Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in a movie together.

Rating: 6/10 (12 December 2005)

All I wanted from this film was an action-packed parody on married life - but alas, it didn't deliver. Simply put, the film is too cool - and every action therefore comes off as being very unrealistic, and this is more a parody of fluffy romantic comedies than married life. Despite his impressive role in Troy, I've been rather unimpressed with Brad Pitt lately. He seems far too keen to wallow in his celebrity, and his role here; along with the one in the terrible Oceans Twelve last year, shows that all too clearly. His co-star, Angelina Jolie is another who is more bothered about her star status than putting in a good performance. Both Pitt and Jolie are clearly in this film for the money, and the fact that it will be liked by all the casual cinema-goers; and it's rather annoying really, especially as the idea that either of these two could kill someone  let alone be professional assassins, is ridiculous. The camera caresses them both - and all we get therefore is Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in a movie together, not a movie with characters being played by Pitt and Jolie. The excuse for Pitt and Jolie being in a movie together is that a married man, who is secretly an assassin, finds out that his wife is one too. Oh dear.
The star power of the leads is what attracts most people to this movie, but for me it was always the action. To be honest, if the film could have gotten this right, I would have been willing to forgive most other mistakes. The action isn't all that great really, but the way it's fused with the idea that the two people who are trying to kill each other, don't really want to kill each other - is actually well done, and you can believe it in spite of the characters being non-existent. The film also does a good job of setting itself plainly in suburbia, and the way that the neighbours poke their nose into the central couple's business; while the two of them pretend to be just the norm in suburbia provides the film with most of it's laughs. Vince Vaughn appears too, but is lost under the central duo's "star power", and is never given a chance to shine because of this. Overall, I would say that this film is good enough to provide entertainment - but it's not all that good. All of it's good points come in spite of the leads, not because of them; and I for one think that this plot line is capable of springing a much better film than this one. Perhaps next time (i.e. in thirty years time when this film will be ripe for a remake) they could cast a couple of actors that are right for the parts, rather than being right for the box office.