A surprising summer blockbuster

Rating: 7/10 (19 June 2005)

When I first heard about how Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were dating, I looked at my calendar and found this all kind of ironic. Only a few weeks away from the release of the big blockbuster film that they were both starring in, we find out they're dating. Could this be one of the many marketing schemes that went into this film's promotion? Probably, they must have been dating since they were actually making this film,then they thought, "Hey, wouldn't it be smart to let the world know were sleeping with each other a couple of weeks before this film is released? More money for us!". What better promotion is there for a film like this? How about the idea that Jennifer Aniston must feels horrible right now! For months now, i've been seeing trailers and commercials for this film then this little 'Brangelina" thing came along, my initial reaction was that this movie was going to be horrible. Surprisingly, it wasn't! The film follows a married couple who are bored of their sub urban life style, they both feel a growing space between them. Most people who was told this story would say, "Hey, that's normal", but you guessed it, their wrong! John and Jane Smith are both assassins for separate corporations and they have no idea about their spouses identity. They both believe that they work boring desk jobs. As you can imagine, the film's plot starts to get interesting when they find out of each others identities.
The acting in this film is surprisingly believable, when it's her time, Jolie as a house wife works perfectly. Vince Vaughn plays Eddie, John's boss, I was hoping for some comic relief coming from his character and I guess that's what the writers were aiming for but it really didn't work for me. In fact, this film was publicized as a sort of comedy film, I didn't find it funny at all. Since Brad and Angelina's acting is so believable, the relationship between the characters are even more believable.
As the film's plot unfolds, the action starts coming. The action scenes in this film are probably the most entertaining in awhile. Unlike most of the recent action films, this one does not use the shaky camera effect which if you ask me, is getting really boring and annoying. There is one highway chase sequence that is a lot like the one we saw in 'The Matrix Reloaded', this is probably the best action scene. Unfortunently, this film has just as many cons as it does pros, probably even more. Like I said earlier, Vince Vaughn's performance was disappointing, usually he plays some doped out idiot, in this film he played someone who was so serious that it was awkward to see him not crack a joke. Of course, there's still some subliminal jokes but they weren't funny at all. One of the biggest problems with the film is that we never really get an idea of who John and Jane are working for, you can never tell which corporation is the "good guy", we probably aren't supposed to know this so it wouldn't take away from the main plot but it would still be nice to have a little background information. One other problem I had with this film is that it kept trying to push this message that really didn't effect anyone even if they did get it. The film wanted people to go home confessing their secrets to their loved ones, this didn't work out at all. The film makers should make a note that this film is a summer blockbuster, not a late winter Academy Award plea.
Anyways, I may have not gotten to the points of the film i've wanted to because I can't spoil the film for everyone so you might not understand my final verdict on this flick. I was going to give this film a 6/10 but since it had a good ending, i give it a solid 7/10! Would I buy this film? No. Would I see it again? Maybe.