Pitt? Jolie? Brody makes this movie for me.

Rating: 4/10 (19 June 2005)

Wacky and thrilling premise (husband and wife discover they're rival assassins), helmed by Doug Liman and starring two of Hollywood's Sexiest Stars... how could it fail?
At the box office, not really. Artistically, not so hard.
The trouble with "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" is that what is supposed to be a romantic action comedy is lacking in the romance (in part because Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie don't really connect on screen - Pitt is in dull mode throughout, and I've never been a member of the Jolie Barmy Army; anyone of the female cast from "Sin City" wipes the floor with her), not entirely successful with the action - only in the third act is there any kind of adrenaline, and even then not much - and absolutely DOA with the comedy. "The War of the Roses" took the husband-and-wife-trying-to-kill-each-other premise and did a far better, edgier and funnier job.
To be fair, the movie was cursed from the beginning by being produced by Akiva Goldsman - and know this: unless the least deserving Oscar-winner in recent memory makes a movie with someone I really, really like, this is absolutely the last movie I will see with his name on it (after "Constantine" - which I admit I couldn't get through - "Starsky & Hutch," "Deep Blue Sea," "Lost in Space," "A Time to Kill," "Batman Forever" and "Practical Magic" enough is enough) - and written by the man who wrote "xXx2: The Next Level." What saved the show for me was the performance of Adam Brody as a spy who proves to be the key to the whole business; he isn't on screen long, but he always delivers the goods when he is. But otherwise, as Summer Roberts would say - "Ew."