Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

romanorum1 There are two items of note at the film's beginning. The first point is "An interview with Laurence Weyburn of ComTeg . . . September 31, 1975." September has 31 days? Really? Maybe in Caesar's day, but Emperor Augustus altered his calendar. The other item is "There is no company called Community Integrity NOR ComTeg and the thought that the CIA might employ such an organization for any purpose is, of course, preposterous." Thus states Director Sam Peckinpah. Of course he is tugging our chains.In the opening scene of the film several men barely escape a building that they rigged to explode; we are never told why they did so. But we learn early on that ComTeg is a private intelligence agency hired by the CIA to protect certain individuals and to conduct nebulous operations. ComTeg, which earns 11% its gross from the CIA, is run by Laurence Weyburn (Gig Young). Belonging to ComTeg are agents Mike Locken (James Caan) and George Hansen (Robert Duvall). They bring a bearded fellow named Vorodny to a hideout for safekeeping. Within a few minutes Hansen pulls out his pistol and blows out Vorodny's brains; right after he shoots Locken in his left elbow and in his left knee. "You just retired, Mike. Enjoy it," utters Hansen. So ends the first part: the double-cross. The next piece, about a half-hour or so, focuses on Locken's emergency hospital operations and recuperation, and also during that recovery his budding attachment with a nurse. Locken has vowed to get well enough to return to his old job; his bosses have doubts. During his convalescence he discovers the martial arts. While this state of affairs is going there is an intercut. We see a separate, failed ninja attempt to assassinate an Asian dissident at San Francisco International Airport.Along the way we are introduced to Cap Collis (Arthur Hill), a perfidious figure who is the field boss of top honcho Weyburn. Collis approaches the reasonably recovered Locken to get him back to ComTeg business. Locken eagerly agrees. Plus he is itching to track down and get even with his former buddy, Hansen. Weyburn tells Collis that Locken has permission to assemble his own team as a subcontractor to ComTeg. Meanwhile the CIA wants to protect Chinese dissident Yuen Chung (Mako) while he is in the USA. Once Chung leaves America, then he is on his own. Weyburn then gets the contract for ComTeg from the CIA, and gives the assignment to Locken. Locken gathers two former compatriots, Mac (Burt Young) and Miller (Bo Hopkins); the former is described as retired, the latter, as crazy.Now the story takes a serpentine turn, to say the least. In a strip joint, Cap Collis meets with both the leading Asian ninja, Tao Yi (Woo) and with Hansen to take out Chung. Yes, you read that correctly. Not only does Hansen still work for ComTeg, but ComTeg has been contracted to assassinate Chung. And to protect him at the same time! Whew!!! The director seems to recognize this dichotomy, for he has Hansen utter to Collis, "That's your style, Cap, setting people against each other." Maybe Collis has sold out to the same high bidder that lured Hansen. But how can Hansen still work for ComTeg? And why does ComTeg obviously spend big money for both assignments? Convoluted? You bet! Anyway, there is a Chinatown shootout where Locken, Mac, Miller, and Chung in Mac's hopped-up fake taxi escape from assassins, including Hansen and a false cop. After that there is a bomb removal scene from underneath the taxi that is nothing less than pretentious. Does anyone believe that a cop will readily accept a greasy, ticking time bomb in his hand from a stranger? This segment may be atypical Peckinpah, but it is ludicrous. In the last part the adversaries are martial arts fighting on the decks of the large US Navy Mothball Fleet that lies in Suisun Bay. But it is not Locken's bullet that finds its way to Hansen.San Francisco locations are used to good advantage, like the Golden Gate Bridge, Embarcadero Waterfront, Chinatown, and Bethlehem Steel Pier. James Caan and Robert Duvall are reunited from their "Godfather" days. Then, Caan as Sonny Corleone and Duvall as Tom Hagen were on the same side. Overall the acting is generally passable, while the violence is a bit toned down for Peckinpah. But the movie is good only in parts, and is way too long. Frankly the feature is just too complicated for many, and the betrayals are overdone. And yet the movie is watchable.

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.

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.

sc8031 Here's a Peckinpah movie that starts out really good but falls apart in the last third. It's a story about high-level contract killers and mercenaries hired out in secret by the CIA. The story investigates the friendship between Mike Locken (James Caan) and George Hansen (Robert Duvall), two of the high-class mercenaries working to protect VIPs and radical international diplomats.The early character development is good, the dialog and accents are all pretty enjoyable on the ears, the camaraderie between the mercenaries is fun to watch (you don't see chemistry like this in action movies anymore!) and the action scenes -- as expected of Peckinpah -- are intense and well thought-out.There is a considerable amount of hand-to-hand combat on display here. Some of the dojo scenes with Karate/Judo stuff are not bad, but not totally amazing either. It's cool that Peckinpah wanted to include this stuff, but why would high level secret operatives train in Gendai (modern, sportified, public, organized) Japanese martial arts? I thought that was pretty hokey.And then we have the real problem: later in the film the bad guys are a bunch of ninjas. Ninjas, huh? I understand that the movie is kinda tongue-in-cheek and is about unrealistically tough contract killers and so forth, but the cheesy ninja costumes and the poorly choreographed fight scenes with them (not to mention the abstract and borderline offensive duel regarding "honor") instantly date this movie and make it something of a novelty.Peckinpah had serious substance abuse problems at this point and maybe that's what causes the weird pacing. Had this movie been shorter and ended at the end of the second third with a more concise message, it would've been pretty solid. It also could've developed some of the supporting characters more than it did.Still, there are some pretty good things to be found here. Really good action scenes, some memorable characters and dialog, and some decent commentary on corrupt power-players who run politics and business. It's just too bad everyone involved seems to be on autopilot.