‘Contract Killers’ opens with a woman who we will only know as Jane (Frida Farrell) enjoying a glass of wine before dinner with her husband. Typical dinner small talk ensues with the husband asking Jane how her day at work was, to which she merely replies "It was slow." Right there I know that this so-called ‘Jane’ is not your normal wifely woman because if I were to make the fatal mistake of asking MY wife how HER day was, that’s an hour lost right there. Regardless, there was something up with that wine as Jane and her husband hit the deck completely KTFO’d, and when Jane comes to she sees her husband dead in their bed with the word ‘Lisa’ carved in his forehead and finds her home surrounded by SWAT.

As this situation unfolds we learn a little more about Jane who apparently is an assassin working for the Central Intelligence Agency. Jane frantically attempts to place a frantic call to her ‘handlers’ at the CIA who have not only chosen not to accept this call, but her main superior Witcoff (Nick Mancuso) has also made the executive decision to silence Jane for good. Now again Jane obviously isn’t your average babe as she induces vomiting, surveys the situation and then takes out the best in law enforcement this particular city has to offer, jumps on her motorbike and attempts to motor to freedom. Eventually however Jane gets caught and the detective in charge of this little operation decides that he’s going to personally take Jane out after she is secured. Now we here in movie watcher land have to wonder about this dudes intelligence, or at least the intelligence of the dude that created this dude as he has already seen with his own eyes how lethal Jane is his short time of knowing her, but yet he gets in her face and talks all kinds of smack, his mind apparently clouded by the handcuffs Jane is wearing and the woman’s phenomenal rack. Yes, this man’s taxpaying days are now officially over.

Suspecting this was a conceivable outcome to the situation, our man at The Agency has made a call to one of Jane’s peers, a man known as Pernell (Rhett Giles) to finish the

job. In addition to Pernell looking to end the reign of Jane, Witcoff’s superior officer, Winston Scott (Stever Boergadine), has hired his own man in Monoven (G. Anthony Joseph) to also find and silence Jane. The question we ask ourselves is why has Jane, who only wanted to love her husband and do her simple job of killing people for the government, garnered so much deadly attention. The answer is a relatively complex one that will take us to the sunny island of Trinidad, involve car chases, foot chases, a bank robbery, a silly Australian dude (Christian Willis), a lot of stolen money and a big old nasty C.O.N. Spiracy!

The good thing about ‘Contract Killers’ is that it’s an action movie. It’s an average action movie but it’s not an altogether terrible action movie either. Since action flicks have been almost completely abandoned by Hollywood and the multiplex, those of us who enjoy movies with running and shooting and killing almost have to be fans of Straight to Video by default and a movie such as ‘Contract Killers’ is a welcome addition despite its shortcomings.

Competently directed by Justin B. Rhodes the story framing this little action movie isn’t too terribly original as it features a rouge agent on the run trying to get to the truth, but this rather well worn device is still told well enough to hold my interest. Frida Farrell, who is obviously very athletic and looks great in a red dress doesn’t bring a lot of depth to her character of Jane far beyond being pissed off and angry, but then we assume her dour disposition is because the man she loves did just die with the word ‘Lisa’ carved into her forehead, so I guess she has a right to be pissed off and angry. We did notice this tragedy doesn’t stop her from getting down with the silly Australian dude which leads to another one of those ‘I don’t think know is really the time for fake sex’ type moments. The background behind the whole ‘Lisa’ carved in the forehead thing was pretty cool too. Another plus for ‘Contract Killers’ is actor Rhett Giles, who I’ve seen in some really, really bad movies, but to the man’s credit he’s never been one of the problems in those bad movies and here his Pernell makes a nice foil to Jane’s Anti-hero.

Some of the action in the movie was a little lackluster at times, such as the car chase scenes which really didn’t crackle with all that much excitement, and for that matter the movie did have dead spots when it slowed down to provide some exposition here and there. Considering that none of the characters in the film were developed all that well it sort made those attempts at exposition mostly unnecessary. The biggest problem I had with the narrative in ‘Contract Killers’ was the main axis of the movie and this was the reason behind killing Jane. It really didn’t make much sense to kill the woman since she demonstrates quite clearly that she does her job and minds her own damn business, and odder still was that apparently our evil people at The Agency had the opportunity to kill a drugged out unconscious Jane in the movies opening frame but instead kill her geeky ass husband and left her alive, which by the end of the movie in hindsight could have been the worst idea of all-time.

But if you’re watching a movie that makes total sense then you aren’t watching an action movie. ‘Contract Killers’ overcomes its flaws and manages to be fairly exciting and not a bad way to waste away ninety or so minutes.