Premise: A vacationing woman meets her ideal man, leading to a swift marriage. Back at home, however, their idyllic life is upset when they discover their neighbors could be assassins who have been contracted to kill the couple. It was previously called Five Killers, but I can see why they changed it, because the number of killers really doesn't matter. Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl star.
Writers: Bob De Rosa, Revisions by a lot of people, including Ted Griffin, Michael Brandt (who also did The A-Team), Derek Haas, and Melissa K. Stack (Dated 2/3/09)
Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl in "Killers"
Next summer, blockbusters will once again be unleashed to the movie going public. There's Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3, and the new Twilight movie. It's very hard to stand out among these heavy-hitters, and right unless your movie's name is "Inception" your going to have to work hard to find an audience. The key of course, is a good script. Look at this summer for example. We had Up, an original animated feature, Star Trek, a reboot to a dead franchise, and The Hangover, which is now the highest grossing R-rated comedy ever. They all had great scripts. So does this film have the potential to match those films? Well, let me set the bar a little lower, could this film breakout ala The Proposal? I think it just might.
Let me start from the beginning. We're in Nice, France. It doesn't take long before we meet our hero, Spencer Broome. He's some sort of secret agent here in France to take out a target. Spencer is pretty much the perfect guy that the dude's wanna be and the girl's want to be with. But at the heart, Spencer's pretty much done with this lifestyle. He's ready to settle down and start a family. Enter Jen Kornfeld. She's here in France on vacation with her overbearing parents. Jen's pretty, but not overly sexy, and she's flatout goofy. Well, the two meet and fall in love. Spencer leaves his spy life behind and gets what he's always wanted.
Cut to three years later. Spencer and Jen are now the perfect suburban couple. I like this, simply because it seems like in any other script, the lead couple will have been at each other's throats by now and instead of being in love are simply going through the motions. So it's a nice change, even if it's a small one. Anyways, Spencer has not told Jen about his past life, but it comes back to haunt him when he gets a package from his "handler". It only contains an address, but not knowing what's going on puts Spencer on edge. Now Spencer is forced to confront his past, and after an attempt on his life, he and Jen are forced to go on the run. Spencer comes clean about everything, and let's just say Jen is a little pissed.
So Spencer and Jen are on the run. Every step they take they are confronted by supposed friends who were actually plants sent to kill Spencer by some head honcho. There are some entertaining scenes here, but most of the problems this couple get themselves into seem like they could have been easily avoided, although I did like the sense of paranoia. They nor we know who the assassins are and who are actually their friends.
The script really was a nice thrill ride. There were some great action sequences, and known of the comedy is forced, it's just trying to show the plot in a lighthearted way. I'll admit, I didn't expect much going in, but I was very impressed. I will say this though, I was kind of disappointed in the ending. I saw it coming from a mile away, and it felt like a cop out. Other then that, it was a fun read. I say read it, and we may see a surprise hit at the box office next summer.
[] Somebody should be fired
[] Bad
[] Mediocre
[x] Worth the read
[] Great
[] Amazing
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