Sunday, June 12, 2005

Movie Review: Mr and Mrs Smith

I might have just been in the right mood for this film, but I had a lot of fun watching it. It's mostly mindless fun. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play married assassins who don't know what each other really do after they leave for work in the morning. And it seems that keeping these secrets from each other has hurt their marriage. They're assigned to kill each other, figure out the truth and things progress from there.

If you want can find metaphors for married life, but really they are better left as funny double entendres. "I missed you" takes on an obvious double meaning. When talking about the number of kills they have, they each want the other to go first. He's hidden his weapons in the tool shed, she in the kitchen. She complains about getting "the girl gun".

Their agencies are super high tech, a notch or two above James Bond, and several notches more absurd. Her's is an all woman's group that reports to "father" and looks like something out of In Like Flint or VIP. Many reviews have complained that it devolves into mindless action, but they miss the point, the action is played for laughs too. A minivan outruns three BMWs and Jolie pulls a maneuver at the end and you wonder why she doesn't do it earlier. Well obviously it wouldn't have been as much fun. Sure you can wonder why our stars have bullet- proof vests and the agents sent after them don't but again, that's missing the point, notice the Butch Cassidy reference and sit back and enjoy.

I was the only one laughing when their captive was wearing a "Fight Club" T-Shirt, but most of the rest of the time, they were laughing right along with me.

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