KILLERS 2.5/4
Lionsgate, Rated PG-13
Continuing her role in movies as a self-effacing female doormat, Katherine Heigl (Knocked Up, The Ugly Truth) once again displays her knack for dating down while forgiving the men in her life for just about anything in Robert Luketic’s Killers. Teamed in peculiar matrimony with Ashton Kutcher—recently caught with his pants down as a conniving baby-faced gigolo in Spread—Heigl makes the most of her marriage to Kutcher’s secret government assassin, in a kind of “family that slays together, stays together” post-nuptial pandemonium.
[popup url=”http://assets.longislandpress.com/photos/gallery.php?gazpart=view&gazimage=3992″]
Click here to view more photos from Killers[/popup]
Heigl plays Jenn Kornfeldt, a depressed neurotic with chronic stomach issues who’s just been dumped by a boyfriend and tags along with her boozer mom (Catherine O’Hara) and bossy ex-Marine dad (Tom Selleck) on their French Riviera vacation. When she runs into a bare-chested Spencer (Kutcher) and his bulging biceps while munching on Maalox in the hotel elevator, there’s instant mutual infatuation, and there’s no turning back once he uses his handy professional-strength dagger to remove her one-size-too-small dress. As the story fast-forwards three years into their courtship and matrimony, Spencer continues periodically carrying out hits, while Jen doesn’t happen to notice a thing.
Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl in Killers
But when close pals and neighbors start gunning for Spencer and she observes more than a few best friend beatdowns by her spouse, Jen begins to get hunches this may not be your typical suburban marriage. When he fesses up, insisting he only kills bad guys, Jen is soon inducted as a sidekick—namely because the pair are running for their lives, without a cop ever in sight.
There’s not much in the way of convincing chemistry going on between Heigl and Kutcher, which is why the story initially sags before picking up steam as it veers into comedic thriller territory. It is helped along by a host of unlikely everyday assassins who continually pop up, ultimately rendering this movie a “with friends like these” quality and making this espionage romance mildly amusing summer fluff.
