Tag: Jason Statham

Review: A Working Man

Over the last decade or so, actor Jason Statham and director David Ayer have each carved out their own distinct legacies. Statham has built a career on playing relentless, no-nonsense tough guys waging one-man wars on wrongdoers, while Ayer has made a name for himself with gritty crime films featuring characters brooding with guns pointed in different directions. It was only a matter of time before their paths crossed.

Following their first collaboration on The Beekeeper, Statham here plays Levon Cade, a widowed, former military badass now going straight with a construction job. He struggles to make ends meet for his young daughter, whose grandfather wants to legally separate her from his influence. But when Jenny (Arianna Rivas), the college-aged daughter of Levon’s boss (Michael Peña), is randomly kidnapped by Russian human traffickers, Levon is drawn back into his old life of violence.

Based on the books by Chuck Dixon and with a screenplay penned by Ayer and Sylvester Stallone, A WORKING MAN wastes no time getting down to brass tacks. Taking a page from every revenge-rescue thriller in living memory, Statham gets to spread his particular set of skills across the screen at regular intervals. Each excruciating torture scene, fistfight, or shootout serves to reinforce Levon’s (and by extension, Statham’s) physical supremacy. The constant cutaways to his child provide the requisite moral high ground.

Ayer paints on a splashy, almost cartoonish canvas. Mobsters are rendered in broad strokes—Dimi (Maximilian Osinski), a high-ranking Russian boss, looks like a cross between a French duke and Nandor the Relentless from What We Do in the Shadows. Biker Dutch (Chidi Ajufo) lounges on a throne of skulls in the back of a roadhouse bar.

Yet somehow, it all fuses into a momentum-driven, occasionally stylish action flick. Every quip and taciturn mugshot drew giggles from the audience—equal parts affectionate mockery and knowing appreciation. We know exactly what we’re getting into, and on that level, it doesn’t disappoint.

As it builds to its chaotic final showdown—a reverse siege packed with bikers and shiny, long-coated henchmen—you can’t help but think of the gloriously excessive ‘90s action thrillers that threw everything at the screen. Instead of taking one thing off before leaving the house, A WORKING MAN straps on a few more clips and punches the mirror in the nose.

While never destined to revolutionise the genre, Ayer and Stallone have struck upon a reliable formula in a ready-made franchise package. One could happily consume these like fast food every couple of years, safe in the knowledge that there’s always another job for this working man right around the corner.

2025 | USA | DIRECTOR: David Ayer | WRITER: Sylvester Stallone, David Ayer (Based on the book Levon’s Trade by Chuck Dixon) | CAST: Jason Statham, Michael Peña, David Harbour, Arianna Rivas | DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros. (Australia), Amazon/MGM (US) | RUNNING TIME: 116 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 27 March 2025 (Australia), 28 March 2025 (USA)

March 27, 2025
Review: Fast X

Sometimes we need a reminder that these films used to be about boosting DVD players in Los Angeles. In FAST X, the eleventh series outing since the 2001 kick-off, director Louis Leterrier, along with screenwriters Dan Mazeau and Justin Lin, take pains to reiterate this for the audience. Or just let us know they are in on the insanity of it all.

Indeed, after a cold open that takes us back to the glorious vault chase sequence of Fast Five in Rio de Janeiro, it’s LA where we set our scene. Dom (Vin Diesel) and his family are settling into suburban bliss, but no quicker than you can say “and introducing Rita Moreno as abuelita” then they are off on another adventure for the Agency.

Yet all are deceived. Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa) seeks revenge for the death of his father in Rio, and is manipulating the family to cause maximum damage. Separated and disgraced, it’s a fight for survival, with a fair bit of driving thrown in for good measure.

Let’s be honest: at this point you’re either all in or it’s not your cup of tea. With our critical radars set to off, what we really want to see is some fast-driving action, some stuff blowing up, and impossible stunts. Given that nobody seems to be able to die in these movies, the stakes are never terribly high, meaning we can happily watch the destruction of a city safe in the knowledge it’s all in the name of our immediate gratification.

Pinging from location to location, the film clocks up its frequent flyer points via splashy title cards for Naples, London, Rio de Janeiro, Portugal, and even Antarctica – sometimes all in the space of ten minutes. The centrepiece sequence is a massive chase across the streets of Rome, with the McGuffin of a large rolling bomb causing chaos and thrills in equal measure. Acting as a microcosm for the series as a whole, and consciously referencing previous films, it’s big and dumb but unquestionably fun.

