Unashamed of flaunting its B-movie conventions, A Perfect Getaway revels in setting up portends of doom for Cliff (Steve Zahn) and Cydney (Milla Jovovich) on their Hawaii honeymoon. This sugary-sweet lovey-dovey couple seem blissfully ignorant of the fact there’s a psycho killer on the loose, and faster than you can say “red herring” they’re introduced to a variety of vaguely suspicious tourists, most notably a wild-eyed war veteran, Nick (Timothy Olyphant), who makes a big deal out of the metal plate in his forehead and the fact that he might be missing part of his brain. The audience will surely be saying “Don’t go there!” when Nick and his oddball, free-spirited Southern belle of a girlfriend, Gina (Kiele Sanchez), lead them into the most remote parts of the island like lambs to the slaughter. Writer-director David Twohy has a few twists and turns up his sleeve, and even if you see them coming from a mile off, he handles this popcorn-movie rehashing of Natural Born Killers with the kind of light touch we’d expect from, say, Howard Hawks. It’s throwaway late-summer entertainment and probably an excuse for cast and crew to visit a sexy vacation spot, but as a balancing act between violent set pieces and charming banter, at least it’s never dull.
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