Wait, Why Do I Get the Girl Gun?

The movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith will always be remembered more for what happened off the set with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie then what happened on screen. But since this blog doesn’t deal with salacious news, I won’t comment on any off the off screen happenings or the irony that the movie that stared Jennifer Aniston’s future ex-husband also featured future (alleged) husband. Nope, not gonna talk about that kind of stuff.

The plot features something I’m sure more than a few people can relate to with a married couple in a stale marriage that is filled with lies, except their lies are a lot bigger than most couples in that they both are hired assassins. In the beginning we spend some time watching their mundane lives which is, well mundane to watch. I know I said this when I reviewed The Matador (see my review - Oh, So Now Killing People is a Good Time), but movies about assassins should never be boring at any point. Seriously, is it that hard when you run into a down spot to just randomly have a cut scene with some dude getting off-ed in some creative way?

Another problem early in the film was the introduction of the Adam Brody from The O.C. as some random dude who seemed important and just disappeared. His storyline gets resolved late in the movie, but I spent the middle part wondering if I missed something. Also not given enough screen time was Vince Vaughn as ironically Pitt’s buddy/co-worker. Another way they could have solved the mundane scenes was inject more Vaughn throughout the movie. At least he faired better compared to Jolie’s buddies/co-workers who had less screen time and then had divide the time with four other actresses. How you don’t exploit a group of female assassins in beyond me.

But with all those complaints, when the movie did kick into high gear it was gripping. Each action sequence is more jam packed then the next all peppered with the right amount of humor and violence. This is highlighted by when the Smiths go after each other in there own home. And when they both lose their weapons there, the battle only gets better because well, guns are for wusses; real men (or women) will beat you down with their hands. There is also a great car chase where with a soundtrack of oddly enough of Making Love Out of Nothing at All (which the person I watch it with wrongly tried to argue Meatloaf when I said it was Air Supply; a lesson to all, never question my knowledge of cheesy music). Mr. and Mrs. Smith may have some down points but at the very least it’s a good waste of ninety minutes.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.