Movie Review

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

And I thought that Paris Hilton and a hamburger would be the sexiest combination of the year?not so, fellow reader. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, or as I hear in the tabloids Brangelina, are two hot stars for the sizzling months of summer. Their repeated romance on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith is nothing short of tabloid gold, two beautiful people put together to create super-beautiful. Combine them with director Doug Liman, who knows a thing or two about making people look good, and it shouldn't even matter that this movie is a brainless action flick that only exists so that good-looking people can look fantastic while shooting guns and dodging explosions. There is no plot, character development, or actual coherence to anything that is going on, but that shouldn't matter because Mr. and Mrs. Smith is nothing but a smooth and breezy action ride downhill, or so the people involved with this movie wanted to create. The result is unfortunately a tad lacking in overall fun.

Pitt and Jolie play John and Jane Smith, a couple who meet on assignment outside the country, fall in love, get married and buy a house in the suburbs. The two of them are assassins for rival organizations, though neither one is aware of the other one?s secret. What they are aware of, however, is that after six years their marriage is falling apart. They no longer have any interest in one another, if they even did to begin with, and they are both seeing marriage counselors. The only excitement they have left in their lives are their jobs as trained assassins, but soon their work and their home life intertwine when both are sent to do a job that fails because John gets in Jane?s way. They soon find out the other?s secret occupation, as well as the lethal revelation about the two organizations they work with.

The best scene comes when the two finally come face to face, knowing that the other is an assassin. It's not only funny, but considering that we don't know what the other cares about more (the job or the marriage), it's also pretty intense as well. Eventually it does turn into an over the top shootout that leads to even more over the top shootouts, explosions, and car chases, but the violence is not my beef with this movie. The real problem here is that it's a one-joke concept that really doesn't deliver many laughs. There is a lot of playful banter between the two, and some of it works like Jane saying she wants a divorce after a shootout, but most of it doesn't like every time they try to associate their jobs with their marriage. "True Lies" worked in creating that satire, combining working as a spy and a husband, but this only goes for edgeless gags about cooking and not listening to one another.

There is also a serious lack of heat here. Pitt and Jolie are sexy together, but the lack of sex and nudity hurts it. Luckily for them they do have Doug Liman on board, whose choreographed shootouts and ability to use a mini-van in a car chase help make the action an exciting hoot. He also stages a nice dance sequence in which the Mr. and Mrs. take out their aggression and also frisk each other for weapons. The scene is a decent use of these two stars, but it only serves as what could have been had the filmmakers chosen to go with a better audience than the PG-13 set.

Vince Vaughn is also brought in as the wisecracking best friend of the Pitt character, but he gets a lame one-joke gag as well, playing a hit man who lives with his mother. This movie is sort of middle of the road for me. Mr. and Mrs. Smith has its moments but it never really connects. Had the people involved focused more on the material outside of the action, this movie would have been so much better. Pitt and Jolie look great together and do what they can, and Doug Liman continues to add a style to Hollywood action films that only he can create. Just as it is, though, I have to give it thumbs down on the fact that it didn't utilize the concept as well as it could have.

Craig's Grade: C+

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%