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In A Perfect Getaway (2009), David Twohy’s pleasantly ludicrous thriller, we meet three couples vacationing in Kauai. One among them, it’s suspected, is responsible for the brutal murder the other day of a different couple that had been staying in Honolulu.

The movie positions Cliff and Cydney (Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich) as the almost-certainly innocent ones. Honeymooning in Old Navy chic and practically diffusing squareness, these newlyweds can be described by few other adjectives besides nerdy and stereotypically touristy. The killers are likelier Nick and Gina (Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez), whom Cliff and Cydney meet on a hike. They’re suspicious because they’re impossibly pretty and Army veteran Nick has a stocky cache of weapons in his traveling sack.

The murderers also could be Cleo and Kale (Chris Hemsworth and Marley Shelton), a caricaturishly white-trash couple that takes it the wrong way when Cliff and Cydney offer them a ride somewhere out of their way on the island early on in the movie but with noticeable reluctance. (Cleo doesn’t really care — any ride at this point is fine by her — but Kale is bothered by the perceived slight and angrily takes back the request, and for the rest of the film the pair keep popping up at inopportune moments suggesting potentially dangerous furor.) 

Kauai seems safe until news reports posit the not-yet-apprehended killers have probably skipped over there from Honolulu. The ride up to the big reveal in A Perfect Getaway — of course one of these couples is the joint culprit — is perfectly fine. It’s a competent mix of the requisite misleading-or-not discoveries (like a bug-eyed uncovering of parole officer’s card or Nick’s unnecessary killing of a mountain goat for a dinner mid-hike) and the on-edge politeness-as-a-form-of-denial giving thrillers with the same foundational premise an unnerving buzz that makes us almost desperate for answers once they come. The fact that Cliff is a screenwriter also poses an opportunity — and one much taken — for the filmmakers to have these people indirectly comment on the movie itself by discussing tropes and moments from their current journey that could factor in well to whatever his next project will be.

With an exception in Cleo and Kale, who only appear when the movie needs an extra dose of tension, the characters are all likable, and written and performed with enough idiosyncrasy to avoid feeling too much like hard-to-care-about stock types. Olyphant is the film’s standout. He’s like a wily cowboy whose eccentricities are either charmingly odd or definitely freaky depending on if you’re looking at him through the probable-murderer lens or give him the benefit of the doubt. 

A Perfect Getaway transitions from efficient B-movie fun into complete schlock — legitimate, if a little endearing, terribleness — when the killer reveal inspires a way-too-long flashback explaining motivations and how the bad guys targeted the people they’re currently with. All is shot in shitty-looking black and white that looks like the color gradist, tired from keeping up the loudly orange look of the rest of the movie, opted for the automated monochrome filter their software came with. This choice is a bad one — the visual decision that cues a once-proficient film’s pivot into complete silliness. But at least you’re never not entertained by A Perfect Getaway. It’s not perfect, but no vacations are.