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Killers

Director: Robert Luketic

Cast: Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Rob Riggle, Catherine O’Hara, Tom Selleck

In what looks like a rip-off of Mr. and Mrs. Smith (with a decidedly lower rent set of stars), the producers of this Ashton Kutcher/Katherine Heigl action/RomCom promise that there will be more laughs than gasps. That seems hard to believe. While few will believe that Mr. Twitter is one of the world’s greatest assassins, it is easy to buy Ms. Whiner as the clueless spouse who had no idea. With her track record rather lame as of late (after Knocked Up, she failed to fly with 27 Dresses and The Ugly Truth), Heigl could use a hit. Sadly, this doesn’t look like the blockbuster her flagging fortunes need. What about Kutcher, you say? Well, he’s always got Demi to comfort him.

Get Him to the Greek

Director: Nicholas Stoller

Cast: Aaron Green, Russell Brand, Elisabeth Moss, Rose Byrne, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Colm Meaney

Is this the first time when a couple of throwaways scenes in a Apatow-inspired frat comedy (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) became the premise for an entire film itself? That seems to be the case here, with Jonah Hill and Brit wit Russell Brand sort-of reprising their roles as sycophantic fan/lackey and irritating international music celebrity, respectively. The premise is inherent in the title—Hill’s lowly intern must get Brand’s cocky rocker to the famed LA theater. Apparently, hi-jinx ensue. It appears that the low brow lampoon has dropped a few notches in cultural popularity, but don’t expect Get Him to the Greek to save it. Bury it for good, perhaps.

Marmaduke

Director: Tom Dey

Cast: Owen Wilson, Emma Stone, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Sam Elliot, Judy Greer, Steve Coogan, William H. Macy, George Lopez

Now this is weird. Here we have a comic strip character that hasn’t been hot since Jimmy Carter was in the White House, who probably has as much name recognition as Funky Winkerbean and Andy Capp combined. Doesn’t spell success right off the bat. But since Hollywood can now anthropomorphize anything, why not drag the lovable Great Dane and is dispirited family into the 21st century. True, the trailer looks no worse than any number of recent talking animal adventures (Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Underdog), but if the horrific Furry Vengeance is any indication where this material might go, not even the under-five set will be satisfied.

Splice

Director: Vincenzo Natali

Cast: Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, David Hewlett

Very promising indeed. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley are scientists who decided to do a little advanced gene jerry-rigging. The result is a deformed human creature with some incredibly upsetting side attributes. Ads for this horror thriller already give away most of the monster meat here, but it will be interesting to see how co-writer/director Vincenzo Natali handles the more complicated social, legal, and ethical issues. Done properly, this could be a sensational, serious scaryfest. Mishandled, however, and we could be looking at a subpar Species without a laundry list of high profile actors camping it up for the cameras.