Killers (2010/Liosngate Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B+     Extras: C-     Feature: C-

 

 

Ashton Kutcher may be a media star and former TV star, but big screen success has eluded him.  He has not had a hit film as a result and at the rate he is going, never will.  Guess Who (2005) at least proved he could be funny on the big screen, but his comedy spy thriller Killers (2010) is a True Lies wanna-be with too much humor, stupid action sequences and no sense of balance on any level or any sense of any of the genres attempted.

 

In this case, the woman who does not know what is going on is played by Katherine Heigl, who has made nothing but romantic fluff since Knocked Up (2005) and was good casting for the role.  However, the script by Bob DeRosa (the failed Air That I Breathe) and Ted Griffin has zero wit, is a mess, has zero suspense, has no jokes that work, thinks it is still the 1980s, has too many jokes about families and did they and director Robert Luketic (in freefall since Monster-In-Law) think they were doing a Fockers film as spy comedy?

 

Heigl is the same age as Kutcher, yet seems older and more mature than him.  They generate very little chemistry and I did not believe one frame of this from the start.  I like her very much, but this is miles from working and maybe watching early episodes of Hart To Hart or Moonlighting could have helped, but you still have that bad script.  Tom Selleck and Catherine O’Hara play her parents and the otherwise unknown cats also has Martin Mull and Alex Borstein (Family Guy) show up.  Why anyone at Lionsgate or anyone involved thought this would be a hit is mind-boggling, though it encouraged a certain billionaire top go after the studio even more.  Lionsgate has enough problems with their smaller productions.  Until they are able to make them better, they should not be attempting expensive A-level entries like this unless they get people who actually know how to write and direct them.

 

Fox release almost the same film a few months later with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz called Knight & Day.  We’ll get to how that turned out when it hits Blu-ray next.

 

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot with the RED ONE 4K HD camera and the result is too soft and generic throughout for its own good, even in the hands of Director of Photography Russell Carpenter (True Lies, Titanic) and it just does not work.  Detail issues and color limits abound and to spend this money to make this on HD at this point is a mistake.  The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 7.1 mix is the highlight of the disc, sounding really good with a well constructed and thought-out soundfield, plus also offers D-BOX encoding for those who have this motion/bass system.  Too bad the film was not as good.

 

Extras include Blu-ray exclusive BD Live, Lionsgate Live, BD Touch and Metamenu interactive functions, behind the scenes featurette, Deleted/Alternate/Extended Scenes that would no have helped and a Gags piece.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo