Fridae

Perhaps the only action star left standing these days, Jason Statham is a fixture in any cinema chain. It seems hardly a month goes by without Mr Statham showing up on screen somewhere in a cinema near you. Sadly, given the paucity of production talent in the old school action film genre that Mr Statham has developed a taste for starring in, you’re more likely to remember that you’ve just watched a very generic "Jason Statham action vehicle" than an action film with some amount of B-movie merit to its name.

Killer Elite promises to deliver more than just your usual Jason Statham action mayhem. Adapted from a tell-all book about the British SAS and its black ops and dirty wars in the Middle East in the 1980s, Jason Statham stars as an assassin hired by a vengeful sheikh who wants to see the SAS men who murdered his sons admit to their crimes before they die, and before he himself passes away of old age.

Sure, this is yet another film where Statham plays yet another assassin but for once, he has actual co-stars in Robert De Niro and Clive Owen. De Niro plays Statham’s grizzled mentor while Clive Owen plays an ex-SAS soldier who is called in to investigate the assassinations of his former colleagues. Their acting chops and charisma all but guarantee this film won’t feel like any other Statham action film. The screenplay pits these three men against each other but unlike other generic action films, their urge to go at each other’s throats is strictly business – an outcome of professional interaction between a hired assassin and a former soldier tasked to protect his targets.

The direction of Killer Elite is itself remarkable. The film is set in the 80s, employs the budget and penchant of 90s action films for explosive sequences, and is shot in the style of 70s noir pieces. If you have room for just one Jason Statham action film this year, make it Killer Elite.