DVD Review: "Killers"

Devoid of laughs and conspicuously denying several talented players any opportunity to shine, "Killers" bumbles around for 100 minutes without a hint of chemistry igniting between stars Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher. Director Robert Luketic's alarmingly quick follow-up to "The Ugly Truth," his previous Heigl collaboration, is an object lesson in making a romantic comedy that is neither comedic nor romantic.

Heigl stars as the unlucky-in-love Jen Kornfeldt, stuck on vacation in France with her controlling parents (the criminally wasted Catherine O'Hara and Tom Selleck) when she meets Spencer Aimes (Kutcher), a CIA assassin who, according to the script, charms her. Three years later, they live in quiet suburbia: Spencer has left the killing business and never told Jen about his past, but that is exactly when that past should come back to haunt him, right?

O'Hara is given nothing to do but play a stereotypical middle-age lush, and such key utility actors as Martin Mull and Rob Riggle just clock in for minimal lifting before checking out. But beyond Luketic's colorless direction — he's a long way from the stylish "21" — "Killers" lacks a pulse because Kutcher and Heigl never commit to their characters. Heigl cannot even scream convincingly here, possibly because Luketic fails to generate tension or urgency despite the body count, and Kutcher is simply playing dress up, never convincing as having the career aptitude for international intrigue. Because of this lack of care from seemingly all parties, "Killers" just lies there, dead on arrival.

— George Lang