KILLERS (Robert Luketic). 105 minutes. Opens Friday (June 4). See Listing. Rating: N
Killers stops dead at exactly the moment it should spring to life – when assas-sins start springing out of the woodwork to whack retired spy Ashton Kutcher, who’s been living a comfortable suburban life with his unwitting wife, Katherine Heigl, for the past three years.
Instead of finding that happy Mr. & Mrs. Smith medium between domestic comedy and frenetic action, director Luketic struggles to find a tone that suits the material, to say nothing of a pace. (His strategy of casting every speaking part with the likes of Rob Riggle, Alex Borstein, Lisa Ann Walter, Casey Wilson, and Martin Mull – Martin Mull! – may be intended to take up the comic slack, but it just means we can’t take them seriously when shit’s supposed to get real.) The script’s a crock, and the ultimate explanation behind the movie’s plot is just insulting.
I mean, sure, I can believe that the whole world wants to kill Kutcher, but it’s a touch harder to buy Heigl as a comic actor. Shrill and mannered, she still can’t make that sale – especially when she’s in the same frame as Catherine O’Hara, who gives the only performance worth watching as Heigl’s perpetually sozzled mom.[rssbreak]
normw@nowtoronto.com
