Killers

Meet Jen (Katherine Heigl) and Spencer, a seemingly ordinary and happily married suburban couple of three years, who met and fell in love in a whirlwind romance while vacationing in France. Much to Jen and Spencer’s surprise, their happy suburban life is soon turned on its head, when she discovers that her husband used to be an undercover government assassin, and he discovers that the career he thought he left behind has come back for him, and now has a 20 million dollar bounty on his head. Jen and Spencer soon learn that they cannot trust anyone, because the killers hired to kill him are their own neighbors, coworkers, and friends. Jen and Spencer’s domestic bliss soon turns into a race for their lives, as they must fight off a neighborhood full of money-hungry killers.

Positive Elements

Married life and settling down are portrayed in a positive light and as something desirable that everybody should want to work towards. Spencer tells Jen at the beginning of the movie that he “wants to put down roots” and after they fall in love he gladly trades the seemingly glamorous life of an undercover international assassin for the domestic life. Spencer and Jen truly love each other and want their marriage to last a lifetime. Throughout the film we see that the health of their marriage and the other person’s well-being are very important to Spencer and Jen.

Jen has a close relationship with her very protective parents (albeit rather eccentric parents). Spencer respects her parents and in one scene asks Jen’s dad for his blessing for their marriage.

As soon as Jen finds out that she and Spencer are going to have a baby, the baby’s well-being becomes her top priority, which is reflected in her statement, “What I wanted stopped mattering as soon as I saw those two bars (found out I was pregnant)”. Jen, Spencer, and her parents are all genuinely excited about the expectant baby.

This film ultimately brings up the importance of trust and honesty in marriage and raises some important questions about lying to your spouse in order to protect him or her, which is what Spencer did to protect Jen.

Negative Elements

Even though “Killers” is not completely devoid of any redeeming qualities or moral lessons, these platitudes about trust and honesty in marriage are mere tokens in a film that is littered with sexual innuendo. The recurring jokes about making love and various characters’ sexual relationships were distasteful, fell flat, and ruined a movie that had comedic potential and the makings of a funny summer popcorn flick.

Even though this film is free of any actual bedroom scenes, the “Killer’s” sexual content and innuendo is still rather heavy. In one scene, Jen complains to Spencer that her dress is too tight and she asks him to just cut it off, so he does (no partial nudity is seen and he gives her a blanket to cover herself up with, while he turns around). In another scene, it is implied that Spencer and Jen go skinny-dipping in the ocean, as evidenced by the clothes left on the beach. Spencer is seen shirtless in swimming trunks, Jen wears several low-cut outfits and is shown only wearing a bra and skirt around the house after they are married. There is a lot of sexual dialogue including mention of porn and various characters sexual relationships. Also, Jen’s mother’s alcoholism is played for laughs.

God’s name is repeatedly profaned throughout the film and is paired at least once with the word, d—n. One f-word and several s-words are uttered. Other profanities include the words, p---ed, h—l, a woman in a car flips someone off, and several rude terms are used to describe the male anatomy.

This film has many scenes with characters shooting at and killing each other, there are several car chases, and various characters engage in martial arts style violence and beat each other up. The numerous killers, who are chasing Spencer, are killed in various ways throughout the film, some of these deaths are more gruesome than others. For example, a chandelier impales one of the killers. While the violence in “Killers” is comparatively mild to the violence you will see in most Hollywood war films, I still found some of the violence in this film to be a bit too gruesome and dark for its comedic genre.

Summary and Recommendations

Even though this film was not completely devoid of positive elements and had a few funny moments, the “Killers” is yet another example of a potentially enjoyable summer movie ruined by pervasive sexual content and language, and therefore I cannot recommend it to potential viewers.

Violence: Moderate / Profanity: Heavy / Sex/Nudity: Heavy

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.

• Positive
• Neutral
• Negative
• Young people