I get why Jason Statham is such a popular actor although at many times the films he stars in are not considered very good. He is basically a character actor who has refined his stock character into a B-movie lead career. He's not going to be in a romantic comedy with Katherine Heigl, or a three hanky weepy where he plays the father of an ailing kid, or play a costumed superhero. Any time he stars in a movie you can count on lots of pretty good gun and fight action and some cheeky humor. This time around the movie is based a book which is supposed to be true.
He is Danny, a sort of assassin for hire. His latest assignment is to kill the men who killed the sons of an oil sheik. The sheik is holding Danny's partner, Hunter (Robert DeNiro), to coerce Danny to do the job. Danny takes the job to rescue his friend and is not interested in the six million dollar fee.
He forms a small squad and goes after each of the killers, whom he finds were members of the Special Air Service, a British military organization who considered the kills part of warfare. There are now some underground, ex-SAS members, including Spike (Clive Owen), who are trying to determine who is going after their members.
The film also tries to round out the character of Danny by adding a girlfriend in the plot (Yvonne Strahovski) which I didn't think added a lot other to give Danny a further reason to finish his job and retire to sunnier pastures.
Overall the film was good, the action was interesting although the cat and mouse aspect of Danny and Spike's chase after each other could have used more suspense. The interaction between Danny and Hunter were good and DeNiro wasn't just an aging actor in an action film.
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