Ignore the outlandish plot device and enjoy the scenery.

Rating: 7/10 (30 April 2012)

John and Jane Smith are a long married couple who have stopped communicating in any meaningful way. It's not that they hate each other. They make polite small talk but seem more like roommates than a couple. The reason for this is that everything they say to each other is a lie because each is an undercover assassin. Maintaining an innocuous facade to conceal this fact has made them bored and distant. They each learn simultaneously that the other has been assigned to hit them, but instead of checking with THE SPOUSE, each assumes that the marriage was a false front, entered into to keep an eye on the other and gain information. Each decides to test the other instead of actually discussing the situation openly, misunderstandings occur and this leads to an escalating war of words and more than a few bullets. And then there is that staple of the action comedy, the groin kick. Take THAT Brad Pitt...
My take on the central story device was that it was a 're-imagining' of that old chestnut the 'oops-we're-not-really-married' gambit. How many 60s sitcoms used it to kill an episode? Gilligan's Island, The Flintstones, The Dick Van Dyke Show etc. etc. It's a pretty shopworn story device by this point. But, in the wake of movies like Fatal Attraction, and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, in which a character within or close to the main household turns out to be a threat, likely somebody got the half-clever idea that instead of not being married, the couple should find out that they had no idea to whom it was they were married. In short, let's substitute subversion of legal concepts like 'good faith' and 'informed consent' for the more straightforward device of not legally being married. And laughs and many expended shell casings ensue.
The resulting movie is strictly popcorn fare, built around a central plot device so outlandish as to defy reason, and yet quite entertaining despite this, thanks to imaginative staging of fantastically elaborate action set pieces and tightly choreographed comedy ballets. The technical demands of their roles are surprisingly varied and one has to gain an appreciation for Pitt and Jolie in this regard. They are as attractive as the picture's background scenery, but more than just eye candy. A potential action classic and worth a watch at least once.