Essentially, Killers is an inter-genre "Fish out of Water" story.
The
only problem is that it is the sort of story that can only be told once
before losing it's charm pretty quickly. Very quickly in fact.
So how do you decide between three movies which are essentially sequels to Mr & Mrs Smith?
Date Night opted to "go for laughs" and failed miserably, while Knight & Day went for action and got lost in a world of CGI. Killers on the other hand has gone for chemistry and in doing so succeeds on almost every level.
Killers
keeps it simple nice and early, kicking off on a plane with Jen
Kornfeldt (Katherine Heigl) trying to recover from a sudden break-up by
joining her parents (Tom Selleck and Catherine O'Hara) on a trip to the
French Riviera.
Within hours of setting foot into her hotel, Jen
crosses paths with the man of her (and every other woman in the
audiences') dreams : the dashing, handsome, tanned and ab-tastic
Spencer Aimes (Ashton Kutcher).
Things go well, and three
years later, she and Spencer are newlyweds living the ideal suburban
life. Problem is - Spencer is an (Ex) Assassin - and now there is a
$20M bounty on his head. It seems someone from his past wants him
dead... and soon.
Cue the gun fire, Heigl squealing about and
holding a gun like it's a dead rat and some witty "couples
fights about mindane suburban issues in the middle of an action sequence" banter. On the whole, Aussie
Robert Luketic has put together a fun little pic here. It's fast paced,
the laughs are plenty and the action is solid without ever being
over-the-top.
It also helps that Ashton Kutcher is impossibly
charming (finally casting off the "awkward dork / stoner" schtick
that's ruined his previous rom-com's), Tom Selleck's
moustache is as thick as ever (it really is a shame he never went onto
become the star he deserves to be, Selleck is as cool as hell), Heigl's
bod is rocking and - most importantly - Catherine O'Hara plays the
best
damn "drunken housewife" in Hollywood. Look, Killers
is a movie that sticks to a pretty solid formula (like any good Rom-Com
should) and while that means it doesn't offer up any groundbreaking Inception-esque cinematic innovations, it also means that you won't leave the cinema unfulfilled.
It gives us exactly what it says it will, no more, no less - and that's exactly why Killers works so well.
DVD Special Features
The flick failed to make a dent at the Box Office (for those
interested in the final tally - Date Movie went on to make $152M
worldwide, Knight & Day made $184M and Killers with just over $50M)
so the special features are pretty scarce.
Included here are the
usuals : a gag reel (which is surprisingly short and unimpressive),
Deleted and Extended Scenes and a Behind the Scenes Featurette.
Not worth buying for extras - so perhaps keep this one to a download (legal download... of course!).
Conclusion - Movie: 70% Extras: 50%
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