Yes, it’s very much sturm und drang, but it’s held together by one of the best villains to date. Momoa, dressed to the nines in lavender, laughs maniacally as he takes repeated punches to the face. As an agent of chaos, he’s every bit a comic book arch-nemesis, and precisely the antidote to the stone-faced seriousness of Diesel. (A friend described him as The Joker to Diesel’s Batman, and it’s hard to unsee that – even if they’ll always be Aquaman and Groot). That said, essays could be written on the whether this queer coded character is problematic as a villain.

He’s not the only recognisable face, of course. There are cameos from just about everyone who ever set foot on Universal’s backlot, and it scarcely seems to matter whether they are canonically dead in the series. Helen Mirren, Brie Larson, Jason Statham, and Charlize Theron are all in the mix. Hell, even Australian news reporter There’s so many people, in fact, that it sometimes feels like they’re all operating in separate films. So, you know we’re all waiting for Diesel to yell ‘Family! Assemble’ at some point.

That said, if you’re expecting any kind of resolution, or family-focused barbeque time, to round out this entry then you can forget it. It’s probably no spoiler at this stage in the release cycle to say that this is Part 1 of a bigger story. Which is just fine and dandy with us. Even if we ultimately get diminishing returns on this series, it’s still a hell of a ride every time.

2023 | USA | DIRECTOR: Louis Leterrier | WRITERS: Dan Mazeau and Justin Lin | CAST: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, John Cena, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Scott Eastwood, Daniela Melchior, Alan Ritchson, Helen Mirren, Brie Larson, Rita Moreno, Jason Statham, Jason Momoa, Charlize Theron | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures | RUNNING TIME: 141 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 19 May 2023 (AUS), 5 May 2023 (USA)

May 31, 2023
Review: Wrath of Man

It’s fair to say that anybody going into WRATH OF MAN expecting a ‘typical’ Guy Ritchie joint may be disappointed. Which is to say that it’s been years since his oeuvre could have the word ‘typical’ applied to it. From Doyle-inspired action to epic fantasy and Disney musicals, Ritchie has defied classification. Still, you’re on fairly safe ground if you reckon some geezer is going to get the jam knocked out of his donut by the end of this picture, innit?

Loosely based on the 2004 French film Cash Truck, Ritchie’s screenplay (co-written with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies) transplants the action to Los Angeles. Following the death of two cash truck drivers at the hands of an organised gang, Harry (Jason Statham) — dubbed “H” by his new boss Bullet (Holt McCallany) — is hired by the freshly militarised company. Seen as a dark horse by some, H’s downplayed skillset hints at a grander plan.

Which is what the majority of this film spends its time doing. In between the punchy action sequences, following the mould of the modern heist genre, Ritchie’s film leaps back and forth through time with copious exposition. Punctuated by intriguing title cards (such as ‘Scorched Earth’ and ‘Bad Animals, Bad’) and giant FIVE MONTHS LATER text splashed across the screen, the non-linear construction gets a little tangled in its own conceit. There were moments when I wasn’t sure if I was THREE WEEKS LATER from the FIVE MONTHS EARLIER or we’d gone ahead in time.

Yet none of this scarcely matters when the set-piece action sequences — set to thumping bass-filled tracks (including a very effective use of Johnny Cash’s ‘Folsom Prison Blues’) — take over the screen. Or to paraphrase H, when the film just worries about putting its arsehole back in its arsehole. The tonally (and surprisingly) dark film is more sturm und drang than lock and stock, and this can at times feel oppressive, especially in the film’s chaotic final act.

As the film continues to cut back and forth through time, about the only nod to Ritchie’s earlier work are the hyperlinked network of characters with names like Hollow Bob and Boy Sweat Dave (Josh Hartnett). We never really get to know any of these cardboard cutout characters beyond Statham’s H. The problem is compounded with every time jump, as a new layer of exposition is added to the film that requires a new round of explanations from all and sundry. At its worst, the entire climactic action sequence — which is fairly intense in its own right — is constantly interrupted with flashbacks to the planning of the scenes we’re already watching.

Despite WRATH OF MAN’s surface trickery, all the moving parts basically coalesce into some dudes killing some other dudes. It’s an otherwise straightforward heist-cum-revenge picture with multiple shades from its many predecessors, from The Italian Job to the obvious comparisons this will get with Heat.

