overall, an enjoyable flick with understated performances

Rating: 8/10 (13 June 2005)

I've been reading the IMDb boards again today (why yes, I guess that makes me a masochist), and I felt the need to comment on this movie.
Let's establish up front that this movie will not be in contention for any major awards (nor should it be), and that it required serious suspension of disbelief at times, perfectly in keeping with certain genre standards. Also, user ratings are necessarily distorted because of pinheads who insist on rating something a perfect 10 or a perfect 0 because they "really liked" the movie at that instant, or they thought it was slightly overrated and thus instantly deemed it the "worst flick EVar." That said, this movie was an excellent action flick with some extremely clever (and often subtle) dialogue and very subdued acting given its genre. Pitt and Jolie did remarkably well when expected to express more than their dialogue allowed, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them gesticulate and manipulate their faces in place of just saying something. I frequently had to suppress laughter during the marriage counseling, and I loved other expressive scenes like the carnival, the rooftop escape scene, etc. where extra lines would have cluttered and detracted from their interactions.
The on screen chemistry between the two also surprised me. Sure, they're two beautiful faces with a lot of sex appeal, but they seemed to work rather well *together* instead of being two competing sex-icons trying to pretend they've got any business together. The great comic timing helped, to be sure, but you can rarely fake the chemistry. So many movies have failed in this, assuming that because they have good (or at least famous) actors, they can dupe the audience. (_Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow_ comes to Mind)
Also, the bits of surreal action (at the house, and at the end) seem to fit with the general tone of the movie, which is *really* funny. Again, this is where facial expressions and body language really come into play.
On a normal, unbiased scale, this movie would probably elicit a 6.5 overall, with a 7.5-8.0 for the witty dialogue and brilliant nonverbals (and, of course, for Vince Vaughan, who wasn't even at his best here). ...but given the nature of the system, I'll give it a 9 for the popcorn genre, and encourage people to consult IMDb's Recommendations for other films in its class.