Mr. and Mrs. Smith

[meatball]

Saw it.  Ok, so not (nearly) as good as say... The Bourne Identity, but it was still alright.  Sort of like violent foreplay for the soul.

So the review I posted was not wasted after all?

[Thrindle]

So many spoilers it's uncanny.


 A good first half.  There were really clever lines of dialogue ("A happy ending is a story not finished."  "I thought you looked like Christmas morning.  [Beat].  I don't know how else to say it."  "I guess in the end you start thinking about the beginning.") that turned into "What's her name and social security number?"  "Honey, you're not going to kill her."  In that car scene, after their big fight, is when the movie turned into S.W.A.T. or whatever other typical action movie.  It's when Doug Liman forgot that he's capable of original action scenes and went for bozo bad guys and impossible scenarios.

 Reading Ghostboy's post, I remember being in the theater, at that midway point, in which they have guns pointed at each other, and wanting a happy ending.  By the end of the movie I wanted them to die, for something to happen other than for them to run out in their yellow sunglasses and kill everybody in the room.  That's how my opinion of the characters changed.  "There's no place I'd rather be right now than here with you." would have been a great last line.

 I agree with Gamblor about Adam Brody's character not be fully explained, and would add that he was the most bozo bad guy of them all.  So this guy's bait, but he knows he's bait, and he even knows who he's bait for.  He carries a picture, even.

 Could have been more.

Agree completely.  I was really disappointed with the film.  I'm going to admit it, they were banking on close ups of the two most beautiful people in the world, to make up for lackluster dialogue.

Don't get me wrong, I'd watch it again, but purely for lustful reasons.

When are movies going to be thrilling again?

[meatball]

Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Cast: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Adam Brody, Kerry Washington and Vince Vaughn
Directed by: Doug Liman
Screenplay by: Simon Kinberg
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Runtime: 112 min
Rating: PG-13
Year: 2005

Doug Liman's Mr. and Mrs. Smith is not a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 comedy of the same name, but both films concern couples in failing marriages. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (the Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard of their time, perhaps?) star as a husband and wife in Scenes form a Marriage-style couple's therapy. They're not having sex anymore and their dirty little secrets are to blame: For five or six years one has been hiding from the other that they've been working for rival spy organizationsóthe kind whose employees get to play with what-the-fuck high-tech gizmos and identification systems that understand there can only be one woman in the world with a body like Jolie's. When their respective employers hire them to kill The O.C.'s Adam Brody, not-so-plain John and Jane go for each other's throats and Mr. and Mrs. Smith reveals itself as a fetish film for anyone who takes People magazine as a serious source of investigative journalism (or people who wear Lance Armstrong bracelets as badges of cool). The magazine's Most Beautiful Man and Woman of 2005 waste countless rounds of ammunition on each other, eroticize domestic violence, and before you can say "get a room," they do! No house, wine glass, freeway, discount department store, or Tony-Scott-lit third-world country is safe from this squabble, which reveals itself as foreplay for the reincarnation of the couple's marriage. You won't see another film this year that coasts as long as it does on the sex appeal and posturing of its actors, and while I can't imagine anyone besides Pitt and Jolie in these roles, it's a shame there's so little meat on the film's bones. Individual moments are fierce (Jolie flies off yet another skyscraper and, during an exciting car chase, two cars poetically reveal themselves from behind another), but it's as if Mr. and Mrs. Smith exists only for its own satisfaction. Like the condescending gurl-power Jolie is often forced to wear like a placard ("Why do I get the girl gun?" she asks at one point), the whole thing reeks of tabloid pandering.

Ed Gonzalez
© slant magazine, 2005.

[Thrindle]

Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Cast: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Adam Brody, Kerry Washington and Vince Vaughn
Directed by: Doug Liman
Screenplay by: Simon Kinberg
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Runtime: 112 min
Rating: PG-13
Year: 2005

Doug Liman's Mr. and Mrs. Smith is not a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 comedy of the same name, but both films concern couples in failing marriages. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (the Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard of their time, perhaps?) star as a husband and wife in Scenes form a Marriage-style couple's therapy. They're not having sex anymore and their dirty little secrets are to blame: For five or six years one has been hiding from the other that they've been working for rival spy organizationsóthe kind whose employees get to play with what-the-fuck high-tech gizmos and identification systems that understand there can only be one woman in the world with a body like Jolie's. When their respective employers hire them to kill The O.C.'s Adam Brody, not-so-plain John and Jane go for each other's throats and Mr. and Mrs. Smith reveals itself as a fetish film for anyone who takes People magazine as a serious source of investigative journalism (or people who wear Lance Armstrong bracelets as badges of cool). The magazine's Most Beautiful Man and Woman of 2005 waste countless rounds of ammunition on each other, eroticize domestic violence, and before you can say "get a room," they do! No house, wine glass, freeway, discount department store, or Tony-Scott-lit third-world country is safe from this squabble, which reveals itself as foreplay for the reincarnation of the couple's marriage. You won't see another film this year that coasts as long as it does on the sex appeal and posturing of its actors, and while I can't imagine anyone besides Pitt and Jolie in these roles, it's a shame there's so little meat on the film's bones. Individual moments are fierce (Jolie flies off yet another skyscraper and, during an exciting car chase, two cars poetically reveal themselves from behind another), but it's as if Mr. and Mrs. Smith exists only for its own satisfaction. Like the condescending gurl-power Jolie is often forced to wear like a placard ("Why do I get the girl gun?" she asks at one point), the whole thing reeks of tabloid pandering.

Ed Gonzalez
© slant magazine, 2005.

No.  Not in vain.

