Kiss & Kill

After their successful collaboration on the film "The Naked Truth", lead actress Katherine Heigl and director Robert Luketic have teamed up again for a romantic comedy. And in "Kiss & Kill", Heigl again gets to deal with a particularly complicated specimen of the male species. This time, however, it is not an incorrigible macho, but a badass killer.

Der Jen Kornfeldt, played by the "Grey`s Anatomy" star, however, nothing of this when she falls in love with the attractive and charming Spencer Aimes (Ashton Kutcher) on a holiday trip with her parents (Tom Selleck and Catherine O`Hara). After a few relationship disappointments, Spencer finally seems to be the one. And indeed, everything goes exactly as it should for a great romance, with lots of passion, love and romance. But even though the two of them seem to lead the perfect small-town married life, Jen soon discovers that this idyll is a lie. For Spencer is a trained killer, a secret agent who suddenly finds himself in the line of fire. And so Jen must fear not only for her marriage, but also for her life. But Spencer also learns an important lesson on this adventure: there's nothing more dangerous than an angry wife...

"Kiss & Kill" shamelessly draws on similarly constructed films like "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" or "Kiss & Kill", mixes the whole thing with some slapstick and set pieces of romantic comedy. The whole thing is really not very original and you have as a viewer almost every moment the feeling to have seen it all before somewhere else. In direct comparison to similar movies "Kiss & Kill" doesn't really come off well, because the staging is too bland to be really convincing, despite some successful gags.

Surely: when the drinks Jen's mother indulges in get bigger and bigger by the way or Spencer gets into a tough duel with an attractive colleague, when Jen discovers her talent for firearms or her father, wonderfully played by Tom Selleck, takes his new son-in-law to task - with surprising results - then it's already very entertaining. And since the chemistry between the two leads is just right, their somewhat worn-out quarrels are also quite fun.

And yet, in the end, you're left with the feeling that director Robert Luketic has only cooked on the back burner here. Despite some very funny ideas and quite macabre scenes, "Kiss & Kill" still remains very pleasing and interchangeable on balance. There is hardly a scene, which remains longer in the memory of the viewer. So, while the whole thing is good entertainment for an enjoyable evening at the movies, the aftertaste of popcorn stays with the viewer longer than this chirpy comedy. Therefore, if you're looking for nice, superficial entertainment, you'll definitely be well served here. But more just not.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp