Killer (2010)

Directed by: Robert Luketic | 100 minutes | action, thriller, comedy | Actors: Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Catherine O’Hara, Tom Selleck, Alex Borstein, Katheryn Winnick, Rob Riggle, Natalina Maggio, Martin Mull, Larry Joe Campbell, Mary Birdsong, Lisa Ann Walter, Kevin Sussman, Casey Wilson, Letoya Luckett Ric Reitz, Anna Colwell, Elena Kolpachikova, Marvin Baldwin Jr., Michael Daniel Cassady, John Charles, Yan Dron

Jen (Katherine Heigl) is such a conservative that she was dumped by her boyfriend due to a lack of adventure. She didn’t want to go bungee jumping with him because she didn’t want to puke in public. That’s why she, as an adult daughter, is on a plane with her overprotective father (Tom Selleck) and her feisty mother (Catherine O’Hara) on her way to Nice in France. Going on vacation with your parents as a single in her thirties is probably the dullest and dullest thing you can do, so when Jen meets the handsome Spencer and, to her surprise, gets a date with him, she tries to pretend to be completely different. than she is. She puts on an extremely tight, sexy dress, drinks way too much, but when she finds that Spencer just likes her and appreciates being such a stable person, she drops the masquerade.

What Jen doesn’t know, however, is that Spencer is a secret agent with a license-to-kill. In order to marry her and build a normal life, he wants to put an end to this dangerous existence. His boss (Martin Mull) warns Spencer that he can’t just leave such a life behind and those words turn out to be true, even though everything seems to be going well for three years. Jen and Spencer lead a quiet, middle-class life in a small town where everyone knows each other and the neighborhood party is the highlight of the year. When Spencer receives a message out of the blue from his former boss, a good-natured family friend suddenly turns out to be an accomplished killer, just like Spencer used to be. It turns out this family friend isn’t the only one out for Spencer and if Spencer isn’t careful, he’ll lose Jen.

Fortunately ‘Killers’ isn’t just another James Bond spoof, although the exciting start with a fast car and everything that goes with it does point in that direction. The pace is also way too slow for an action movie, which is funny, that every time you start to think it’s getting boring, something else happens that wakes you up or makes you laugh and that doesn’t make the previous moments alone. well, the clash of those two extremes makes the film entertaining. You don’t have to be bored.

The assets of the film are the acting and the humor. Basically everyone plays at least good or funny. Hilarious are the scenes with Catherine O’Hara, of whom a small dislocation of the face is already telling. Tom Selleck is also funny with an interesting mix of wit and a sharpness that should not be underestimated. Ashton Kutcher plays really nice, the action sequences are at least physically believable, that big chest must have gone into quite a few hours of training, and in terms of humor and timing he makes the most of his years of experience on ‘That’s 70s show’. Katherine Heigl is once again fine as a comedic heroine and the interplay between her and Kutcher is perfectly fine.

‘Killers’ is a funny, warm film with a lot of sympathetic stealing, but in this case it is certainly better to steal good than make up bad ideas. It’s just a silly, tasty story that provides carefree entertainment and that’s just fine from time to time.