Mr. & Mrs. Smith

***DISCLAIMER*** The following review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I encourage you to do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion (or other commenters), that's fine. To each their own. These reviews are not meant to be statements of facts or endorsements, I am just sharing my opinions and my perspective when watching the film and is not meant to reflect how these films should be viewed. Finally, the reviews are given on a scale of 0-5. 0, of course, being unwatchable. 1, being terrible. 2, being not great. 3, being okay. 4, being great and 5, being epic! And if you enjoy these reviews feel free to share them and follow the blog or follow me on Twitter (@RevRonster) for links to my reviews and the occasional live-Tweet session of the movie I'm watching!  It's the movie that Jennifer Aniston fans loathe.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith – 4 out of 5

This movie lives in infamy more for the fact that this was the project that took the parts of two of Hollywood’s most beautiful creatures and combined them to form Brangelina.  Both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie went into this film with their own relationships and ended up walking out forsaking them and finding love with each other (a love that didn’t last because love is fleeting and happiness is a lie, kids).  This ended up overshadowing the feature, it seems, because it’s all everyone ever talks about when Mr.& Mrs. Smith is brought up.  To be honest, I’ve never actually seen the film and recently decided to finally give it a shot…and it’s not too shabby.

Look at them, all perfect and beautiful.  I'd hate them if they weren't all
perfect and beautiful.

John (Pitt) and Jane Smith (Jolie) seem to have a perfect marriage.  They have a beautiful suburban home, both of them are stupidly attractive and they both claim to have high paying jobs but there is a rut in their relationship.  Neither of them is happy and they feel they are becoming stagnated.  One big problem is they are lying to each other and each is actually a professional hitman and when the truth is revealed and they both botch a job they were both assigned to, the two are contracted to kill each other.  No amount of marriage counselling will help with this one.

I like to imagine that this movie just predicted future events and Pitt and Jolie's
real-life marriage followed the film's plot exactly.

I definitely had a lot of fun with Mr. & Mrs. Smith.  Director Doug Liman presented a very fast pace and slick action comedy.  He really knew how to balance the humor with the action and how to make the two work as a cohesive unit—this formula would later serve him exceptionally well in his newest films like Edge of Tomorrow and American Made.  The action is delivered just over-the-top enough that it complements the low-key humor rather than making the whole feature feel like you are jumping back and forth from the comedy genre to the action one.  Sometimes action comedies can’t quite get the two genres to meld in a way that feels unified but this one clearly had no problems with this and I was treated to a film that is both funny and action-packed exciting.  I was no stranger to laughing one second during an action sequence to dropping a Keanu-worthy “whoa” a second later.

Yeah, I could 100% believe that Jolie did this by herself without the help of
movie magic.

Keith David is also in this film and that's an automatic
point in the film's favor.  That dude is awesome!

Another element that is comparable to the action and comedy is the performances.  This film has a high-caliber cast (bad pun very intended).  Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie lead the charge fantastically and their chemistry and the way they play off each other are fantastic.  You can see why they broke their relationships to be together in this film because they aren’t acting when you see the lust in each other’s eyes and they use that for the other moments when their characters are trying to kill each other.  Additionally, their back-and-forth is just fun and really heightens the comedy.  The supporting players in this one are also doing a great job.  Pitt and Jolie may be the stars and the central focus but there are some great actors, some of whom were in the early stages of their careers (like Kerry Washington), filling in the ranks.  I particularly enjoyed Vince Vaughn’s character of Eddie, a cohort of John Smith.  This was Vaughn at his most classic and he really steals some scenes.

Vaughn with a shotgun is a dangerous mix because he'll disarm you with
his humor before shooting you in the face.

Concerning any drawbacks to this one, I really didn’t see many.  The only thing that comes to mind is the replay value.  I don’t think this one entirely lacks this value because it is a fun and amusing movie but I don’t know if it has these qualities lined up well enough that this could be something that enters into my normal rotation like some other popcorn action flicks.  I guarantee that I will watch this one again and be in the mood to watch this—especially for the awesome action sequence in the house where they try to destroy each other—but I don’t feel like I’m going to have this desire very often.

Hey look, he's wearing a shirt that is not only promoting a movie that Pitt was in
but is also a movie that is completely misunderstood to an amazing level
by bro-dudes the world over!

Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a really fun action comedy that doesn’t disappoint on the action part nor the comedy.  I really liked the cast because it was hard to deny how charming, charismatic and captivating Pitt and Jolie were.  There is a clear cut path and destination this movie is going for and it doesn’t falter as it heads there.  This is just one of those enjoyable popcorn action features that just lets you have a good time watching a movie and you sure can’t beat those when they come your way.