2021 | USA/UK | DIRECTOR: Guy Ritchie | WRITERS: Guy Ritchie, Ivan Atkinson, Marn Davies | CAST: Jason Statham, Holt McCallany, Jeffrey Donovan, Josh Hartnett, Laz Alonso, Raúl Castillo, DeObia Oparei, Eddie Marsan, Scott Eastwood | DISTRIBUTOR: Studio Canal (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 119 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 29 April 2021 (AUS)

May 2, 2021
Review: Hobbs and Shaw

There’s a rumour going around that the Fast & Furious franchise is headed into space. For a series that started with dudes street racing in LA, this seems like a leap: but lest we forget that The Fate of the Furious saw The Rock redirect a torpedo with his bare hands. If the series is headed for the atmosphere, HOBBS & SHAW might just be the launchpad.

After MI6 agent Hattie Shaw (Vanessa Kirby) attempts to deliver a virus McGuffin, she is stopped and framed by the superhuman Brixton (Idris Elba). Federal agent Luke Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) and mercenary Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) are activated by their respective people, and they must put aside their manly differences and learn to be fighty together.

In order to accept HOBBS & SHAW, you must come to terms with the fact that it doesn’t play by any rules of cinema or logic. You must accept that the franchise now has legitimate genetically engineered super villains. You must accept that the Samoans are so powerful, they can destroy a mercenary army with traditional weapons. You must also accept that the 52 year-old Statham and the 31 year-old Kirby grew up together as kids.

Operating on the simple premise of escalation, the entire film can be summed up by the pancakes The Rock consumes early in the film. They are oversized, completely unnecessary, and you know there’s still a whole lot of syrup to come. From brutal hand-to-hand moments to the more ridiculous car-versus-aircraft sequences we’ve come to expect, no sink is left out.

Designed completely to be a Rock and Statham delivery device, Deadpool 2 and Atomic Blonde director David Leitch relies on the charismatic presence of these two stars, with cameos from the likes of Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Hart, Eddie Marsan, Eiza González, and Helen Mirren adding to the insanity.

This is probably the point in the review where one would talk about technical aspects of the film, point to a few key action sequences, and highlight the amazing special effects. All of which are top-notch, of course, but that scarcely matters when the enjoyment to be had is in the sheer ticking clock momentum of one chase after the next. Even trying to explain the physics of Elba leaping onto a horizontal motorbike would be folly.

It’s clear from the multiple mid and post-credits scenes that there are plans afoot for multiple sequels with an overarching villain. I say bring it on! Multiple trucks, a heavy duty chain, and a fully armed helicopter can’t tear The Rock apart. If this franchise is headed into space, we mortals are powerless to stop it.

2019 | US | DIR: David Leitch | WRITER: Chris Morgan, Drew Pearce| CAST: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Helen Mirren | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 136 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 1 August 2019 (AUS)

August 1, 2019
Review: The Fate of the Furious

In the opening scenes of THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS (or F8), a horse and cart appears amidst the frenetic energy of a drag race across Havana. That tiny anachronism is a metaphor for the previous seven Fast and the Furious films, each of which has steadily elevated the stakes to happily insane proportions. The latest entry in the bulletproof series is literally thousands of miles away from drag races on the streets of LA, but nevertheless makes perfect sense in the history of the franchise.

The tragic death of Paul Walker, the co-star of the majority of the series, has done little to slow down a sequel where the supporting characters are the story. Dom (Vin Diesel) and his wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) are honeymooning in Cuba when the mysterious Cipher (Charlize Theron) makes Dom an offer he can’t refuse. Turning his back on his family/team, including ally Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), his crew must unite with some old friends and foes to take on the one person they have no contingency plan against.

Even with a unnecessarily complicated set-up involving secret pasts and women and children in peril, each moment of the film is designed to outdo the last. The one-upmanship that director F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton) instills takes us from the Hulk-like Johnson smashing his way through a prison riot with Jason Statham, a car chase involving grappling hooks, and an attack on a Soviet era military base in the icy hinterlands. It’s magnificent in terms of raw action power, even if the escalating scenarios are just as likely to elicit chuckles of disbelief as they are roaring ovations.

