Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a few reviews for MR. AND MRS. SMITH that we got in the last 24 hours or so. I like the trailers... looks like a fun, over-the-top actioneer that you can eat a bucket of popcorn to. These below reviews seem to indicate a big, fun summer movie. If it's fun, with a lot of good action, music, cool character actors and hot babes then I'm down with it. Hell, I loved the first CHARLIE'S ANGELS film, so I'm easy to win over. What about you folks?
Hey guys,
I saw the early Toronto press screening of Mr. and Mrs. Smith in the morning of last week, and let me tell you, I was blown away. I take my summer action blockbuster seriously, and this is quite possibly the best one to hit theatres since X-men 2 (the last true time I jizzed all over the movie screen). Heck, I'd even go to say it's quite possibly the funnest action movie since True Lies, its closest cousin in terms of plot. I'll admit, my expectations were high, what with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie being the hottest male and female stars in Hollywood (and kudos to Mr. Pitt for dumping Jennifer for a real woman), but Liman hits this one out of the park. The action is red-hot, the storytelling is tense and cinematic, the laughs don't stop and one chase sequence even features "Making Love out of Nothing at All," quite possibly the best Air Supply song of all time.
Anyone who wanted to slash their wrists after watching Troy will be happy to know that Brad Pitt has more than redeemed itself. Pitt gives one of the funniest performances I've ever seen and a lot of the humor is refreshingly dark. During one of their many fist-fights, Pitt knocks Jolie to the ground and starts hoofing her in the ribs, like a drunk outside a two-dollar club in Hicksville. There's no holds barred, just because 'she's a girl'. He slams her around during a slinky dance number that gives new meaning to the term 'dirty dancing.' You won't be seeing Vin Diesel dish out quality abuse like that.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a long two hours, but it backs up with meaty plot and action scenes that are very motivated and that never come close to approaching the droning length of Matrix Reloaded fisticuffs. The editing is that tight.
The story is framed by Mr. and Mrs. Smith's marriage counseling sessions, where they rate their love and sex lives on a scale of 1 to 10 and reveal that a certain "space" is dividing them apart and that Mr. Smith doesn't remember how long they've been together. Before the real action starts, we get to witness the boring (at least according to Hollywood scriptwriters) life between Jolie's top-ranked "business CEO" and Pitt's "construction engineer". You've seen the trailers; it's a big deal when Mrs. Smith adds pees to the 7:00 dinners, or decides to buy some curtains without first consulting with Mr. Smith. Mr. and Mrs. are so dead set on hiding their secret identities as the world's greatest assassins that they refuse to live a life anything more than ordinary. Mind you, Mrs. Smith does puts up the curtains by balancing herself on one corner of a chair for that extra height and when the hubby ain't looking, and Mr. Smith keeps a stash of James Bond goodies underneath the garage, for, you know, just in case.
It ain't long before the swank assassins are each given missions by their respective agencies that send them to the same place in the desert to intercept some baddie-terrorist brat played perfectly annoying yet cute by the OC's Adam Brody. When they accidentally notice each other, or at least "somebody" suspicious, at the scene of the job, their agencies respectively demand they track this somebody down and well, "silence" them. Before the guns start a-blazing, the tension builds lightning fast as each attempts to discover the identity of the other. There is a point when one character knows the truth but we don't know if the other does, and yet the couple attempt anyway to half a routine roast dinner anyway. The dinner is a hilarious riot, full of suspicious glances, careful handiwork slicing the meat and many, many close-ups on eyes and hands, potential weapons and escape routes. Everything is performed cleanly and slickly until one big mistake destroys the setup, and both instantly realize the reality of the situation.
From here on out the adrenaline is pumping and the action is relentless, but like I said, never repetitive. You've got hardcore fist-fights that literally demolish the nice little suburban mansion, a few high-rise chase-escapes, from Jolie's all-female headquarters on archery-propelled repel lines and from elevator shaft explosions. The action on the road is furious, with Jolie tossed around a minivan, or driving like Schumacher on speed, with Pitt somehow balancing himself at the outside of the hatch, while touting sixteen guns and kicking major ass. Prison breaks, 007/Ocean's 11-inspired heist stealth is combined with many a fiery gunplay showdown in the mean-streets or a local shopping centre. The bug budget was nicely spent on the set pieces too, just so that they could be totally obliterated.
Brad Pitt is ferocious with the one-liners and clumsy pratfalls. But at the same time, he pulls in an element of the clueless jock boyfriend only recently realizing his girlfriend was laying about how many men she's slept with. He's still ripped-buff and it shows whether he's dressed to the nines in a fitted tux or stripping for some sex-ploitation. Angelina is just as good as the book-smart, uptight assassin who kills with clean efficiency and logical resourcefulness. Her frustration with her hubby's sloppy instincts-routine is surprisingly hilarious, considering how often the formulaic battle between playing by your heart vs. playing by the book is encountered in movies of this genre. And even though she plays it cool next to Pitt's wild-side, Jolie is still red-hot sexy, something Nicole Kidman, the icy-bitch A-lister from Indy-Hell previously cast as Mrs. Smith, but who thankfully dropped out, could never pull off.
