Having experienced the seamless control of Inception, I then slipped to the other end of the filmic spectrum, taking a look at the epitome of awkwardness that is Killers.
Ashton Kutcher plays Spencer, a super cool awesome hot hitman, who’s starting to feel that his job is no longer the emotionally fulfilling philanthropy he signed up for. Luckily he runs into Jen (Katherine Heigl) an anally-retentive but emotionally fearful woman who may or may not have appeared in every uninventive romantic comedy ever. They hook up, get married and live a blissful life in the suburbs for five years till – oh dear – Spencer’s past comes crashing through their kit home.
This film has very little going for it. The tone is terribly uneven, dancing between moments of reasonably graphic violence interspersed with unfunny quips and a desperate attempt at romance. There’s almost no chemistry between the leads and the pacing feels wholly unplanned. The action and story have no real correlation and there are long sections where Spencer and Jen are doing little more than wandering around, talking about how people are constantly trying to kill them. You know what would be more exciting than that? People constantly trying to kill them! Instead the script has crammed almost all of the attacks into the latter sections, making it feel less like escalation and more like hail Mary.
Catherine O’Hara and Tom Selleck are admirable enough as Jen’s parents but Catherine’s character’s drunkenness and Tom’s general air of disappointment feel more a reflection of genuine circumstance than acting skill.
