Killers (2010 film)
| Killers | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Robert Luketic |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Bob DeRosa |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Russell Carpenter |
| Edited by | |
| Music by | Rolfe Kent |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Lionsgate |
Release date |
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Running time | 96 minutes |
| Country | Template:FilmUS |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $75 million |
| Box office | $98,159,963 [1] |
Killers is a 2010 American romantic comedy action film starring Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Tom Selleck and Catherine O'Hara. The film was released in the United States and Canada on June 4, 2010. The film centers on a young woman (Heigl) who meets a man (Kutcher) who turns out to be an assassin.
Plot
After a break-up with a boyfriend, an overly cautious Jennifer "Jen" Kornfeldt (Katherine Heigl) travels to Nice with her parents (Tom Selleck and Catherine O'Hara). While going into an elevator to go to her hotel room, she meets Spencer Aimes (Ashton Kutcher). Spencer asks her out for drinks and she accepts. The scene then changes to Spencer sneaking onto a boat, putting a time bomb on the bottom of a helicopter, then taking out a guard. He then swims back and goes on the date with Jen.
After a night of drinking, Jen reveals that she's not the spontaneous person she's been pretending to be and in return Spencer bluntly tells her that he's an assassin, albeit unhappy about being one. Unfortunately she's already passed out and hasn't heard. In spite of this, Spencer decides that Jen's the woman he's been looking for and decides to marry her. When Spencer tells his boss, Holbrook (Martin Mull), his plan, the response is that quitting is not an option. Spencer is defiant and goes ahead with his plan.
Three years later, they are settled into their new normal life. After Spencer surprises Jen with a remodeled office, she gives him a birthday surprise: tickets to Nice to celebrate his birthday and their three years. Because of his dubious connections to Nice, Spencer is less than enthusiastic. When her friends ask about his reaction, they take it as signs of that he might be getting bored and fill her head with doubts.
Meanwhile, Spencer gets a postcard from his old boss and the ultimatum to take another assignment. While trying to refuse him long distance, Jen's father shows up to take Spencer to dinner, so Spencer hangs up the phone, prompting suspicion in Mr. Kornfeldt. This is fueled further when Jen's dad sees the postcard and quizzes him about the XOXX (hugs and kisses), being odd coming from a former boss. Stopping home to change, Spencer finds that the dinner invitation is just a detour to bring him to a surprise party. While Spencer navigates drunken friends, Jen's friends continue to fill her head with doubts over Spencer's lack of enthusiasm for the Nice trip. This is further irritated, when the following morning, despite her attempts to be physical with him, Spencer rushes Jen off on her business trip.
A little while later, Jen comes back (without having gone on her trip) to find Spencer being tossed around their house by Henry (Rob Riggle), Spencer's best friend and co-worker. Spencer screams for her to get his gun (of which she was unaware) and she shoots the attacker in the arm. While interrogating the attacker, he reveals that there is a $20 million bounty on Spencer's head. An unidentified sniper takes shots at them, and Spencer and Jen flee. After escaping, they go to a hotel room where Spencer's old boss is staying, but find that someone has already killed him. Jen demands that they go to her dad for help, but Spencer disagrees. In the middle of their argument Jen vomits, and declares that she might be pregnant.
Heading back to his office for Jen to take a pregnancy test, Spencer is attacked by his secretary (Katheryn Winnick) and realizes that there are others who know about the contract. Jen then reveals that she is pregnant and is leaving Spencer. Left alone, Spencer is attacked by the UDE driver, who is killed by Olivia (Lisa Ann Walter), Henry's wife and another killer vying for the contract. She then attacks Spencer, but then Jen rams her car into Olivia's, forcing Olivia's car to crash against a fuel tank. Spencer then shoots at Olivia and hits the fuel tank which causes it to explode, thus killing Olivia. The two discuss their possible future and return to their neighborhood, which is holding its annual block party. When they first arrive they are attacked by the two assailants that were handing out the block party flyers in the morning. They escape and head to the block party. As they walk through the block party they receive many suspicious looks from neighbors. They enter their house to retrieve guns and their passports. Spencer is grabbing the guns when he is attacked by the two assassins, whom he eventually kills.