Best of all is the chemistry. Whether fighting, making love or having post-demolition action-sex, these two are Hollywood's finest action heroes and are as convincing touting shotguns, bazookas and automatics as Jet Li is with martial arts. With movies like Troy and Fight Club for Pitt, and the Tomb Raiders for Jolie, both are well-versed in the code of the action movie and are quite capable of pulling off their own stunts and making them look real. Their real-life steamy and forbidden foreplay clearly shows, as these two have brooding passion for one another, whether that's the sexual tension that builds between two lovers who can't rape each other because other people are watching or envious hate, when they're trying to destroy each other. Every minute, however over-the-top it may seem, is ridiculously believable, under the context that these are two power-players who clearly like their sex and fisticuffs rough, visceral and bleeding hot. For the sado-masochists out there, the dom-sub combat-sex is raging sexy, so just a warning to bring extra Kleenex.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith is hilarious and intensely fun and hits all the necessary sub-genres of an epic action flick with panache. The dialogue is spectacularly good, so we actually care as much about these two facing the mess that is their, umm, romantic relationship as we do watching them beat the shit out of each other. The support cast (including the fucking hilarious Vince Vaugn as Pitt's loser comrade-in-arms) is awesome, the guns are huge, the score is a perfect mix of tense build-up and kooky spy-antics. With a taut director, and quite possibly the best—and hottest—casting I've seen in any action movie, this is one summer blockbuster you'd be a fucking knob to miss. Whether you're a man or woman, straight, gay or dyke, there's something to whet your tastebuds in this one.
Anyway, I clearly had a blast, and apologies I never submitted this earlier. If you do decide to use it, please refer to me as Erosa, Drag God of Love.
Here's the next one, a tad shorter...
Hey...
I haven't seen much about this on your site, so I figured I'd send you an e-mail. Last week, I caught a screening of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" in L.A. and, well, I was pleasantly surprised enough to be moved to talk about it.
Going in, I didn't have high expectations, but Doug Liman has surprised me before (I expected to hate the Bourne Identity but ended up loving it). And although the general look of "Smith" is disappointingly generic and, more disappointingly, so is the music (Liman's taste is usually pretty spot onbut that's the point, right? Don't overthink it. It's funny, fast, has great action, and is eye-candy for everyone and anyone (an entire chase sequence involving a mini-van driven by Pitt and Jolie in their underwear? What's not to like?)
Anyway...that's my take. It's not brain surgery, but it's fun.
- MuppetHead
And here's the last one that is more negative than the previous two, but still liked the movie! Enjoy!
Heh Harry,
I sent in a review of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy which you posted a while back.
Not sure if you would be interested in this one or not but thought I would send in a review anyway.
Mr and Mrs Smith aka The New Pitts.
I didn't know too much about this film going into it only that it starred Brad Pitt who I think is a class actor and Angelina Jolie who has never looked so good on film! I liked the posters that have been around for a while and am a big fan of Doug Liman so I was curious to say the least.
I had heard that this was a problematic shoot with re-writes along the way and also some re-shoots and pickups while they were in post. This is never a good sign but it appears to be how Doug Liman works these days. There were many problems on The Bourne Identity shoot and look how that turned out.
The film has a great opening credit sequence. It opens with Brad ( John Smith ) and Angelina ( Jane Smith ) on a psychiatrists couch talking about their marriage and the problems that they are having. This little sequence immediately sets up the characters and is quite humorous. The humour stemming from the characters and there relationships.
The first half of the film is taken up with developing their home life. They are far from happily married but neither of them knows why that is. Both are unaware that the other is a top assassin and that they are keeping secrets from one another. This part of the film is littered with humorous references to marriage and infidelity.
The movie kicks into gear when both go out separately one night. Angelina to a penthouse apartment, Brad to a basement Irish bar. We get to see both in action in this scene and see why they are two of the top assassins working at the moment.
Both are then recruited by their separate agencies to kill Adam Brody from the O.C who pretty much plays Seth Coen here.
This is when both start to realise who the other is and they play a game of cat and mouse. Before they realise that they both still love each other and want to live happily ever after but not before one last showdown.
Unfortunately the plot is not taken very serious in this film and the audience are asked to suspend belief on more than one occasion. This I didn't mind doing as really all this film is about is watching Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie together on screen enjoying themselves.
I enjoyed this movie although if I'm honest I cant remember most of it and I only just saw it. That is saying something about the film as I saw Kiss Kiss Bang Bang at the midnight screening diring the Cannes film festival two weeks ago and I can remember so many minute details about that film. Before you ask , its amazing! (Best film of this year by far)
To sum up. Its worth a watch. A good date movie. There are more than a handful of laughs throughout the film. You re date will love Brad and you can stare in awe at Angelina. I did expect more from Doug Liman though but your date probably wont know who he is!
Talk soon mate.
Tim Bisely
