Cert: 12A
Director: Robert Luketic
Country: USA 2010

Summertime is here and the Hollywood genre machine is in full swing churning out its ‘feel good’ ‘rom coms’ to keep us all buoyed up in the face of the economic dark clouds.

I could have gone to see a good four of this genre on release at this moment. I chose ‘Killers’ - a rom com with a twist (so the blurb says).

(Awkward) girl meets (knockout) boy, falls in love, marries but... boy has a secret past - he is a secret agent and trained killer and his past catches up with him - and her and the thrills and laughs follow.

It’s OK, but on the lame side of OK. But the interesting angle for me is the star. The film revolves around Ashton Kutcher and his persona. Now you might know him as Point Place Wisconsin’s likeable ‘dumbass’ teenager Michael Kelso in the long running sitcom ‘That 70’s Show’. It was here that he became incredibly popular as the engaging, but knuckle-headed boyfriend of Mila Kunis - another rising star from that series. That was about 10 years ago and he has not moved on much at all with his acting style.

This leads to a few problems of credibility when he is supposed to be a cool debonair super spy. Having said that the problems of credibility run right through the script, casting and story and eventual ridiculous revelation - oh what the hell!

Don’t take it too seriously and then you might hear, hidden in the subtext, what Kelso used to say when he had played a trick on his pals - Burn!  RB

Russell Baldwin has an MA in film Studies, is a qualified teacher, lives in Southsea and is an experienced carpenter and decorator.