It’s not very often that a studio holds a movie from critics until its release. Usually a sign pointing to lack of confidence, audiences everywhere were wondering just how bad this week’s Killers was going to be. Lacking in cinematic substance and playing on strong points of humor and chemistry, the studio’s choice proved a good one, giving audiences a chance to make up their own minds.
Killers tells the story of Spencer and Jen. Spencer (Ashton Kutcher), a CIA agent with a license to kill, stumbles upon Jen (Katherine Heigl) while doing business in France. Jen’s girl next store persona allures Spencer into quitting his spy days and settling down. Fast forward three years and we find Spencer and Jen happily married and living the suburban dream until one day an unexpected stream of killers begin to target the happy husband. Jen is rightly shocked by uncovering her husband's past, attempting to piece together the situation, while they flee from the killers and get to the bottom of the sudden hit put out on Spencer.
The choice in the movie’s co-leading stars is an obvious recipe for overly adorable on screen chemistry. Heigl and Kutcher are the Hollywood masters of innocent sexiness that takes a movie with a premise like Killers from potential disaster to utter delight. Both shine on screen and create a gorgeous and quirky couple dynamic. The two make up for a slight lack in relationship development by acting like a real couple who is neither over the top lovey-dovey or dichotomously cynical. The PC thing to say in Hollywood is that a movie would be nothing without a great supporting cast. Killers is an example of just how true this can be. Catherine O’Hara, who plays Jen’s mom, steals the show. Why this woman isn’t the go to actress for rom-com (romantic comedy) mom roles everywhere, I don’t know. Her perfectly executed facial expressions, background remarks, and motherly advice are the reason behind 90% of the movie's literal LOL moments. Quirky suburban neighbors and a random cameo from Usher round off a uniquely comedic cast.
Liongate’s promotion strategy gave me low expectations for Killers. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought the Killers title was referring to the main couple. A fail in promotion had me expecting a completely different story than the one I saw. One I wasn’t sure was going to work. The actual “killers,” i.e. people hired to kill Spencer, made a lot more sense and the movie could have benefited from a trailer that more clearly explained this. Maybe Lionsgate was one step ahead of me all along. No pre-release critic reviews, an ambiguous trailer…bring us down, only to bring us up? I doubt they were that smart, but hey, it worked for me.
Killers succeeds in doing what most romantic comedies never dream to accomplish. The plot un-cliches the rom-com genre while maintaining all the charm we love in this type of movie. Forgoing the classic boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back formula for a fast forward romance complete with guns, twists (a bit predictable I admit), and spies to create what could be a new genre of romantic comedy. If you go into this movie expecting the next Mr. and Mrs. Smith action flick, you’re going to be let down. However, expectations for another predictable chick flick will certainly be exceeded. Plus, it has a lot of guns in it so dragging, uh…taking, a guy to this one won’t strip away all his manhood.
Overall rating: 4 out of 5
