Clif-Notes: Killer Elite

I stopped into the newest Statham flick this afternoon and I came out with mixed emotions over it.
For those that have missed it, Elite is the true story (they claim) of an ex-SAS (Jason Statham) who is brought back into the game after his mentor (Robert De Niro) is taken captive. To get him back, he must kill three men for an Arab (don't quote me on this one, not sure his nationality) who wants his honor restored before he dies. Along the way, another ex-SAS (Clive Owen) wants to know what's going on and wages a little war against Statham and his men trying to find out.
Here's the good: This movie turned out to be a much bigger cat & mouse game than I thought it would be. It had the typical action and fighting you would expect from a Statham film (the first encounter between he and Owen was pretty damned awesome, if I do say so myself) but the amount of "thrill" put in it surprised me a little and not in a bad way. Plus, come on. It's Statham, Owen and De Niro. All three are pretty badass no matter what movie they are doing.
Here's the bad: It was almost trying a bit too hard to be a cat & mouse game. It felt drawn out at points when it wanted to makes things "smarter" and it didn't always come across with that result. At some point, I remember thinking "when are they finally gonna figure something out and fight?" and that's never a fun thought to have in a movie.
Overall, I liked it. It was pretty awesome and badass even though it felt long at times. If you can see it in the theater, do it but I say you can also wait until dvd if you can't.