KILLERS (REVIEW)
Rated
M
100 minutes
Starring: Ashton Kutcher, Katherine Heigl, Tom Selleck, Catherine
O'Hara, Usher (Raymond)
Starting in the picturesque location
of Nice, France, the glorious ocean views and cliff faces are just as enjoyable
to watch as the introduction of the two leads. A hit-man named Spencer (Ashton
Kutcher), is a killer-for-hire on assignment in Cote d'Azur. He stumbles upon
Jen (Katherine Heigl), an uptight and recently single fellow American, who is
being treated to a holiday with her bizarre parents. After some flirting and shirtless
moves by Spencer, they have a beautiful connection and actually instantly fall
in love. It's a match made in eye candy heaven.
Cut to three
years later and they are now married, living in the suburbs and Spencer is a foreman
on a construction site. Their marriage has become stagnant, routine, and in a
manner of speaking, lacking any action. That is about to change. Even though Spencer
has been unofficially retired from his killer duties, apparently there is a 20
million dollar bounty on his head. The moral of the story becomes: be sure to
disclose your secret life as a hired executioner before marrying your sweetheart.
All of a sudden, people the couple have known and trusted, their neighbours even,
are pulling out guns to kill Spencer.
The frantic comical action
hits it stride when Jen demands an explanation from her husband mid-gunfight -
she even takes to shooting a weapon - even if it is in the wrong direction. Comparisons
to the equally inept, 'Mr & Mrs Smith' are obvious, but 'Killers' is just
plain silly and almost every joke falls flat. A complicated murder plot is thrown
into the script, almost as an add-on to stretch the film out, but all that achieves
is a decent into screwball hell. There's a fine line between funny and stupid.
There are also too many killer neighbours that come out of the woodwork to kill
Spencer for the big bucks and absolutely no law enforcement is seen anywhere.
I
don't mind Ashton Kutcher - there is more to his range than 'Dude, Where's My
Car?', but as a super spy, he's too light and fluffy in his approach. Tom Cruise
did it better in the recent 'Knight & Day'. Watch out for a cleverly amusing
cameo from rapper, Usher, but poor Katherine Heigl has gone downhill since her
star turn in 'Knocked Up'. Even though I supported her performance in 'The Ugly
Truth', nobody else did and it was a flop. The involvement of the excellent Tom
Selleck and Catherine O'Hara add to the limited credibility in 'Killers'.
Directed
by Australian Robert Luketic ('Legally Blonde'), this is certainly watchable.
However, there is very little originality except for possibly the colourful photography
throughout and a car chase through suburban backyards and manicured streets is
a beauty.
Shane A. Bassett
