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We stopped in to see the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith the other night hoping that there would be more to it than just beautiful people and cool gadgets. There really isn't.

That said, Angelina Jolie (link to previous writings) looks great even when she's doing ridiculously implausible things, performing impossible stunts that defy both gravity and logic, and reciting completely inane dialog. In fact the witty repartee that she's supposed to have with her husband and that could have made this film a top notch affair mostly falls completely flat and, even though they look good on screen together, this film would almost best be taken in with the sound turned off. As everyone knows, Angelina is Mrs. Smith to Brad Pitt's (caution link may contain near nudity) Mr. Smith and, as our tabloid reading tells us, Angelina is accused of being the impetus for the end of Pitt's marriage to Jennifer Aniston which fell apart right after he went on location with Jolie. Must be tough for the guy having to chose between Aniston, a better actress with much less baggage that is certainly not hard on the eyes and Jolie, who brings the mystery and danger and borderline psychosis along with her stunning looks to a table that has already been frequented by the likes of Gwenyth Paltrow and Juliette Lewis. 

Oddly enough for an action film, some of the best parts of the movie actually do take place at just such a table along with other locales around the hi tech suburban home that the Smith's co-exist in with each supposedly not knowing that the other is functioning under their nose as a highly trained and ever busy assassin. There are clues of course such as when Jolie is shown doing an incredible balancing act just to hang a drape or Pitt disappears into a dilapidated shed and suddenly drops through a trap door to a incredible cache of weapons. When they are at home, Jolie is usually in the kitchen, (she keeps all her guns and knives in automated drawers under the oven) and they often sit down to dinner to ask how each other's day went which provides a chance for them to exchange double meaning chit chat (after they return from an assignment where they were supposed to kill each other she looks over her wine glass and says "I missed you" to which he replies "I missed you to".

Once they figure out the other's true occupation, the film gets much worse and they basically go around defying incredible odds with car chases, exploding elevators, high wire acts, close range machine gun battles, and booby traps all the while trying to decide whether to kill each other or bond together against their former employers. They struggle with this supposedly battling their cold blooded business like natures while meanwhile feeling the emotional ties to the other that come from living together for five years. The good news is however that they are inexplicably in their underwear during much of this time. Finally, we are put out of our misery when they have a sort of Butch and Sundance type moment at the end. However instead of the film closing out with a white still of their obviously soon to be bullet riddled bodies and them going out in celluloid dignity like Newman and Redford, they come out of it completely unscathed to speak again with the marriage councilor with which they started the film and get to explain that their marriage has apparently been fortified by all the violence, deceptions, and mayhem. The sex is much better at least, they report, which is the final thought we're left with as the credits roll. We have to hope so since the rest of their activities seem as ridiculous as they do poorly scripted. The gadgets aren't actually that cool either except some of the high tech computer stuff and several high wire gizmos that allow Angelina and friends to glide from building to building. The choreography is also sort of swirling and headachey and adds to the feeling that people could not possibly be reacting to the action in the manner that they are so it becomes sort of a cartoon. In any event the whole movie hinges on whether or not you find the couple interesting and attractive and want to see how their relationship works out. Well they are attractive at least if not interesting and the film would have been much better as a romantic comedy which are words we never thought we'd utter.

Oh yeah and Vince Vaughn is in it too and is sort of funny.