The Elite (2001) Poster

(I) (2001)

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3/10
Bad, but funny
vincent_romeijn22 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
This movie sucks. The plot is not that bad, I guess, but the acting and action scenes are bad. The movie is about some kids whose parents died, and then they are trained to be elite soldiers. The film begins with the bad guy driving around in a truck at night. Then it suddenly goes to the opening credits, and we see the "Elite" soldiers. They are chasing some guys because they apparently have a code that they need to stop a missile from launching. Of course they succeed in stopping the missile, just 1 second before it would be launched.

And I love all the coincidences in this movie. Like in the beginning, when the bad guys escape, but then suddenly a truck crashes into them. Or when the Elite see the car of the bad guys, lying on a train railway, and say "They might still be alive", but then a train arrives and drives over the car, just classic.

3/10
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3/10
Not Among The Elite Of Action Movies
Theo Robertson30 July 2003
Warning: Spoilers
***** MILD SPOILERS ******

The title sequence of ELITE features some very obvious exposition ( Just like THE A TEAM ) telling the story of how an elite business cartel are killed in a terrorist attack and how the victims children are brought by a shadowy government department to be trained as an anti terrorist unit , an elite anti terrorist unit , an elite anti terrorist unit composed of spoiled brats . It should be pointed out that the title sequence is preceeded by an action sequence featuring a band of terrorists who detest American greed . I`ve also got to point out that having the terrorist attack take place before the title sequence somehow feels wrong . The title sequence should have been shown before the terrorist raid .

After the title sequence we`re shown what these spoiled rich kids are capable of , and boy are they capable of anything , they can defuse a nuclear missile , blow away hundreds - And I`m talking literally of hundreds - of bad guys without suffering a scratch and show us what lovely white teeth they have . I guess being part of an elite anti terrorist has its benefits since they all obviously have access to elite dental treatment - Is this why the movie is called ELITE ? The goes on and I found it very difficult to empathise with 20 something Americans with great hair and great teeth who can do absolutely anything in a tricky situation without suffering a scratch so I found myself siding with the anti capitilist villains which I suppose is something of a compliment to the screenwriter , all too often the motivation for the bad guys is too vague or too over the top unlike here where I could identify with the European villain who has a pathological hatred of globilization and free market economics . Only thing is I don`t believe the audience were actually meant to identify so clearly with the bad guy, it was only after being battered over the head as to how well educated and well off the heroes were that I found myself cheering for the baddies in a film that feels like it was cross bred with GOLDENEYE and BEVERLY HILLS 90210
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4/10
Actually a cut above...
corky-272 January 2002
This grade-B flick is actually a cut above your typical made-for-cable fare, notably because there is a semblance of plot to add to the by-the-numbers action sequences. A young "elite squad" of trained anti-terrorists take on Jurgen Prochnow in a by-now expected villain turn, and there's a personal twist to the proceedings as well. All of the cast is awfully pretty (at first it was difficult to distinguish between any of the three blond male leads, two of whom are twins!), and the beautiful Maxine Bahns kicks some terrorist butt as well (not so far-fetched, as I learned from her IMDB bio that she's a triathlete in real life). All in all, a pretty decent way to waste a sleepless night while surfing the cable box. 2 stars (out of 5) on the Corkymeter.
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The best thing on TV... at 2:30 in the morning... if you don't count infomercials and C-SPAN.
kempshall60213 February 2004
This review contains a conjecture about the ending of "The Elite," which occurred after I fell asleep. If you're some sort of freak who plans on watching this movie and doesn't want the ending sort of ruined, then don't read my review. And I sympathize with your pathetic life. :(

If only Terry Cunningham could direct the real world, too: everybody would have cool bulletproof gadgets and the morning news anchor would tell us stories of creamy-skinned twenty-somethings foiling the plans of less-than-ambitious terrorists. "The Elite" doesn't really give us the backstory of the villains, but I have to assume that nothing less than being picked last for dodgeball every single day at their terrorist training camp could give these people the brilliant idea of hijacking a video game conference. Maybe they couldn't find, say, an unsecured petting zoo or lemonade stand to attack, or maybe they thought that pimply, wheezy nerds make good hostages. Or maybe they're just not very good terrorists, evidenced by their outright inability to kill the titular protagonists trying to thwart them.

