Mr. and Mrs. Smith

This film before its release received loads of attention because of Brad Pitt’s affair and what not with Angelina Jolie. But to look past all the celebrity hubbub, the film had two talented stars, a very good director in Doug Liman and Vince Vaughn. The people who were involved all knew what they were doing. Now, moving to the present tense, the film is about two married people who turn out to be assassins working for competing agencies. The agencies that they work for are not talked about and remain a vague reference throughout the film. The plot is ridiculous and a miserable adaptation of “Prizzi’s Honor,” a great film with Jack Nicholson and directed by John Huston. The first half of the actual film is good, quick on its feet and fairly funny as Mr. and Mrs. Smith live their mundane lives. The dialogue is funny and Pitt and Jolie excel at the word play and dialogue. Then, as they find out each other’s identities it becomes an action comedy, which also is pretty good with Pitt and Jolie fighting and making fun of each other with a lot of explosions. Then the third act comes and the flick goes down an incomprehensible tunnel of sex and more explosions. The film starts going downhill directly after a very well shot car chase where Mr. and Mrs. trade insults while revealing their past lies that they kept for the ‘five or six’ years of their marriage. When they band together to fight their agencies, the plot becomes garbage and worthless. If the third part of the film was to receive a grade on its own, I would give it a 4/10. as far as the films acting goes Pitt and Jolie show their charm and their screen presences are large, but neither of them is special. Pitt is his witty self, the same guy he was in ‘Ocean’s 11’ and Jolie is just having fun, not quite in ‘Tomb Raider’ mode, but much more lighthearted. The best actor in the film is Vince Vaughn who is his usual self, and his usual self is funny, offbeat and pretty ridiculous. Director Doug Liman shows a balance of his ‘Go’ comedy and his ‘Bourne Identity’ gritty action, but rather that take the best of each, he merely goes for the middle-best of each film, which is still pretty good as far as many directors go. The film was very good for the first two thirds, and miserable for the last third, so overall this film gets a 6.5/10.