'A Perfect Getaway' review

Milla Jovovich and Steve Zahn (Credit: Javier Pesquera/Rogue)

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Cliff (Steve Zahn) and Cydney (Milla Jovovich) say they simply want a normal honeymoon in Hawaii. But wait: A couple was just murdered in Honolulu! And another couple (Timothy Olyphant, Kiele Sanchez) is kinda creepy! And another couple (Marley Shelton, Chris Hemsworth) is really creepy!

The buzz: Just a hunch, but it sounds like someone's got some bad business coming their way mid-vacation. The question is who, how and why—as if that's never been done before.

The verdict: Writer-director David Twohy ("Pitch Black") so flaunts his cleverness that he overloads this manipulative thriller with hints at the twist. Blown surprise or not, it's a treat to listen to a writer use words to play with a genre's gears and the audience's assumptions. Though not always credible or as tense as it should be, "A Perfect Getaway" packs uniformly well-balanced performances (Olyphant is walking charisma) and doesn't succumb to gratuitous violence or forehead-smacking stupidity. That sounds like smaller praise than it is.

Did you know? A scene of strangers skinny dipping together doesn't result in any death or violence. Proof that this is always a good, safe idea, particularly in the middle of nowhere, particularly in violent thrillers.

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