Love and bullets..

Rating: 8/10 (1 February 2016)

Having spun this non stop on my desktop Blu-ray for three days , I believe I should be able to comment on this film.
It was not so much a movie , (at least when released) that was hyped or played up to be anything but action entertainment. An interesting paring. Angelina Jolie (Lara Croft) and Brad Pitt(Fight Club) looking for what appeared to be a paycheck to keep them moving on to the next task and give us some cheap thrills and good one liners in return.
OF course life mirrors fiction. In this case that mirror was hard to avoid. The Long of the short, skipping the gossip , is that Pitt And Jolie could not hide from anyone that something real was going on. this can happen sometimes in Hollywood. In the case of this movie we the audience won.
The Life of John and Jane Smith is told. The story of two professional government killers who somehow end up married and unaware of each others secret pastimes (and you thought your spouse was hiding something?).After a botched mark they discover each others hobby and move to logically eliminate the threat. As it is said "love conquers all".
There is nothing overly fantastic about this film. The script is pretty straight forward with no really unbelievable scenarios in this type of setting. The Actors are lead through a series of challenges as they entertain you with the re-solidification of their wedded bliss.
The direction is pretty much on cruise control given the tight form of the writing , and as such the explosions and shootouts deliver you what you paid for. the editing is top notch and makes the deft film work move even faster in flow than most films. In fact flow in this movie is better than most and is almost it's greatest strength. Almost.
The Real Strength in the film is the lead Actors. As everyone knows this is where they hooked up. the realistic energy of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's off screen affairs are strongly applied to their on screen persona's , giving the demands of said characters an enhanced effect against the viewers suspension of disbelief. The characters are genuine , organic and your left with the subtle impression that more is going on than you are seeing, and , Of course it was.
The chemistry of this film cannot be denied and elevates it to something above the three star action mill it was certain to be.
4 Stars (of 5)