Meanwhile, one assassin, Kristen (Casey Wilson), one of Jen's best friends, holds Jen's mother as a hostage in a Mexican standoff with Jen. Jen's father arrives and kills Kristen. He then explains that he was the one who put out the bounty on Spencer. He knew of Spencer's previous work, and hired the neighbors and co-workers three years before in case Spencer started working for his old boss again, who Jen's father says had "gone dirty." After seeing the postcard from Holbrook in Spencer's office, he came to the conclusion that Spencer had re-accepted his old job and activated the assassins. He reveals that he had been an operative as well, and that he was actually the target Spencer was supposed to kill in Nice three years earlier.
Wanting to prove that he really did get out of the business and had no desire to kill her father, Spencer drops his gun. Jen, now convinced, turns on her father and reveals her pregnancy. Jen's father realizes that he will be a grandfather, but before putting down the gun, shoots the assassin that Spencer had injured earlier while grabbing the passports, but hadn't really killed. The family makes peace by building a trust circle, in which Spencer reveals that English is not his first language, and that he wanted to be the first one to say "I love you" to Jen. The movie ends showing Spencer and Jen's father working on some wires near Spencer and Jen's baby's crib. Spencer has just grown a moustache just like Jen's father. Spencer and Jen then leave to let Jen's mom and dad babysit. They all leave the room, but Spencer comes back in to activate the lasers protecting the baby.
Cast
- Ashton Kutcher as Spencer Aimes
- Katherine Heigl as Jennifer "Jen" Kornfeldt
- Tom Selleck as Mr. Kornfeldt, Jen's father
- Catherine O'Hara as Mrs. Kornfeldt, Jen's mother
- Katheryn Winnick as Vivian, Spencer's secretary
- Kevin Sussman as Mac Bailey, one of Jen and Spencer's neighbors
- Lisa Ann Walter as Olivia, Henry's wife
- Casey Wilson as Kristen, Jen's best friend
- Rob Riggle as Henry, Spencer's friend and co-worker
- Martin Mull as Holbrook, Spencer's boss
- Alex Borstein as Lily Bailey, one of Jen and Spencer's neighbors
- LeToya Luckett as Amanda, one of Jen's friends
- Mary Birdsong as Jackie Vallero, Jen and Spencer's annoying next door neighbor
- Usher as Kevin, the manager at K-Mart
Production
Filming began in the fall of 2009 and took place in Woodstock, Georgia, Nassau and France.[2]
Home media
The DVD and Blu-ray of the film was released on September 7, 2010.
Critical reception
Killers was not screened for critics before its initial release. Other Lionsgate releases that haven't been screened for critics include Gamer, the Saw films and the Tyler Perry films.
Reaction to Killers was extremely negative . Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 11% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 100 reviews, with an average score of 3.3/10.[3] The critical consensus is "dull, formulaic, and chemistry-free, Killers is an action/comedy that's largely bereft of thrills or laughs."[3]
Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 21%, based on 22 reviews,[4] receiving the Metacritic classification "Generally unfavorable reviews." It was the third lowest-rated widely-released film of 2010 on Metacritic after Vampires Suck (18%) and The Last Airbender (20%),[5] on Rotten Tomatoes it is tenth to Vampires Suck (5%), The Last Airbender (6%), The Bounty Hunter (7%), Furry Vengeance (7%), Saw 3D (8%), My Soul to Take (9%), Little Fockers (10%), Marmaduke (10%), and Grown Ups (10%).[1]
The film was nominated for the 2010 Vits Awards for "Jury's Movie", and Ashton Kutcher won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor for his performance in the movie (also for Valentine's Day).[6]
Box office
The film debuted at #3 at the box office behind Shrek Forever After and Get Him to the Greek, with an estimated $15.8 million in its opening weekend. Based on a budget of $75 million, Killers took in only $47 million domestically in the United States. With an additional $51.1 million overseas, the film grossed $98.1 million worldwide.
References
- ^ Killers at Box Office Mojo
- ^ Siegel, Tatiana (2009-02-18). "Heigl, Kutcher to star in 'Killers'". Variety. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ a b Killers Movie Reviews, Pictures. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2011-11-30.
- ^ Killers Reviews, Ratings, Credits. Metacritic. Retrieved 2011-11-30.
- ^ Highest and Lowest Scoring Movies. Metacritic. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
- ^ "The 31st Annual Razzie Awards".
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External links