And speaking of the good guys, apparently in Terry Cunningham-land, "elite" means "marginally competent." Let's see who makes up this super-amazing team: We have a guy named Joel playing a guy named Joel. And there's a guy named Jason playing a guy named Jason. He's distinguished by the misogynistic jokes he makes in front of Lena, who is, surprisingly enough, not played by a woman named Lena. (As an aside, in Terry Cunningham-land, you don't laugh at jokes; instead, you merely question whether they were supposed to be funny.) Lena's main purpose in life is putting up with Jason as horny male viewers masturbate while she's on-screen. There's also the twins Keith and Derek who play the twins Keith and Derek, sharing some bizarre each-other fetish that even Freud would find a bit perplexing.

They're lead by Steven Williams, and when I say "They're lead by Steven Williams," I mean that they spend an inordinate amount of time looking at video screens showing Williams' disembodied head reading from the script. Special mention must be made of Williams' prodigious ability to project a single facial expression; even though we were already aware of his facial expression from his work in "The X-Files" and, let's say, the cinematic masterpiece "Bloodfist VII," we were never really sure what exactly that expression was. Now we know: it's the look of someone spending ninety minutes dumbfounded by the grating morons he's working with, questioning why he's the only cast member who isn't a blonde male bimbo and whether Scandinavia was having a sale on GQ models who should've just kept their mouths shut and never tried the delicate craft of acting.

So, for the casual viewer, if it isn't obvious that the team of hotties will ultimately defeat the terrorists in a battle slightly more exciting than the conflict between Tilex and mold, then you are probably a cast member of "The Elite." Personally, I fell asleep before the end, so if you're worried about the future of video game conventions, you'll have to waste your own life watching this movie. Maybe Cunningham will shock everybody by having his antagonists capture the good guys and drive them all insane by locking them in a room and forcing them to listen for days on end to Jason trying to get into Lena's pants. I don't know. But given that the terrorists could probably be defeated by an old man wielding a refrigerator magnet, I wouldn't bet on it.
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1/10
Elite? No, not really.
wwattles20 August 2004
In what I can only describe as a "perfect storm" of bad acting, bad writing, bad producing, bad stunts, bad camera-work, and bad editing, this movie has gone beyond being a campy B-Movie. This is one that, when you think you've reached the bottom of the barrel but lift up the barrel and examine what's underneath, you find.

The plot is strictly formula driven - no originality. The actors are plasticly in their performances, and the special effects really do look like something a high-school kid might create in his garage.

In general, I found it to have a made-for-TV or a direct-to-video quality to it.

This is one that the Mystery Science Theater 3000 team would have a field-day suffering through.
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1/10
Stunningly terrible
tedphx30 July 2006
Incoherent from the very beginning, I felt as if I was watching something computer generated, not unlike the Cox Cable commercials starring the exceptionally hideous "Digital Max." Imagine my surprise when I came to IMDb and saw an actual cast listing.

Needless to say, I didn't get far, but I did see enough to realize that the movie could possibly serve a higher purpose - as a tool for court-ordered evaluations in competency hearings. If a person can sit through this film, a guardian should absolutely be appointed to make all important decisions for the individual in question.

And be forewarned, there have been no scientific studies: it's just possible that someone in full command of his faculties might begin watching, and in the course of the experience, become impaired.
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1/10
it's just awful
daniel-j-doughty20 February 2005
the premise of the film is that they trained together since pre-pubescence. then in the first action scene they all act like they're meeting each other for the first time. I couldn't make it past the first 15 minutes. I don't know why Time Warner rated it a 2.5 out of 4...but it's an awful film.

oh yeah, and even the first scene sucks. the guy comes in and is asked to shoot one of his undercover cohorts. Of course he gives in and tries to shoot the villain instead. And there's a bloody ICBM in an Austrian chapel...Europeans would never do something like that to their heritage. Hell, even Americans plant them out in the middle of nowhere amongst the corn and wheat.
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1/10
Great story, Bad everything else!!!
lemon616 May 2003
This movie had a great story premise, unfortunately no budget for production or actors. Spielberg or Hanks could have made it an excellent movie.