It’s usually a cop-out to say that a blockbuster film is made for the fans, yet THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS systematically checks off boxes that will please the faithful. Dominic Toretto is never truly allowed to be seen as a ‘bad’ guy, but all the other familiar players (especially The Rock, Kurt Russell and Jason Statham) are all given solid hero arcs as well. The real joy comes in the interactions between Statham and Helen Mirren in a cockney-flavoured cameo that somehow gives the film all the legitimacy, sandwiched as she is between the retina-burning colours of the hotrods and the hypnotic jiggles of barely-covered butt cheeks.

THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS is ultimately impossible to criticise. Can we really argue that the submarine chasing a bright orange Lamborghini across the ice is a “step too far”? Indeed, one set-piece seems to be going for the record of most cars trashed since a Blues Brothers film, and as remote-controlled vehicles come pouring out of a building, there’s not a single thing we can say against its audacity. Whether its ogling the gorgeous cars, the unfeasibly large guns, or the semi-clad money-makers at the finish line, it’s hard to imagine the core audience will be anything less than thrilled. Bring on F9!

[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | US | DIR: F. Gary Gray | WRITER: Chris Morgan | CAST: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris Bridges, Nathalie Emmanuel, Kurt Russell, Scott Eastwood, Charlize Theron, Helen Mirren | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 136 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 12 April 2017 (AUS), 14 April 2017 (US) [/stextbox]

April 13, 2017
Review: The Expendables 2

The boys are back in town, and they’ve brought guns: lots of guns. Yet they also back some laughs and a healthy sense of self in their arsenal, making for one of the most enjoyable action outings in years.

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Director: Simon West

Writer: Richard Wenk, Sylvester Stallone

Runtime: 104 minutes

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Yu Nan

Distributor: Roadshow Films

Country: US

Rating (?): Better Than Average Bear (★★★½)

More info

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The idea behind The Expendables was genius in its simplicity. Led by Rambo himself, veteran action stars from the 1980s and 1990s were gathered together for the ultimate piece of fan-service, the largest collaboration of its kind since the opening of Planet Hollywood. You know their names: Stallone, Lundgren, Van Damme, Willis, Schwarzenegger. Between them, the jungles and deserts of the world would never be safe for the megalomaniacal despots or direct-to-video villains. These days, it seems that almost anybody can be an action hero, from former child star Christian Bale to Jude Law. Not content to let this less than manly behaviour slide, the original badasses return to bring pain to a whole new generation of henchmen. The first film was an old-school action extravaganza that knew its market and played to those strengths, yet sometimes sacrificed self-effacing laughs for bigger explosions. With The Expendables 2, writer/director Stallone knows his target audience a little bit more, and plays evenly to the fans and ironic viewers alike.

Led by Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), the mercenary team known as The Expendables are sent to Nepal with new recruit/sniper Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) to rescue a Chinese businessman. When they return, CIA operative Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) approaches them with a mission, claiming that they still owe him one for the events of the first film. Reluctantly saddled with technical expert Maggie (Yu Nan), their simple mission of picking up the contents of a safe inside of a downed plane goes south when the supercriminal Jean Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme) gets involved. This time, it’s personal.

If the original film could be faulted for a sometimes scattered story, sandwiching in a love sub-plot for Lee Christmas (Jason Statham) and the baffling presence of Mickey Rourke, The Expendables 2 is all about stripping it back to basics and more importantly, giving fans what they want. From the bombastic and superfluously explosive opening through to the inevitable showdown of a conclusion, Stallone and Richard Wenk’s basic screenplay rarely disappoints. The action set-pieces are flawlessly executed, including a particularly impressive sequence inside a period recreation of New York by way of the Soviets. Indeed, this sets the tone for the film, which in turn models itself on the best (and worst) of the 80s and 90s, taking ridiculously overblown action, cranking it up to eleven and winking at the audience in the process.

Where The Expendables 2 mostly succeeds is in this self-awareness, synthesising the last few years of pop-cultural discussion and web-based memes and effortlessly tipping their hats to them in the process. The highly publicised cameo of Chuck Norris, a cause for applause on its own, directly references the Chuck Norris Facts Internet meme, and Norris is in on the joke. Of course, there are no such things as Chuck Norris jokes, only Chuck Norris facts. Additionally, Chuck Norris once made a joke, and ten people died laughing. Yet The Expendables 2 should not be mistaken for simply being a plethora of gags, although there are countless references made to the catchphrases of the various stars right throughout the film. This is not a parody, and what Stallone and director Simon West has done instead is build a better mousetrap, combining all of the tropes we have laughed at over the years into something that is actually more than the sum of its parts.

