''Killers'' is a 2010 American

action comedy film Action comedy is a genre that combines aspects of action and comedy. The genre is most prevalent in film with action comedy films, though several TV series fit this genre. Film The action comedy film is a film genre that combines aspects of actio ...

directed by

Robert Luketic Robert Luketic (born 1 November 1973) is an Australian film director. His films include ''Legally Blonde'' (2001), ''Monster-in-Law'' (2005), ''21 (2008 film), 21'' (2008), ''Killers (2010 film), Killers'' (2010), and ''Paranoia (2013 film), Pa ...

and starring

Katherine Heigl Katherine Marie Heigl ( ; born November 24, 1978) is an American actress and former fashion model. She played Dr. Izzie Stevens on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television medical drama ''Grey's Anatomy'' from 2005 to 2010, a role tha ...

and

Ashton Kutcher Christopher Ashton Kutcher (; born February 7, 1978) is an American actor, producer, entrepreneur, and former model. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a People's Choice Award, and nominations for two Young Artist Awards, a S ...

. The film centers on a young woman (Heigl) who meets the man of her dreams (Kutcher) who turns out to be an assassin. The film was theatrically released on June 4, 2010. It received negative reviews from critics and grossed $98 million worldwide against its $75 million budget.

Plot

Jen Kornfeldt travels to

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, with her parents after a break-up. She meets Spencer Aimes, and agrees to join him later for drinks. He sneaks aboard a boat, planting a bomb on a helicopter, then arrives for his date with Jen. When the helicopter takes off, Spencer triggers the bomb. After a night of drinking, Spencer, unaware Jen has fallen asleep, reveals he is a professional

assassin Assassination is the murder of a prominent or VIP, important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not ha ...

. Despite the advice of his boss, Holbrook, Spencer quits contract killing and begins a relationship with Jen, eventually asking her father, Mr. Kornfeldt for his blessing to marry her. Three years later, Spencer and Jen have settled into married life. When she surprises him with tickets to Nice for his birthday, he is less than enthusiastic, which Jen's friends convince her is a sign he is bored with their relationship. Spencer receives a "romantic" postcard from Holbrook with an ultimatum to take another assignment. Trying to refuse the job over the phone, he hangs up suddenly when Jen's father arrives, prompting suspicion; he also notices the postcard. Mr. Kornfeldt brings Spencer to a surprise birthday party, where Spencer's distraction over the assignment strengthens Jen's doubts about his commitment, further fuelled in the morning when he rushes her off on her business trip. Jen decides not to leave, and returns home to find Spencer fighting off his best friend Henry, secretly a fellow assassin who reveals that a $20 million bounty has been placed on Spencer and that anyone in his life could be an assassin. A sniper opens fire on the house, and Spencer and Jen flee. They lead Henry on a car chase through the neighborhood and ram his car onto

rebar Rebar (short for reinforcing bar), known when massed as reinforcing steel or reinforcement steel, is a steel bar used as a Tension (physics), tension device in reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry structures to strengthen and aid the concr ...

, killing him. After they find Holbrook dead in his hotel room, Jen vomits and realizes she might be pregnant. At Spencer's office, Jen takes a pregnancy test, and he is attacked by his secretary Vivian. But Spencer, with Jen's distraction, manages to kill her. Jen's test is positive, and despite Spencer's pleas, she drives off alone. Spencer is attacked by a delivery driver, who is run over and killed by one of Spencer's co-workers, Olivia. She tries to run him over, but Jen returns and rams Olivia's car into a fuel tank, which Spencer shoots. The car explodes, killing Olivia in the process. Spencer and Jen discuss their future together and return home, evading a couple next door, Mac and Lily, also assassins. Making their way through the neighbourhood

block party A block party or street party is a party in which many members of a single community congregate, either to observe an event of some importance or simply for mutual solidarity and enjoyment. The name comes from the form of the party, which ofte ...

