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.
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.