Normally I don't mind watching the odd low budget movie, but this one really stunk!!!
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1/10
It was good until....
christinekarce21 December 2022
Warning: Spoilers
It was good at first. I was actually pretty addicted to it and dismissed the all of the sexually explicit scenes. But now I'm giving a 1 rating. Unless you love watching gay porn and orgies of course... Not sure why this show won awards other than it checking off every box for everything inappropriate in this world that a teenager should watch. I found it pretty difficult to constantly watch men having threesomes with each other. That's all the show is about now. Just gay sex. I'm trying to watch a show with an actual plot... not gay porn. It gets a 1 for ruining what could have been a good show.
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2/10
Secret Message
bemyfriend-4018410 April 2021
There is an old 1980's era Hong Kong kung fu film, called Secret Message. I can't find it in any data base; but I saw it once on YouTube. It had no plot. It was just fighting; over a "secret message". Secret Message was better than The Elite.
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2/10
Fun but Filled With Errors
johnbarradale2 April 2019
Battleship was at most a Frigate. The Harpoon missile is NOT a surface to air missile, it is a surface to surface missile to hit ships and ground targets. So many errors. Did not even try to have any accuracy. Kind of a Mod Squad do-over? One of those movies to have playing in the background, like when you are cooking dinner, or playing a video game. Acting was not the worst, but not great.
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6/10
Good film of its genre
kapecki28 December 2002
Higher than expected production values, an exuberant young cast, some occasionally witty banter, and non-stop action make this extended buddy film a lot more fun than one expects in the low-budget action genre. Yes, the plot is formula, but the characters are likeable and good-looking and the pace never lags.
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1/10
A Battleship Game to a REAL Battleship Commander ! !
whpratt19 October 2005
Simply love films and view them all the time, but I actually found myself going to sleep during all the very slow boring scenes. Despite some so called action scenes on a Battleship and some gals that looked beautiful, but needed to eat a meal once in a while. There is a tragic commercial airline crash with all the elite business brains in the country going to their death. Then we progress forward from one topic to another topic, we see twin guys, a game programmer taken hostage and a big bad old time Battleship put into action by a bunch of nuts. The sailor's on the ship had hats that looked like they all came from Disney Land. I should have continued to fall asleep. Miss this film, don't waste your time, it really is a great film to sleep through.
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possibly the greatest worst movie ever
jasoncross11527 December 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Actually, it does for a fact contain spoilers.

I think it's pretty obvious that the makers of this movie had put no effort into making this movie. First of all, if the supposed terrorists blew up a plane to kill a bunch of political whatevers (I'm sorry if I can't remember exactly what) what would lead these innocent little kids to become targets? The Elite is so bad that all I did was stand back and marvel at it. From the extremely pointless kidnapping of the computer programmer just to operate a battleship to the "bar fight" scene on the battleship at the end, this movie is so horrible that it becomes fair quality. And let's not forget the part when that guy gets blown up by the cannon. You can't possibly take this movie seriously. It's so ridiculous, it's beautiful.

PS: For all you FOX Sports fans, there's a guy in this movie who looks a lot like Joe Buck.
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Not bad...
eibon14 June 2002
This flick was much better than expected. Great Action (in the tradition of the James Bond movies), good acting and superb locations. This movie sure is above b-standards! If you love bad guy Jürgen Prochnow you will also love this movie.
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So many errors
carboran_112616 September 2005
So, I will just comment on the realism and accuracy of this movie. First of all, they could have had at least one person there who knew how to hold a gun. You cannot shoot an AK-47or an M-16 with the butt in mid air. Not only did they do that, but they had amazing accuracy - absurd.

Second of all, where the heck were the Marines on the ship? Each ship has to have Marines at all times. This ship had not a single. Again - absurd.

Few good things: The girls were all really attractive. The final battle was pretty cool.
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