The real joy of the film comes in seeing familiar faces back in the limelight, and the cause for the most elation is the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger. With the exception of his cameo in the first film, he has been absent from our screens for the better part of a decade, and the film is at its most comfortable when it is playing to his reputation. Arnie slides back into the fray without blinking, his taken-for-granted presence being one of the better running gags of The Expendables 2. In fact, if we don’t see a spin-off with Arnie and Bruce Willis as an action odd couple, then there is no justice in the world. Hitting the ground running, the franchise proves that age shall not weary them, especially with the wonders of modern cosmetic surgery. The boys keep it light until it gets dark: then they go pitch black.

The Expendables is released in Australia on 30 August 2012 from Roadshow Films.

August 29, 2012
Review: Safe

Jason Statham plays it safe in this uninspired action flick that steps straight out of the 1980s, ignoring thirty years worth of advances in narrative structure.

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Director: Boaz Yakin

Writer(s): Boaz Yakin

Runtime: 113 minutes

Starring: Jason Statham, Catherine Chan, Robert John Burke, James Hong, Chris Sarandon

Distributor: Icon

Country: US

Rating (?): Rental For Sure

More info

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If the name Boaz Yakin seems familiar, it is possible you need to start watching a better class of film. A veteran with only six directorial credits under his belt, he is better “known” for his writing. Going all the way back to The Punisher (1989), with a brief highlight of directorial debut Fresh (1994), his filmography is peppered with sequels and adaptations, including From Dusk Til Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999), Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights (2004) and the admittedly underrated Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010). Safe may be the culmination of that life’s work.

Abducted from her home in China after displaying brilliant math skills, Mei (Catherine Chan) is sent to work for the Triad in New York. She soon finds herself caught in a war between the Triad, the Russian mob and corrupt NYC cops when she is asked to commit an important number to memory. Temporarily escaping their custody, she is aided by ex-cage fighter Luke Wright (Jason Statham), who is now destitute thanks to the Russians.

Safe is a throwback to the kind of action films that haven’t been made in three decades, and reminds us that there is a reason for that. Not moving on from his fairly forgettable 1980s take on Marvel’s The Punisher, Yakin seems to have cherry-picked his favourite things from the decade, right down to the presence of veteran character actor James Hong (Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China) as a Chinese gangster. The simple character archetypes leave little room for ambiguity, with Statham unequivocally the Good Guy and the mob collectives are filled with very, very bad men. All other characters, from crooked cops to corrupt officials, are wholly familiar constructs. Statham might actually be one of the last action heroes, a relic of a cinema that treated its muscle men as gods, before unceremoniously dumping them direct to video and occasionally reunite them for the unabashedly retro The Expendables.

Not necessarily a bad film, Safe is an incredibly uninspired one. Yakin creates a vision of New York that only ever existed in the movies, and one that was only found on the cinematic mean streets of the 1970s and 1980s. While individual elements of action are well-staged, including a fist-fight on a train and a few car chases, they make all other elements seem perfunctory. Laughable dialogue is the type familiar to connoisseurs of the genre, but here Yakin seems to have gone the extra mile and equips Statham with as many lame puns as there are henchmen in the Big Apple. There was a solid action film in here somewhere, but having failed to achieve this in what feels like a first draft of a movie, Yakin may instead achieve cult status with an unintentional comedy.

Safe is released in Australia on 10 May 2012 from Icon.

May 13, 2012
Review: Killer Elite

The ultimate combination of Jason Statham, Robert De Niro and Clive Owen accounts for the elite, but the end result is less than killer.

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Director: Gary McKendry

Writer(s): Matt Sherring

Runtime: 116 minutes

Starring: Jason Statham, Clive Owen, Robert De Niro, Dominic Purcell, Lachy Hulme, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

Distributor: Disney

Country: UK/Australia

Rating: Rental for Sure (?)

More info

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Based on Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ novel, The Feather Men, and not the 1975 film of the same name, Killer Elite enters a crowded market of spy flicks and secret ops that are covertly beating each other up in cinemas around the world. Fiennes’ book caused a stir when it was released in the early 1990s, as it was purportedly based on “real life” examples of a secret squad of British SAS assassins. In the wake of a decade of post-9/11 spy dramas and thrillers, this Australian co-production goes back to the heyday of the 1980s, where the good guys were good, and the bad guys had beards.