, they enter the house to retrieve Spencer's bug-out bag. Spencer subdues the neighbours, while Jen's best friend Kristen, another assassin, holds Jen's mother hostage in a

Mexican standoff A Mexican standoff is a confrontation in which no strategy exists that allows any party to achieve victory. Any party initiating aggression might trigger its own demise. At the same time, the parties are unable to extricate themselves from the sit ...

with Jen. Jen's father arrives and kills Kristen; in a standoff with Spencer, he reveals that he ordered the hit. Aware of Spencer's career all along, Mr. Kornfeldt explains that he was a former operative himself, and had been Spencer's target in Nice; he embedded the assassins in Spencer and Jen's lives. The postcard from Holbrook led Mr. Kornfeldt to believe that Spencer had resumed his old job, so he

activated "Activated" is a song by English singer Cher Lloyd. It was released on 22 July 2016 through Vixen Records. The song was made available to stream exclusively on ''Rolling Stone'' a day before to release (on 21 July 2016). Background In an interv ...

the assassins. To prove he has truly left his old job behind, Spencer drops his gun, assuring Mr. Kornfeldt he has no intention of killing him. Jen, now convinced, reveals her pregnancy to her parents. And her father, after killing one last assassin, drops his gun as well, and the family makes peace by building a trust circle. Months later, Spencer – growing a moustache to emulate Mr. Kornfeldt – and Jen leave her parents to babysit their child, guarded by lasers.

Cast

as Spencer *

as Jen *

Tom Selleck Thomas William Selleck (; born January 29, 1945) is an American actor. His breakout role was playing private investigator Thomas Magnum in the television series ''Magnum, P.I.'' (1980–1988), for which he received five Emmy Award nominations f ...

as Mr. Kornfeldt *

Catherine O'Hara Catherine Anne O'Hara (born March 4, 1954) is a Canadian-American actress. She is known for her comedy work on ''Second City Television'' (1976–84) and ''Schitt's Creek'' (2015–2020) and in films such as '' After Hours'' (1985), ''Beetleju ...

as Mrs. Kornfeldt *

Katheryn Winnick Katheryn Winnick (born December 17, 1977) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her starring roles in the television series ''Vikings'' (2013–2020), ''Wu Assassins'' (2019), and '' Big Sky'' (2020–present), and her recurring role on the tele ...

as Vivian *

Kevin Sussman Kevin Sussman (born December 4, 1970) is an American actor and comedian. He played Walter on the ABC comedy-drama ''Ugly Betty'' and Stuart Bloom on the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory''. Starting with the sixth season of ''The Big Bang Theory ...

as Mac Bailey *

Lisa Ann Walter Lisa Ann Walter (born August 3, 1963) is an American actress, comedian and television producer, best known for her roles as Chessy in the romantic comedy film '' The Parent Trap'' and Melissa Schemmenti on the ABC mockumentary sitcom ''Abbott El ...

as Olivia Brooks *

Casey Wilson Cathryn Rose "Casey" Wilson (born October 24, 1980) is an American actress, comedienne, and screenwriter. She starred as Penny Hartz in the ABC comedy series '' Happy Endings'' for which she was twice nominated to the Critics' Choice Television A ...

as Kristen *

Rob Riggle Robert A. Riggle Jr. (born April 21, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, and former United States Marine Officer. He is known for his work as a correspondent on Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show'' from 2006 to 2008; as a cast member on ''Satu ...

as Henry *

Martin Mull Martin Eugene Mull (born August 18, 1943) is an American actor, comedian and musician who has appeared in many television and film roles. He is also a painter and recording artist. As an actor, he first became known in his role on ''Mary Hartman, ...

as Holbrook *

Alex Borstein Alexandrea Borstein (born February 15, 1971) is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer. Borstein voices Lois Griffin on the animated comedy television series '' Family Guy'' (1999–present), and won a Primetime Emmy Award for the rol ...

as Lily Bailey In addition, Usher (credited with his full name, Usher Raymond IV) has a cameo as Kevin, the K Mart manager, while

Mary Birdsong Mary Evans Birdsong (born April 18, 1968) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and singer. She has worked in the theater and voiceover work and is a regular cast member on ''Reno 911!'' Early life Birdsong was born in Florida and grew up ...

briefly appears as Jackie, Jen and Spencer's obnoxious next door neighbor.

