Torn opinions

Rating: 6/10 (12 July 2005)

Having thought this would be a typical loads of fun, big action summer film I looked forward to seeing it. I am a Brad Pitt fan and Angelina Jolie is okay in most things so I thought it would be very cool. The plot seems like action perfection and any time two big Hollywood stars are put up against each other it's usually good times ie: The Jackal, Assassins etc. I wasn't wrong about the action...the action sequences are intense and well done and not overly wrought with stupid special effects, unfortunately the rest of the film drags it down.
Mr and Mrs Smith is the story of a bored couple who have been married "five or six years." They met in Columbia and it was instant attraction and they married quickly but then find themselves in Marriage counseling because they aren't connecting and becoming very bored. Their boredom stems from the fact that neither one of them knows the other at all. Mr John Smith, is supposedly a big time construction contractor and Mrs Jane Smith works with computers on Wall Street or so each of them believe of the other. In fact they both work for opposing factions as Assassins, and they are each the best in their line. Everything is kept well hidden from the other until they are both given the same target by their respective companies. They don't recognize each other as they both fight to off the target and it isn't until afterwords they discover each other's identity. Now it's a problem...each of their companies wants them to knock the other off having identified each other at the target. Feeling betrayed and feeling that their marriage is a sham their anger transfers into the desire to kill each other in the 48 hour time frame. But as they fight back and forth they slowly begin to learn more about each other than they ever knew before and they fall in love all over again. Now both their companies want them dead feeling they are a threat to their security and they must work together to escape their deaths.
I will agree with the popular opinion that Brad and Angelina have no on screen chemistry. Separately they do an adequate job and some of their fight scenes are very cool but their chemistry never changes from ZERO!! Perhaps it's all the outside stuff working it's way in. The first 45 minutes of the film is downright boring and the audience is twice as bored as they are in their marriage...at least I was. Director Doug Liman seems to aim more for story and drama than outright action which for a film like this doesn't always please. He works too hard at establishing their boring lives and their alter egos and then all the comparisons and funny little anecdotes that go along with being a boring normal housewife/husband but actually a hit-man(woman). Basically the film tries to take suburbia and drop assassins into it but it doesn't mesh. Nonetheless the action scenes are wicked cool and Jolie and Pitt trying to kill each other in their home was very awesome. The only downside to the action was how incredibly invincible both Jolie and Pitt's characters are. They take a deadly beating first from each other and then other assassins and still manage to come out completely unscathed. I know this is the kind of thing that has to be accepted for big action films sometimes but it really stands out in this one. Vince Vaughn's role (although granted he had some funny lines) was completely unnecessary and took away from the story. It seems that most people think this movie is just awesome so I won't argue with them, I will only say I was more than slightly disappointed with what I thought it would be compared to what it was. Personally save it for a DVD rental...then it won't be too bad, but save your cash for the theater and see something else. 6/10