Enjoyable Ride. Interesting metaphors

Rating: 9/10 (27 June 2005)

I quite enjoyed this movie. ^_^ Generally the plot involves a married couple, played by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who both happen to have secret jobs as professional assassins on the side without each other knowing (in fact, they each work for each other's rival companies). When they find out they've been deceiving each other, their loyalties are tested, and bunch of stuff blows up as they proceed to kill each other.
In a way, it's an interesting, symbolic way of portraying the love/hate tumultuous aspects of marriage relationships. Eventually, they will have to work out their differences and go after a common enemy (or will they?), which is also, by the way, the same plot-line of John Woo's movie The Killer (which had two mortal enemies, cop and hit-man, with a common goal). There's definitely very good chemistry between the attractive leads (Jolie and Pitt) and the way they play off each other (as ridiculous it may be) is playful and endearing. While there are plenty romantic elements, ultimately, it's a movie for action fans, much like True Lies (which also played with domestic humor vs. spy action flick) and there are certainly multiple aspects from movies like War of the Roses (dark humor about marriage gone awry) and John Woo-influenced action spectacles. Doug Liman (who directed Bourne Identity) does a great job of portraying the characters with style, as well as beautifully shot action scenes (complete with an obvious John Woo's "The Killer" homage/inside-joke near the end of the movie, with the couple, now reunited, storming their way out in visceral, explosive form). Yes, it's ironic and ultimately, entertaining.