are private contractors who do a lot of dirty work for the CIA. They move quick, live well, and seem like the best of friends - then something happens to shatter their brotherhood.An opening scene shows them blowing up a building - why exactly we aren't told, par for the course in terms of this film's murky motivation. But the implication is these guys hurt people and don't really care - antiheroes much like the Wild Bunch of Peckinpah's not-so-long-ago. An opening title tells us they work for ComTeg, then adds with obvious tongue in cheek "...the thought the CIA might employ such an organization for any purpose is, of course, preposterous." That's a pretty clever way of letting the audience know all bets are off.Add to that a traditionally strong Peckinpah backup cast, including Burt Young, Gig Young, and Peckinpah regular Bo Hopkins in the plum role of a madman who can't pass up an opportunity to be shot at for $500 a day, and you only wish that the scriptwriters, including the celebrated Sterling Silliphant, tried to do something more with the story than turn it into a platform for lazy one-liners and bad chop-socky knockoffs. An attempt at injecting a dose of liberal social commentary is awkwardly shoehorned in. "You're so busy doing their dirty work, you can't tell who the bad guys are," someone tells Locken, as if either he or we need it pointed out.Worse still are Peckinpah's clumsy direction and sluggish pacing. We're 40 minutes into the film before we get our first battle scene, a completely chaotic collection of random shots where a bunch of people we haven't even met before are seen fighting at San Francisco Airport, their battle intercut with a conversation in an office suite.By the end of the film, what's left of the cast is having a battle inside a fleet of mothballed Victory Ships, ninjas running out in the open to be gunned down while Caan tosses off one liners that undercut any hint of real suspense. "Lay me seven-to-five, I'll take the little guy," he wisecracks just before a climatic samurai duel between two ninja warriors - from China, which we all know is the land of the Ninja. (The battle takes place in San Francisco, but surprisingly no Mounties arrive to break things up.)Caan is much better in smaller scenes, like when Locken, recovering from some nasty injuries, is told by one of his bosses, played by a smooth Arthur Hill, that he's been "Humpty-dumped" by the organization. Caan refuses to stay down, and his recovery scenes, though momentum-killing for the movie, feature fine acting from him and Amy Heflin, Van's daughter, as a supportive nurse. Caan was one of the 1970s' best actors, and his laconic byplay with Heflin, Duvall, Hopkins, and both Youngs give "Killer Elite" real watchability.But you don't watch "Killer Elite" thinking about that. You watch it thinking of the film that got away.

JasparLamarCrabb Certainly director Sam Peckinhpah's most efficient work (even leaner and more direct than THE GETAWAY). James Caan and Robert Duvall are contract killers for some shady government organization. Their friendship goes awry when Duvall turns on Caan and leaves him for dead. A game of cat and mouse ensues as Caan rehabilitates and seeks revenge. It's violent, suspenseful and full of a lot of great set pieces (front and center is an ambush on the tarmac of an airport as a visiting bigwig is nearly assassinated). Caan and Duvall have great chemistry and the supporting cast is terrific: Arthur Hill, Gig Young, Mako, and Bo Hopkins as one of Caan's assistants.