It’s 1980, and mercenary Danny Bryce (Jason Statham) is ready to leave the killing business after a job goes wrong in Mexico. Returning to Australia with his girlfriend, Danny is summoned to Oman a year later when his colleague Hunter (Robert De Niro) has been held captive. Mission facilitator Agent (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) lets him know Hunter accepted a $6 million job and couldn’t finish it, and now he is being held captive by Sheikh Amr, who wants the three SAS agents who killed his eldest sons terminated. In order to save Hunter, Danny has to get back in the game and not only convince all three agents to confess, but to make their deaths look like accidents. Plus, he must also contend with Logan (Clive Owen), the head enforcer of the Feathermen, a society that protects their own agents.

Academy Award nominated short film director Gary McKendry makes his feature debut with Killer Elite, and he has done so by throwing most of his kitchen utensils at the task. Shot almost entirely in Australia, this is an awkward fit, presumably only done to appease the local financing gods. Yet with a few trips to the UK and Morocco, McKendry attempts to give the film a bit of a globetrotting flavour in the style of the Bourne films. However, the slate-grey and über-serious way the film treats the material sucks any of the potential fun out of the mash-up of these three distinct superstars in their own right. Killer Elite is a very no frills affair, and even with explosions, car chases and gunplay galore, none of it is done with a sense of entertainment, or seemingly with a sense of purpose.

Killer Elite lurches from one scene to the next, as if carrying the weight of the action tropes it know that it must live up to. You can almost see the action movie checklist hovering over the side of the screen during this overlong movie. The usually reliable Statham takes no pleasure in the methodically presented bone-crunching action, and Owen seems to have phoned in much of his performance. Supporting cast members Dominic Purcell and the great Lachy Hulme provide a bit of liveliness in quiet moments, but only De Niro, who holds the smallest amount of screen time of all the players, truly impresses with one of his more solid performances in recent years.

Matt Sherring‘s script hints at the possibility of a sequel, although he and director McKendry will next be seen working together on Joseph and the Girl, a remake of the French film Joseph et la Fille. If that sequel does come along, Killer Elite has all of the basic building blocks to make a solid action film, it just needs to tighten them all up to truly live up to its title.

[stextbox id=”custom”]Killer Elite is neither part of the action elite, and nor is it killer, meandering from one scene to the next as if searching for its own purpose. [/stextbox]

Killer Elite was released in Australia on 23 February 2012 from Disney.

February 25, 2012
Official Australian trailer for Killer Elite

Disney has sent over the official Australian trailer for Killer Elite. De Niro and Statham, together at last!

Inspired by true events, Killer Elite is an action adventure spy film following Danny (Statham), one of the world’s most skilled special-ops agents. Lured out of self-imposed exile to execute a near-impossible feat of retribution and personal salvation, Danny reassembles his old team of operatives to help rescue his former mentor and partner Hunter (De Niro). Together they must penetrate the highly feared and respected military unit, the British Special Air Service (SAS) to take down a rogue cell of solider assassins before their actions create a global crisis..

Killer Elite’s whirlwind journey of action crosses the globe: from Mexico to Australia, from Paris and Lodon to Oman…and Wales! The story is based on Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ controversial non-fiction novel “The Feather Men.”

Killer Elite is release in Australia on 23 February 2012 from Disney.

January 12, 2012
Teaser trailer for The Expendables 2 explodes online

Don’t pretend that you aren’t looking forward to it. iTunes trailers has released the first bits of footage from the explosive star-studded (and we mean studded) sequel to Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables.

The official synopsis tells it like it is at length:

The Expendables are back and this time it’s personal… Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Lee Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren),Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) — with newest members Billy the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) and Maggie (Yu Nan) aboard — are reunited when Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) enlists the Expendables to take on a seemingly simple job. The task looks like an easy paycheck for Barney and his band of old-school mercenaries. But when things go wrong and one of their own is viciously killed, the Expendables are compelled to seek revenge in hostile territory where the odds are stacked against them. Hell-bent on payback, the crew cuts a swath of destruction through opposing forces, wreaking havoc and shutting down an unexpected threat in the nick of time — six pounds of weapons-grade plutonium; enough to change the balance of power in the world. But that’s nothing compared to the justice they serve against the villainous adversary who savagely murdered their brother. That is done the Expendables way….

The Expendables 2 is released on 17 August 2012.

December 15, 2011