[Ultrahip]

I found this movie to be ultrahip. The satire could've gone deeper and longer, the action shorter and later, and this wouldve been even more ultrahip. Pitt's dune buggy get-up rocked.

[cron]

Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Cast: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Adam Brody, Kerry Washington and Vince Vaughn
Directed by: Doug Liman
Screenplay by: Simon Kinberg
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Runtime: 112 min
Rating: PG-13
Year: 2005

Doug Liman's Mr. and Mrs. Smith is not a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 comedy of the same name, but both films concern couples in failing marriages. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (the Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard of their time, perhaps?) star as a husband and wife in Scenes form a Marriage-style couple's therapy. They're not having sex anymore and their dirty little secrets are to blame: For five or six years one has been hiding from the other that they've been working for rival spy organizationsóthe kind whose employees get to play with what-the-fuck high-tech gizmos and identification systems that understand there can only be one woman in the world with a body like Jolie's. When their respective employers hire them to kill The O.C.'s Adam Brody, not-so-plain John and Jane go for each other's throats and Mr. and Mrs. Smith reveals itself as a fetish film for anyone who takes People magazine as a serious source of investigative journalism (or people who wear Lance Armstrong bracelets as badges of cool). The magazine's Most Beautiful Man and Woman of 2005 waste countless rounds of ammunition on each other, eroticize domestic violence, and before you can say "get a room," they do! No house, wine glass, freeway, discount department store, or Tony-Scott-lit third-world country is safe from this squabble, which reveals itself as foreplay for the reincarnation of the couple's marriage. You won't see another film this year that coasts as long as it does on the sex appeal and posturing of its actors, and while I can't imagine anyone besides Pitt and Jolie in these roles, it's a shame there's so little meat on the film's bones. Individual moments are fierce (Jolie flies off yet another skyscraper and, during an exciting car chase, two cars poetically reveal themselves from behind another), but it's as if Mr. and Mrs. Smith exists only for its own satisfaction. Like the condescending gurl-power Jolie is often forced to wear like a placard ("Why do I get the girl gun?" she asks at one point), the whole thing reeks of tabloid pandering.

Ed Gonzalez
© slant magazine, 2005.

SO

[SiliasRuby]

Saw this a couple of nights ago, a bit disapointed that they didn't heighten the satire and cool down on the action but overall I had fun watching it.
Minor Spoliers:
Did anyone notice the dialogue from the movie Made at one point where Brad and Vince's characters are talking about Jolie I believe at at one point.
The fight Club T-shirt on Adam Brody wasn't that great of a gag at all.

[Kal]

After the car scene it does get a little boring... but it was very entertaining and the fact that Brad Pitt is so cool help... and Angelina is so hot that I was just excited looking at her for two hours

Not bad for a rainy Saturday afternoon

[metroshane]

I thought it was great.  At it's best it reminded me of "To Catch a Thief" and the high brow comedy of Cary Grant. At it's worst it was still fun and there are worse things to look at for 2 hours.  

One question...why are Jolie and Pitt the only two characters to wear bullet proof vest?

[Ultrahip]

They have the most to protect.

[Raikus]

I had a great time watching this. It really didn't bother me after they deconstructed the complexities to finish as a typical "action" movie. It was just a fun, funny, cool movie. The world needs more of them.

I was disappointed that my favorite shot from the trailer, that of Pitt on the tricycle, was absent from the movie. But great quips and just a fun  time.

[thadius sterling]

Saw it.  Ok, so not (nearly) as good as say... The Bourne Identity, but it was still alright.  Sort of like violent foreplay for the soul.

I think that, especially violent foreplay for the soul, sums it up for me. I have fears of Liman becoming a name attached to films rather than the creative FORCE behind them. I think above all though, whatever madness he might posess, he'll provide style. He seems to be consistant with that.

[modage]

i'm behind.  and i'm never behind on summer movies, but i saw this today finally.  i agree with mostly everyone when i say it was totally entertaining but not great, while it could've been great.  i will say there seemed to be many things not wrapped up though that must've been cut cause who gives a shit/its too fucking long.  i actually thought the movie was going to end at the part where they try to kill each other in the house.  the keith david character as gb mentioned, or how about vince vaughn?  (who was great, btw).  it looks like he gets the order to lead the hit on pitt/jolie and then they meet up with him and he looks all guilty and they must know it and then nothing.  and they dont mention him again.  clearly there was to be more there?  and the shot we have as a banner of jolie in the yellow shades with the giant gun, i dont remember seeing.  i also thought/hoped the movie might be a little darker/hipper and less actionpacked with liman at the helm, but the action was pretty cool anyways.  all in all, pretty good but not great.  C+

[MacGuffin]

Mr & Mrs Smith series will be a sequel

Simon Kinberg, penner of "Mr and Mrs Smith", told CHUD a little bit about the new TV spin-off series, he's doing.

"It's going to be more of a Moonlighting or a Hart to Hart or a Remington Steele with some Alias. It's a show about a marriage – two people trying to balance their home life with their work lives, and their work lives happen to be international assassins. They go out from week to week on missions, and then try to balance with whatever the issue at home is. Frankly it works better as a TV show. We struggled with the movie narratively, as it loses its theme in the third act a little bit. The idea is better suited for a weekly series in some ways. The way we pitched it is Married With Children meets Alias."

The film will be set sometime after the movie, he says.

"They know what each other does for a living but they're not partners. There are some times they work together on missions, sometimes they work apart. Sometimes they work in the same cities, sometimes they compete".



Also, on June 6th:

[polkablues]

Unrated editions of PG-13 movies make me go  .