Killers (Lionsgate)
A Comedy About Killing
Killers is a film that shouldnt be taken seriously but when the number of dead bodies starts piling up it is difficult not to. So audiences end up laughing at assassination attempts and murders while feeling a little guilty about it all. This semi-seriousness throws off the whole direction of the movie and makes it non-successful as either a comedy or a thriller.
The movie starts with Jen (Katherine Heigl) traveling to Nice with her father and mother (Tom Selleck and Catherine OHara) for a vacation. Jen is just coming off a break-up and needs to get away. In Nice she meets nice businessman Spencer Aimes (Ashton Kutcher). He tells Jen he is in the consulting business but he actually works for the CIA as a hired assassin. After finishing the job he has to do in Nice he quits the business.
Flash forward three years and we see Jen and Spencer married, happy and living in suburbia. Jen is still unaware of Spencers past and Spencer thinks that is best. But then his old boss (Martin Mull) contacts him and tells him he has a new assignment. From that point on the movie pitches into a high level action film as people come out of the woodwork trying to kill Spencer, and as collateral damage Jen.
Heigls role is a key ingredient in the movie and if the audience isnt with her all the way then they are not going to enjoy the film. Jen, as played by Heigl, is a bit of a ditz. When there is the least bit of trouble she wants to run home to Mom and Dad. She is appealing, but not as appealing as she needs to be.
Opposite her Kutcher starts out being a really likeable guy but as the movie progresses he gets drawn into the slapstick elements of the script. Because of this he seems to loose his knowledge of who and what Spencer is. He has fairly good on screen chemistry with Heigl but it doesnt scorch the screen.
Selleck is acceptable as Heigls dad but he adds very little to the goings on. OHara on the other hand is the bright spot of the movie. She plays Heigls mom as a lush in the making. She has her own little scenario going on and nothing that happens around her changes her focus or her outlook. Every time she appears on screen she grabs the spotlight and makes it hers.
The movie is rated PG-13 for profanity and violence.
Every element necessary for an appealing, funny film is present here but somehow it never comes together to reel the audience in. You want to get involved in the bewildering plot but there are so many holes you keep falling out of it. You want to pull for the Kutcher/Heigl couple but they never seem real. So you end up watching a fairly funny, fairly exciting film that could have and should have been better.
I scored Killers a drop dead 4 out of 10.
