Killer Elite 2011

 Released Year: 2011

Directed by Gary McKendry

Casted by:

Jason Statham as assassin Danny Bryce
Clive Owen as ex-SAS officer Spike Logan
Yvonne Strahovski as Anne Frazier
Robert De Niro as Hunter
Dominic Purcell as Davies
Aden Young as Meier
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as The Agent

 Story:

In 1980, assassins Danny Bryce, Hunter, Davies, and Meier are in Mexico to assassinate a man. Danny unwittingly kills him in front of his young child, then is injured during the getaway. Affected by this outcome, Danny retires and returns to his native Australia.

One year later in 1981, Danny is summoned to Oman where Hunter is being held captive. He meets with the agent that arranges missions for assassins and learns that Hunter accepted a $6 million job but failed to accomplish it. If Danny doesn't complete Hunter's mission, Hunter will be executed.

Danny is introduced to Sheikh Amr, a deposed king of a small region of Oman who wants Danny to kill three former SAS agents—Steven Harris, Steven Cregg, and Simon McCann—for killing his three eldest sons during the Dhofar Rebellion. Danny must videotape their confessions and make their deaths look like accidents, and he must do it before the terminally ill Sheikh dies. This will allow the Sheikh's fourth son, Bakhait, to regain control of the desert region his father had ruled. If Danny fails, Hunter will be killed. Danny reunites with Davies and Meier. They agree to help him in exchange for a share of the money.

As Danny and Meier sneak into the house of their first target, Steven Harris, in Oman, Davies questions local bar patrons about former SAS members. This is reported to the Feathermen, a secret society of former operatives protecting their own. Their head enforcer, Spike Logan, is sent to investigate.

After Harris has confessed on videotape, Danny and Meier take him to the bathroom. Their plan is to break his neck using a hammer with tiles similar to those of the bathroom floor to make it appear that Harris slipped and broke his neck. Danny is distracted by the arrival of Harris's girlfriend and when he returns to the bathroom he finds that Meier was forced to kill Harris hastily in a struggle.

Back in London, Davies discovers the second target, Steven Cregg, preparing for a long nighttime march in wintry weather at a local SAS base. Davies pretends to be a civilian having car problems outside the base's fence, allowing Danny to infiltrate the base. There he drugs Cregg's coffee to induce shock and cause Cregg to die of hypothermia during the march. Danny, in uniform, follows Cregg on the march, and a delirious Cregg confesses on videotape to Danny before he dies.

Going to their last target, Simon McCann, currently a mercenary, they rig a truck to respond to remote control with the help of a new and inexperienced team member, Jake. As McCann is on his way to a fake job interview, Meier and Jake take control of the truck from another car and cause it to move in front of McCann's car, killing him. However, Logan and his men were watching over McCann. A gun fight in the docks ensues, and Meier is accidentally killed by the inexperienced Jake. Danny and Davies decide that the case is over, and they part ways. Davies is soon hit by a truck and killed while being chased by Logan's men.

Danny returns to Oman and gives the Sheikh the last taped confession, which he has faked. Hunter is released and returns to his family, while Danny heads back to Australia and reunites with Anne, a childhood acquaintance. Soon, he is informed by the Agent that there is one last man who participated in the Sheikh's sons' murders and that this man, Ranulph Fiennes, is about to release a book about his experiences as a member of the SAS.

Danny tells Anne to go to France with Hunter to protect her while he carries out the last job. The Sheikh’s son confirms that Harris was an innocent man. Logan, meanwhile, traces Danny through the Agent and sends a team to protect the author, but Jake distracts them, allowing Danny to infiltrate the building and shoot the author. He chooses to only wound the author, however, but takes pictures that appear to show him dead. Logan chases and captures Danny, taking him to an abandoned warehouse, but he is interrupted when an agent from the British government arrives and reveals that the British government is behind the events because of the Sheikh's valuable oil reserves. A three-way battle ensues, with Danny escaping and Logan shooting the government agent.

Danny and Hunter head to Oman to give the Sheikh the pictures. However, Logan arrives first and confronts the Sheikh, telling him that the pictures are fake and then stabbing him to death. The Sheikh's son does not care and gives the money, which was intended for Danny and Hunter, to Logan. Hunter spots Logan leaving, and they chase after him, along with the Sheikh's men.

After stopping the Sheikh's men, Danny and Hunter confront Logan on a desert road. Danny says that Logan can keep the money (though Hunter takes some of the money for his expenses and his family). They give Logan the remainder, telling him that he'll need it to start a new life away from the government after killing the government agent and acting against the wishes of the Feathermen and the British government. Danny says that it's over for him and that Logan must make up his own mind. They leave him there, saying they'll send a cab for him from the airport. Danny meets with Anne in France to start a new life.

L² Scored: 4.5/10

L² Comment:

Well, this kind of movie is never my favorite. Overall the movie is ok on the storyline, action part is stunning. And of coz this movie came with a lot of superstar, so no doubt on getting a "selling fast" on the big screen...

The Hunter 2011

 Released Year: 2011

Directed by Daniel Nettheim

Casted by:

Willem Dafoe as Martin (the Hunter)
Frances O'Connor as Lucy
Sam Neill as Jack
Morgana Davies as Sass

 Story:

A mercenary hunter named Martin David is hired by a military biotech company called Red Leaf to go to Tasmania and follow up on two sightings of the presumably extinct Tasmanian Tiger. His orders are to recover tissue and organ samples and to report back once he gathers them, as the company is convinced the sighting reports are reliable. When he arrives in Tasmania under the alias of a professor from a university, he takes up a temporary residence at a rural location with a single mother named Lucy Armstrong and her two young children Sass and her brother Bike. Sass is a very vocal girl, while Bike chooses never to speak, similar to David who prefers isolation. Lucy Armstrong spends most of her time sleeping due to her dependency on prescribed medication - her grief caused by her environmentalist husband Jarrah Armstrong, who disappeared in the Tasmanian wilderness some eight months earlier. Speculation surrounds his disappearance as there has been a longstanding conflict between the local loggers and the 'greenies', a group of environmentalists who have set up barriers to protest the deforestation.

