57
Metascore
9 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70Time OutTime OutUnmistakable Peckinpah - not a masterpiece, but enough to be going on with.
- 70The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelPeckinpah's poetic, corkscrew vision of the modern world, claustrophobically exciting.
- 63Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSam Peckinpah's The Killer Elite is directed and acted with a certain nice style, but it puts us through so many convolutions of the plot that finally we just don't care.
- 60EmpireIan NathanEmpireIan NathanPeckinpah is never quite as comfortable with the high-rise terrain (including sloppy kung fu) as he is with the dusty rawhide of the West, but it still shows up the slick trigger-edits of new action cinema for the gutless vacuum it has become.
- Mr. Peckinpah is mannered and inventive, and these qualities both give the film its strengths and undermine it horrendously. Cleverness, for one thing, gets in the way of comprehensibility.
- 50TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineLesser Peckinpah, but fascinating nonetheless.
- 50Portland OregonianMarc MohanPortland OregonianMarc MohanThe Killer Elite is possibly Bloody Sam's worst film, and the martial-arts-themed actioner is must-see material only for the director's completists, despite a cast that includes James Caan and Robert Duvall. [17 Jun 2005, p.43]