I watch pretty much anything with Milla Jovovich (there I said it!) and I had high hopes for A Perfect Getaway. After first watching her as Lilli in Return to Blue Lagoon, she went on to star in cult trip, Dazed and Confused and then The Fifth Element as Leeloo – I was hooked – who wasn’t?

I even managed to stay loyal to her during the Joan of Arc phase, when her then-husband Luc Besson… another film favourite (different reasons) gave her a fish bowl haircut and made her play the lead with a supporting cast including: John Malkovich and Dustin Hoffman. That was her make-or-break performance and let’s just say… she may have taken “break a leg” a bit too literally.

Catch the rest of the review and the trailer after the jump…

Joan of Arc may have been a big budget misfire, but she surprised everyone a few years later with a revealing renaissance performance as Alice in Resident Evil, possibly the best video-game-adaptation-featuring-a-kick-ass-female-lead franchise ever! Jovovich has made a name for herself despite all the flack from critics and her over-reliance on her beauty, physique and that foreign accent, kind of like if Arnie was a girl… okay, maybe not. One thing we can say about Milla is that she’s star material.

Perhaps the model-slash-actress turn actress-slash-model makeover didn’t work quite so well as the Cameron Diaz’s of this world, but Jovovich still has loads of intrigue, poise and sex appeal. That’s probably why she was cast in A Perfect Getaway opposite nice guy, Steve Zahn and the rough-and-ready, Timothy Olyphant.

It’s a decent ensemble as far as thrillers go with a lead trio to match Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane in Dead Calm, backed by Kiele Sanchez, Marley Shelton and Chris Hemsworth. The cast aren’t only Baywatch good-looking, they’re armed with a pool of acting talent to rival most jet stream jacuzzis. A Perfect Getaway is just the sort of fun summer travel escapism that you’d want to fill the gap… like a hammock between two palm trees.

It’s a fairly typical set up as Cliff (Zahn) and Cydney (Jovovich), a newly wed couple are on honeymoon in Hawaii and meet up with another young holiday-making couple, Nick (Olyphant) and Gina (Sanchez). After the couples hear reports of a pair of murdering psychopaths running amok on the island (Natural Born Killers: Hawaii?), they opt to stay on the island with a “safety in numbers” policy as the situation gradually deteriorates… dum dum dum.

You’re kidding, so psychos like Hawaii too!?

A Perfect Getaway has loads of potential… which is spoiled by bad weather and The Chronicles of Riddick writer-director, David Twohy. Hawaii is all about the waves, the flowers and the sunshine… and unfortunately the beautiful seascapes are rare with overcast weather dampening the location shooting. Perhaps Twohy’s intention was to show the environment as reflective of the character’s circumstances, harsh with a storm ready to break… fine, but the location’s natural beauty is totally under-utilised.

A Perfect Getaway feels a little slapdash, possibly due to time constraints or a new direction in the editing room. There’s an inconsistent feel to A Perfect Getaway, which blisters with intense action at one moment and then loses itself by going off at a tangent in backtracking the story at another.

It’s unfortunate for a film with such great potential to miss the mark, but it does. Zahn and Olyphant’s charm hold the film together quite valiantly, but it just comes across as a bit lazy with one too many plot holes and enough twists-and-turns to make your head spin.

What started as a good idea with a name cast, a decent writer-director and beautiful filming location, just didn’t add up. I’m guessing the cast and crew had a really good holiday… I mean come on, it’s Hawaii! At best, A Perfect Getaway will appease anyone looking for a light bit of forgettable action/thriller holiday fluff – at worst, you’ll be replaying yacht cabin scenes from Dead Calm in your head… but at least Milla’s in it.

The bottom line: Disappointing.

Release date: 8 January, 2010

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