Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2006, DVD)

The summer of 2005 brought with it several film releases that were expected to do well at the box office, either because of content or because of star power (or both). One movie release that fits into the latter category is Mr. and Mrs. Smith, an action comedy starring Brad Pitt and Angelia Jolie.

Movie Facts:

Rating: PG-13
Format: Color
Director: Doug Liman
Screenplay/Writing Credits: Simon Kinberg
Theatrical Release Date: June 10, 2005
Movie Length: 120 Minutes

Starring: Brad Pitt, Angelia Jolie, Vince Vaughan, Adam Brody, Keith David, Kerry Washington, Chris Weitz, Michelle Monaghan, Jerry Adams, Hans Alexander, Elijah Alexander, Jennifer Morrison, Stephanie March, Perrey Reeves, Theresa Barrera, Melanie Tolbert.

Contents of This Movie:

John Smith (played by Brad Pitt) and his wife Jane Smith (played by Angelia Jolie) are a couple who have been married for five or six years. They are having a little trouble with their marriage and they decide to seek the guidance of a marriage counselor.

The reason for the Smith s troubled marriage is that they are both spies and both work to assassinate specific people. The problem is, neither one is aware of what the other is doing because what they both do is very secretive.

On one particular assignment, both John and Jane are ordered by their respective employers to wipe out the same person. Each one gets in the way of the other, and the once blissful couple is now turned against each other in an all- out effort to see whether John can kill Jane or Jane can kill John the fastest.

Final Thoughts:

Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a somewhat interesting film that features a married couple that is feeling the tensions of married life but doesn t realize that the cause of the tension is their top- secret professions. This movie starts out with the Smith s sitting in two chairs in a counselor s office. The film then switches to the action sequences and finally returns, at the end, to the counselor s office where the couple seems to have come to an understanding.

There is a certain level of intrigue that this movie brings to the screen. First of all, the story is a little more unusual than most movies and at first, you cannot quite tell what s going on. The movie comes together as you continue to watch, but even then, there are parts of the film that don t quite seem to add up and some of the overall plot doesn t make perfect sense. As I watched it on DVD, I noticed many confused facial expressions on those around me and even though everyone seemed to understand everything better at the end, there were still some parts of this movie that didn t quite make sense.

Pitt and Jolie are pretty good in their respective roles as the troubled couple who are both actively trying to kill each other. I liked Jolie a little better and not just because of her lips. It was also because Pitt has been better in other movies and here, he doesn t quite seem up to par. The supporting case is ok, but only one of them- Vince Vaughan- has any memorable parts. And even though Vaughan is a fast- talker and gets your attention, his character is one- dimensional and has no real personality.

By far the best parts of this film are its action scenes. My favorite part of all is the scene close to the end where Pitt and Jolie are chasing each other around the house with guns and knives in hand, trying to get that last, fatal shot. They are in a race to see who can wipe out the other more quickly, but at the same time, they still share a certain amount of attraction toward each other as a couple and this attraction is made evident on more than one occasion. There are other good action scenes too, and these alone make the film worth watching.

This movie is also billed as a comedy, but the funny one- liners are not all that humorous. In many ways, the comedy reminds me of that which you witness in Saturday morning cartoons. One case in point is a scene where Jolie lands a knife in Pitt s leg. He just sighs, makes a comment toward Jolie ( now, why did you have to do that? type of comment), pulls the embedded knife out of his leg, and continues the fight. This, and other scenes like them, is like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon but not as humorous.

By now, everyone knows about the real- life romance between Pitt and Jolie and I will admit that they do seem to have a certain chemistry in this movie. Pitt is about twelve years Jolie s senior, but they still seem interesting together on the big screen. Supposedly, the making of this movie is what got everything started between the two and the gossip surrounding the affair was used to help launch this movie. The strategy seemed to work because this film did manage to finish among the top grossing films of 2005 (10th place, I believe).

Mr. and Mrs. Smith isn t as great a film as many people led to me to believe but I still think it s worth a look. The plot isn t completely original but it is different from most and it is generally entertaining. The cast isn t perfect but the two leads are still pretty good. And the comedy is only lukewarm, with only a few one- liners worth a chuckle or two. But the action of this film is memorable, and for this reason I m giving Mr. and Mrs. Smith a recommendation. It is worth a few dollars to watch on DVD if there is nothing better available for renting.