Realizing he does not want to stay at the Armstrong's home due to a neglected malfunctioning generator and the discomfort he feels around the children, David attempts to find someone else he can pay in exchange for temporary lodging. He searches at the local pub, only to be accosted by the loggers who believe he is one of the environmental protestors, which David never corrects due to the need for keeping his real agenda for being in Tasmania a secret. The loggers warn him that if he doesn't leave, he will end up like Armstrong's husband. With nowhere else to turn, David is forced to stay at the Armstrong home. Not long after his arrival, David is met by a local guide named Jack Mindy who gives him a brief synopsis of the environment, and travels with him on his first outing. Mindy remains suspicious of David's true intentions throughout the story.

During his stay, David goes into the bush for twelve days at a time, setting up various steel traps and makeshift snares, while waiting patiently to see if the tiger will surface and checking his traps regularly to see if the animal has been caught. Amidst his comings and goings to and from the wilderness, David slowly befriends the Armstrong children and his isolationist persona begins to change gradually. He helps reduce Armstrong's dependency on medication, in addition to fixing the generator. The story reveals that the pills are being prescribed by her Doctor, and delivered by Jack Mindy, who has been unofficially looking in on the family from time-to-time. David later confronts Mindy and suggests that it may not be a good idea for him to be visiting the Armstrong family, as David suspects that Mindy has an unhealthy obsession with Lucy Armstrong. Eventually, Lucy makes a full recovery and starts taking better care of her children, while befriending David. At the same time, Bike provides David with clues as to the Tasmanian Tiger's whereabouts by drawing a picture of it next to spots of water. These clues were predicated on the fact that Jarrah Armstrong had also been searching for the tiger and was communicating his findings to Bike. David later discovers that Red Leaf had initially contracted Jarrah to locate it, a pursuit he eventually abandoned in favor of taking up an environmental cause to protect the wildlife. Lucy Armstrong informs David that Red Leaf wanted Jarrah to find the tiger because they believe that it has a venom in its bite that can cause paralysis, which they could then use for military purposes. She details her husband's initial pursuit of the animal and tells David that it would be better off if the tiger was extinct, in order that greedy corporations would not be able to exploit it.

While David continues his search for the Tasmanian Tiger, trouble escalates as Mindy becomes jealous of David's interactions with the Armstrong family. Remembering that Red Leaf had advised him to contact them should there be any problems, Mindy calls them and reports that David is spending more time with Armstrong and her two children in lieu of doing what he was hired to do. Red Leaf contacts David and reminds him of what they are paying him to find. David assures them that he has found the tiger's den during his travels, but Red Leaf insists that he put his work first and drop any more fraternization with Armstrong. David - now torn between his friendship with the family and his loyalty to Red Leaf - reluctantly heads back into the bush, much to the disappointment of Armstrong and her children. Simultaneously, tensions begin to escalate between the loggers and the environmentalists, who show up on Armstrong's property one evening and threaten her and other environmentalist friends who are visiting.

David meanwhile, having discovered the location of the tiger's den as well as the remains of Jarrah Armstrong (whose skull has a bullet hole in it), is accosted by another company operative who has been sent in by Red Leaf to replace him. The operative follows David into the bush and holds him at gunpoint, demanding that he show him the tiger's den. David cunningly manages to lead the operative into one of his steel traps and while freeing himself, is able to kill his captor. Now cognizant of the fact that Armstrong and her children may be in grave danger from Red Leaf, David returns to find their home burnt down. David confronts Mindy, who tells him that Lucy and Sass were killed in the fire, believing it to be an accident. But it is discovered that by reporting David to Red Leaf, Mindy became indirectly responsible for their deaths, as it appears as it was the operative who was the one who set the house on fire, though it also possible that the loggers may have done it. Mindy informs David that Bike managed to survive and had been sent away to live in an orphanage. David angrily reprimands an emotionally remorseful Mindy and leaves him to wallow in his grief.

Angered and frustrated, David sets out into the bush to find the Tasmanian Tiger and put an end to Red Leaf's pursuit. When he awakens next to the den the following morning, he looks up to see the tiger staring at him from a ledge above. As the tiger turns and calmly walks away, David climbs the ledge, pursues the creature and after an initial emotional hesitation, reluctantly shoots it. David then approaches the dying tiger and becomes emotionally overwrought. He then proceeds to cremate the tiger in order to remove all traces of its existence and the next day, scatters its ashes to the wind using the water bottle of Jarrah Armstrong.

David returns to town and calls Red Leaf from a payphone, informing them that what they are looking for will never be found, and likewise tells them not to bother looking for him. The very last scene shows David arriving at the orphanage. When Bike sees David, he runs excitedly toward him, says something inaudible (but looks to be "Martin") and the two embrace.

L² Scored: 7/10

L² Comment:

Storyline is not bad, love the beautiful sceneries of tasmania shown in this film. But the pace is a bit slow. Sam Neil looks so old in this film :( But i still like Willem Dafoe, he's not good looking, but he got something that attracts me :) Overall the film is quite ok, nothing special, to be honest, i wont watch it again :P