Hollywood’s new leading-lady-of-the-moment Katherine Heigl had better hope the casting directors turn a blind eye to her latest big screen outing alongside eye candy Ashton Kutcher.

Heigl’s unlucky-in-love Jen is the kind of play-it-safe gal who holidays with her parents so when she bumps into the dashingly handsome Spencer (Kutcher) in the French Riviera she thinks she’s finally found the man of her dreams.

Fast forward three years and the couple are happily married, living the kind of saccharine-coated suburban lifestyle which only exists in movies.

That is until the eve of Spencer’s 30th birthday when he receives a message from his old boss and his previous life as an assassin comes back to haunt him.

Suddenly he is under attack from the most unlikely characters with a $20 million price tag on his head.

And, while dodging bullets, his horrified wife has to deal with the fact she is married to a trained killer and might be about to become a mum.

Heigl and Kutcher both have comedic talents but the poor script and weak plot let them down.

Killers tries to be both a rom-com and an action movie but neither genre is executed particularly well - although Kutcher, who bulked up for the role, is a pretty believable tough guy.

Clearly trying to emulate the success of Mr & Mrs Smith, this movie lacks the pace, laughs and explosive clashes of Pitt and Jolie’s 2005 offering.

The relevation that the couple’s neighbours and work colleagues are assassins works reasonably well but it comes as no surprise when Jen’s retired pilot father (Tom Selleck) is unmasked as the mastermind behind the plot and a secret spy.

And the frankly embarassing penultimate scene - with the “trust circle” borrowed straight from the much wittier Meet the Parents - and the weak ending definitely put this movie in the ‘no-brainer’ category.