An Overlooked Ashton Kutcher Movie Is Now Super Popular On Netflix
Ashton Kutcher has a gem of a movie taking off on Netflix.
This article is more than 2 years old
With an ever-revolving door of content and a growing number of original films and shows, Netflix continues to be formidable competition for the countless streaming services vying for our cash and our love. Many of the classics and overlooked gems it often makes available have precious little time to make it onto the service’s coveted Top 10 list. Predictably, few ever do (which is why Good Burger and 17 Again making the top 10 last week was so welcome). Just as surprisingly, a lesser-known, critically reviled Ashton Kutcher movie is the latest “older” film to crack the list.
According to yesterday’s update of What’s on Netflix, Ashton Kutcher’s 2010 film Killers was the streamer’s eighth most popular title for that day. Co-starring Kutcher and Katherine Heigl, the film centers around a woman who falls in love with an assassin. Sounds like a cool idea, right? I think so.
Sadly, critics and most audiences seemed to disagree about the Ashton Kutcher movie. Robert Luketic’s action-comedy shared multiplexes with Shrek Forever After and Get Him To The Greek and pulled in a meager $47 million domestically (abysmal and discouraging, especially considering its budget was around $75 million). Adding insult to injury was the negative reception it garnered from critics. Sitting not-so-pretty at a 10% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film’s critical consensus reads, “Dull, formulaic, and chemistry-free, Killers is an action-comedy that’s largely bereft of thrills or laughs.” But CinemaScore has it graded at a “B,” which means audiences enjoyed it a great deal more than critics did. That may explain its resurgence on Netflix. Here’s the trailer, if you’re interested in bringing it back up the Netflix charts:
Obviously, Netflix’s Top 10 list changes every day, so it’s kind of a fun exercise to comb through and see if any gems have climbed the charts. What’s new isn’t always what’s trending, and that can be a great thing for viewers looking to dive a little deeper into the streamer’s catalogue (which continues to get more extensive and impressive). If we’re talking streamers, I’m personally more of an HBO Max fan. But Netflix absolutely has some excellent offerings and is worth exploring.
Since their Killers days, Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher have both continued to experience flourishing careers both in and out of Hollywood. Onscreen, Heigl has since appeared in the 2011 film New Year’s Eve, the final two seasons of the USA Network series Suits, The Nut Job, and numerous other high-profile shows and films. She’s also set to star in Netflix’s Firefly Lane next month. Kutcher co-starred in The Ranch from 2016 to 2020, joining That ’70s show co-star Danny Masterson and Sam Elliott to tell a story about two brothers joining forces to help their father run a cattle ranch in Colorado. He has also appeared in a 2016 episode of Family Guy titled “Candy, Quahog Marshmallow.”
Offscreen, Heigl does cover modeling and charity work (with an emphasis on animal rights activism and organ donation), and Ashton Kutcher has taken to investing in tech start-ups and restaurants (Dolce Italian restaurant and the now-closed, Japanese-themed Geisha House restaurant chain, for example). Kutcher’s focus seems to have shifted to being a venture capitalist, a path that has put him on shows such as Shark Tank. He has also worked tirelessly to combat child sex trafficking, having teamed up with then-wife Demi Moore in 2009 to co-found a human rights organization dedicated to that cause.
What do you think of Netflix’s programming? Did that first look at Red Notice excite you at all? Perhaps most importantly: What do you think of Killers? Does it deserve the hate, or were you one of the viewers who helped it out yesterday? The film is constantly overshadowed by excellent comedies from that year, such as the Emma Stone-starring Easy A and the Will Ferrell/Mark Wahlberg buddy cop romp The Other Guys. It’s easy to pile on jokes and criticisms but maybe looking for merit in a movie that maybe had potential is worth doing. Still, though, it’s nice to see overlooked films getting a second shot in the spotlight. Valentine’s Day is also just around the corner so maybe that will give it another boost?
Let us know what you think, and stay tuned for more updates on what’s trending on Netflix and its fellow streaming services.
