Wild Target and Killers

This week we have two similarly themed comedies from either side of the Atlantic. Starting with the British offering:

Wild Target is actually a remake of a French film. Bill Nighy stars as the hitman hired to kill Emily Blunt, who has made the mistake of ripping off the wrong man (Rupert Everett), but instead finds himself falling for her wild and unpredictable ways. Meanwhile, Rupert Grint (Ron from Harry Potter) stars as the vaguely gormless sidekick, Martin Freeman (in his best big screen outing) is the rather creepy rival hitman and Eileen Atkins has a hoot as Nighy's mum, supporting the family business.

The result is fitfully funny - the action is generally well handled and the scenes between Nighy and Grint work well. However, when the romance takes over it feels more icky than either funny or convincing, due to the insurmountable age gap and a lack of chemistry between the leads - even Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones made a more convincing couple. At the end of the day, Blunt is just too young for it to work. Which is a pity because individually, they're both great fun to watch. The film does manage to pull things round for a decent enough finale. Overall - 5.5/10 Intermittently funny and mainly entertaining despite the questionable romance.

Killers could also accurately be described as intermittently funny. Ashton Kutcher stars as the secret agent who tries to get out of the game after meeting and falling for Katherine Heigl's normal girl. Three years later and he suddenly finds himself having to fend off numerous hitmen.

Kutcher has an acting range that stretches from lovable doofus to lovable doofus. Suave secret agent is too much a stretch for him, but he still makes a watchable screen presence, as does Heigl doing ditzy blonde again. The problem is, as above, there is zero chemistry between them.

There are some nicely handled bits of action, but the film is saved by Tom Sellick and Katherine O'Hara as Heigl's parents, who between them get most of the laughs.
Overall - 5.5/10 Also intermittently funny, with some half decent action and Bond references.

Also out:
Our Family Wedding - 4/10 a romantic comedy with zero romance and next to no laughs, also featuring the nadir of Forrest Whittaker's career, crude racial stereotypes and a goat on viagra. Less entertaining than watching England play Algeria.