Production

Originally announced in September 2007 under the title ''Five Killers'', the film was written by Bob DeRosa as an action thriller to be directed by Mark Helfrich. Ashton Kutcher was cast in the lead in October 2008, with

directing instead of Helfrich and reformatted as an action-comedy rather than an action thriller in a rewrite by

Ted Griffin Ted Griffin (born December 21, 1970) is an American screenwriter whose credits include '' Ravenous'', ''Matchstick Men'', and ''Ocean's Eleven''. Born in Pasadena, California, Griffin graduated from Colgate University in 1993. He was schedule ...

. Katherine Heigl joined the cast in February 2009 playing opposite Kutcher. Filming began in the fall of 2009 and took place in the Tributary community in

Douglasville, Georgia The city of Douglasville is the county seat of Douglas County, Georgia, United States. , the city had a population of 34,650, up from 30,961 in 2010 and 20,065 in 2000. Douglasville is located approximately west of Atlanta and is part of th ...

, Nassau and

Villefranche-sur-Mer Villefranche-sur-Mer (, ; oc, Vilafranca de Mar ; it, Villafranca Marittima ) is a resort town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera and is located south-west of the Principality of ...

doubling for Nice.

Home media

The

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

of the film was released on September 7, 2010.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of 10% based on 111 reviews, and an average rating of 3.30/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Dull, formulaic, and chemistry-free, ''Killers'' is an action/comedy that's largely bereft of thrills or laughs." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 21 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Rob Nelson of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote: "Bullets fly and jokes land with a thud in ''Killers'', a deadly dull hubby's-a-hit man farce that alternately resembles a knockoff of 2005's '' Mr. and Mrs. Smith'' and a rehash of '' Knight & Day'' avant la lettre." Jeannette Catsoulis of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' warned "Unless you're trapped on an airplane or enjoying movie night at the penitentiary, you have no excuse for watching ''Killers''. A brain-deadening collision of high concept and low standards." Ashton Kutcher won the

Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor The Razzie Award for Worst Actor is an award presented at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards to the worst actor of the previous year. The following is a list of nominees and recipients of that award, along with the film(s) for which they were nomi ...

for his performance in the film (also for ''

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...

'').

Box office

The film debuted at #3 at the box office behind ''

Shrek Forever After ''Shrek Forever After'' is a 2010 American computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the 1990 picture book ''Shrek!'' by William Steig, produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The sequel to ''Shrek the Thi ...

'' and ''

Get Him to the Greek ''Get Him to the Greek'' is a 2010 American comedy film written, produced and directed by Nicholas Stoller and starring Russell Brand and Jonah Hill. Released on June 4, 2010, the film is a spin-off sequel of Stoller's 2008 film '' Forgetting S ...

'', with $15.8 million in its opening weekend. Against its budget of $75 million, ''Killers'' took in $47 million in the United States, and $51.1 million in other territories, the film grossed $98.1 million worldwide.

References

External links

* * *
Production Photos and Trailer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Killers (2010 Film) 2010 films 2010 action comedy films 2010 romantic comedy films 2010s American films 2010s crime comedy films 2010s English-language films 2010s romantic action films American action comedy films American crime comedy films American romantic comedy films DMG Entertainment films Films about contract killing Films directed by Robert Luketic Films scored by Rolfe Kent Films set in France Films shot in Atlanta Films shot in the Bahamas Films shot in France Films shot in Los Angeles County, California Films with screenplays by Ted Griffin Golden Raspberry Award winning films Lionsgate films Romantic crime films