True Lies Gets Punk'd

Let's face it, there's never going to be a comedy spy movie about marriage better than True Lies. Sure, Mr & Mrs Smith gave it a good shot back in 2005, although what it gained in smarts and sex appeal, it lost in laughs and effective action. And so New Line Cinema try it again with Killers directed by Legally Blond's Robert Luketic.
And while it's a good effort it inevitably turns out to be a 'fail'.

Killers has highly stressed, daddy's girl Katherine Heigl go on holiday to Nice with the parents. There she meets stud-muffin Ashton Kutchner, they fall in love and get married. But (enter cliche), he's a spy and doesn't tell her!!! What you've got here is an incrediby glossy, old fashioned romantic comedy thriller. The cast all have a lightness of touch that the material needs (at least understanding the importance of tone better than Knight & Day). Heigl is currently one of the queens of the Romcom due to her blend of charisma, beauty and that important ability to make a fool of oneself in the name of comedy, and she excels here. It's great to see Tom Sellick on top form as her stone faced, cynical father while Home Alone actress Catherine O'Hara has fun as her drunk Mom. It's Kutchner who's the weak link. Now I quite like his work, especially as the airhead in US sitcom That 70's Show, but he's never convinced me as a serious actor. He reminds me of Matt LeBlanc in Lost In Space; trying too hard to convince as an action hero. What you really need was a tough bloke to really sweep Heigl off her feet...a Butler, McConaughay or Cruise, but Mr Demi just doesn't cut it.

By the time we get to the second half the lack of wit and imagination in the script finally sink everybody's efforts. With enemy sleeper agents activated in their neighbourhood, the bickering couple lapse into a predictable and generic chase movie as they flee the killers of the title. Add to that a twist you can see a mile away and it becomes more and more puzzling why all involved thought the story was worth pouring so much money and effort into.

As a production, Killers had potential, but it was assassinated from the foundations upward.