Action/comedy hybrid films work when there’s natural chemistry between the leads and neither the action nor comedy take away from one another, as in Mr. and Mrs. Smith with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Lionsgate’s Killers, the first and I’m guessing last pairing of Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl on the big screen, misses badly on all accounts.
Killers’ premise is a whiny, bratty and ditzy girl (Heigl playing the only role she seems to ever play on film) is vacationing with her parents (Tom Selleck and Catherine O’Hara as the only semi-funny character) in beautiful Nice, France when she stumbles upon a shirtless man (Kutcher) in her hotel elevator. She’s immediately drawn to him but has no idea he’s a CIA operative who does bad things to bad people. He, on the other hand, presumably must only date other assassins as he is easily charmed by Heigl’s “normalcy” enough to leave his high risk job and settle with Heigl and her parents in a ritzy tract home suburb.
It’s hard enough to buy goofball and Twitter king Ashton Kutcher as a suave James Bond-esque agent, much less he and Heigl as an on-screen couple. Spending the entire middle portion of the film with the pair as they domesticate without a shred of on-screen chemistry is painful to endure. Don’t worry, ladies; Ashton finds ample opportunity to continually remove his shirt. Heigl’s stays on.
Director Robert Luketic must have understood the film’s first half was relatively pointless which is why he shifts the final act’s gears into a sustained series of pure action sequences that couldn’t possibly feel more unaffiliated with everything that precedes it. The worst part about this mayhem are the killers themselves, a wasted collection of comics and accomplished actors including Rob Riggle, Kevin Sussman and Alex Borstein who brazenly come after Heigl and Kutcher in broad daylight and never manage to attract the police. I can’t tell if the chain of chases and fights were meant to thrill because of the “kills” involved or make you laugh because of a “pregnancy” joke that pops up and plays out during them. The only logical conclusion is they’re neither thrilling nor funny, much like the entire film.
High-Def Presentation
Killers the movie may not impress but Lionsgate’s 2.35:1 1080p transfer is pretty spot on. Especially mesmerizing are the opening scenes in Nice with eye-popping colors, detail and postcard worthy scenery. It’s beautiful enough to make you want to drop everything and visit the picturesque spots Heigh and Kutcher did. The rest of the transfer is equally sharp with strong details and solid black levels in the few times they’re needed towards the end of the film.
Lionsgate felt the dump of action scenes necessitated a 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track, but they didn’t. Granted the audio presentation is generally spacious with all manners of ambient noise and sounds breaking away from the front channels. But there’s little oomph in the .LFE, and I would have much rather the gunfire, explosions and brawling to pack a punch rather than two extra channels of surround.
D-BOX Motion Code
The same agonizing wait for something to happen in the film applies to the D-BOX track. There’s more D-BOX use in the opening credits than the entire first two-thirds of the film. That’s no knock against the D-BOX engineers. They simply didn’t have any material to work with.
D-BOX presence naturally picks up when the assassins arrive. The first multi-floor brawl in a house offers a lot of sudden movement, while a car chase tumbling over well manicured lawns delivers a more prolonged sensational experience. The incorporation of D-BOX in the 25 minute run of hit attempts make it more bearable to watch which is about all that can be asked for from the premium technology.
Beyond the Feature
High-def bonus features are relatively light on the Killers Blu-ray with Killer Chemistry (11:13, HD) being the only non-footage related piece to visit. In it the cast retrospectively talk about working with one another and the benefit of filming in France. It’s hard not to chuckle when Kutcher, who executive produced the film and basically hired himself, speaks of his efforts with great promise.
Also included are a series of unfunny Gags (1:34), 6 Deleted Scenes (4:08), 3 Alternate Scenes (5:43) including a horrible different take on the ending that comes full circle with the opening, and 3 Extended Scenes (4:40).
Killers is a film that should have been killed before it got off the drawing board. Maybe die hard Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl fans will find something in it to rejoice about, but the only praise I’ll award is for a strong transfer that has me wanting to buy a plane ticket to Nice.
– Dan Bradley
Shop for Killers on Blu-ray for a discounted price at Amazon.com.
